National Poetry Day

Tomorrow, Thursday 6th October, we celebrate National Poetry Day, and this year's theme is "Games".
We have put together a rather pleasing display of books and posters to mark the occasion and as usual the Scottish Poetry Library has produced a lovely set of poetry postcards to celebrate the event which we have for you to take away and enjoy - all for free!

Open Windows

You may have noticed something a little different about us recently as we are delighted to be part of the Open Windows exhibition currently running along the street in Stromness. This exciting and inovative project has placed work by 45 artists in 45 windows along the street, from The Pierhead to The Museum. Each of the participating windows is marked with brightly coloured streamers attached outside - just so you know which windows you are supposed to be looking in!

As you can see we got two works to display, making use of our large windows looking down the street. The works are:

Nousts  by Yvonne Gray - a limited edition digital print on hand made Japenese paper.

Nousts by Yvonne Gray    

and

Poems  by Pamela Beasant & Alex Ashman

Poems by Pamela Beasant & Alex Ashman  

The exhibition runs until 26th June so you still have plenty of time for a wander along the street - what better way to pass the time between festival performances? The isle may be full of noises but the street is full of art.

the isle is full of noises

Today sees the start of the St Magnus International Festival which begins with a production of The Tempest including local performers. This year the festival takes its title from a line in The Tempest and a look at the events for festival goers in Stromness suggests that amongst the "noises" will indeed be "sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not".

On Saturday 18th June Festival Poet Don Paterson will give a reading at the Pier Arts Centre at 11am; pianist Alessandro Taverna will perform works by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Stravinsky in the Stromness Town Hall at 2.30pm; and at 5pm in the Stromness Academy Theatre there will be A Johnsmas Foy entitled "The Inter-County".

On Sunday 19th June at 2.30pm the Badke Quartet will perform works by Tomkins, Peter Maxwell Davies, Beethoven and Ravel, in the Stromness Town Hall; while at 4.30pm you can enjoy Poems with tea and cake in the Stromness Hotel when poets Pamela Beasant and Jen Hadfield who will be joined by participants from the inaugural Orkney Writers' Course to read some of the works created during the course.

So a full weekend of events to be enjoyed, and if you need somewhere to collect your thoughts, send a hasty email review, or read some more poetry (we have titles by Don, Pamela and Jen in stock) then pop in and tell us what we have been missing!

Poetry Workshop

Stromness poet Yvonne Gray will be leading a poetry workshop in the exhibition room of Stromness Library today from 2-4pm as part of the Shadows of Our Ancestors weekend of events organised by Historic Scotland. Tomorrow (Sunday 20th March) there will be a guided visit to the Ring of Brodgar and Barnhouse Settlement from 10-12noon followed by another poetry workshop in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall from 2-4pm. The work generated from the weekend will culminate in a poetry reading at the Pier Arts Centre and an installation of words and neolithic artefacts in and around the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site on World Heritage Day, Monday 18th April.