Guests (92) Aug/Sep 2022

August and September

8th August

Ó Bhéal in association with Cork City Council, Coventry City Council
and Here Comes Everyone

presents a Cork-Coventry Twin Cities Celebration with poets

Sujana Crawford and John Bernard
(both poets in-person)

You can listen to Sujana’s reading here.

Sujana Crawford is a multilingual poet, playwright and researcher working in English, Nepali and Hindi. Sujana’s creative work is driven by a fascination with people, places and folklore. Her work has been featured in various magazines and anthologies, and plays have been developed in collaboration with BBC Radio 4, Birmingham Rep and Warwick Arts Centre, among others.

Sujana has also featured in BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, BBC Contains Strong Language Festival and British Council’s International Changemakers. In her day job, Sujana works as a UX Researcher, and has worked across the UK public sector helping research and design better IT services. Born in China, Sujana was primarily raised in Nepal, and currently lives in Warwickshire with her husband and two young children.

You can listen to John’s reading here.

John Bernard is a Coventry based Poet, Rapper & Writer who uses his artistry to inspire, influence and invigorate his listeners. He has featured on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, BBC radio 5 live, BBC Contains Strong Language Festival, BBC 1xtra as well as performing regularly around the UK. Distinctive delivery, commanding voice, an intricate lyricist his content is authentically raw and potent. He has undoubtedly carved a lane for himself infusing Spoken Word poetry, Alternative-Rap and Neo- Soul.

You can watch a video of the event here

Hybrid Ó Bhéal Session

This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.

We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.

The evening will feature four parts:

7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets (20 minutes each);
10:20pm: Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 30).

(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)

12th September

Ó Bhéal in association with Foras na Gaeilge presents

Isobel Ní Riain and Áine Uí Fhoghlú
(via Zoom) (in-person)

You can listen to Isobel’s reading here.

Dr. Isobel Ní Riain was born and reared in Cork. She graduated from UCC with degrees in Irish and Sociology and Higher Level Education. Her PhD thesis focused on the poetic formation of Máirtín Ó Direáin. She lived in London and Cairo where she taught in universities and cultural centres. She now works in Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha in UCC.

She has published over twenty books in Irish including translations of poetry from German into Irish. Two of her most recent publications include translations of Paul Celan – Dánta le Celan II (Coiscéim: 2020) and Friedrich Hölderlin – Dánta le Hölderlin (Coiscéim: 2020).

You can listen to Áine’s reading here.

Áine Uí Fhoghlú comes from the County Waterford Gaeltacht of An Rinn. Her published works include four collections of poetry as follows: Aistear Aonair (1999); An Liú sa Chuan (2007); Ar an Imeall (2011) and Mná dár mhair (2022). She has written a number of adult novellas. Scéalta agus Seanchas – Potatoes, Children & Seaweed published in 2019, is a bilingual memoir of life in the early 1900’s in her area. Her poems have been included in numerous publications and have been translated into Galician and Greek among other languages.

She has won commissions and bursaries from The Arts Council, Ealaíon na Gaeltachta and Foras na Gaeilge. Prizes won for her writing include the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award, Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary awards, Strokestown Duais na Gaeilge award, Listowel Writers’ Week. Prescribed texts for the Junior Cycle include her work. Áine was named Poet Laureate for Dungarvan during the Poetry Town 2021 initiative.

You can watch a video of the event here

Hybrid Ó Bhéal Session

The evening will feature four parts:

Friday 23rd September

Ó Bhéal in association with Cork City Council presents

Cork Culture Night 2022 with

Stanley Notte and Dmytro Lazutkin
(in-person) (via Zoom)

You can listen to Stan’s’s reading here.
Photo by Linda Ibbotson

Stanley Notte is a writer, poet, artist and performer whose work has appeared in numerous print and broadcast media outlets. As a performer Stanley has provided support for Stephen James Smith (Coughlans, 2018) and Linton Kwesi Johnson (Live At St. Lukes, 2019), and has appeared at a wide range of Irish Festivals. In 2019 he performed ‘The Truth Is…’, a show written about his journey with depression, at the Limerick Fringe Festival, Tra Tales, Waterford, De Barra’s Spoken Word, Clonakilty, and Coliemore House, Cobh. His poetry film Peter and the Wolf – Aladdin Sane? (after David Bowie) was shortlisted at the Cork Indie Film Festival (2016), screened at the Dublin Bowie Festival (2017), and long listed at the Rabbit Heart Festival 2018.

His poetry film Mrs Xavier (after The Frank And Walters) placed third in the Doolin Writers Video Competition in 2019. His Cork, Boi! Nothing But A Ghost Town music video was screened at the CorkIndie Film Festival in 2021. In 2017 Stanley was chosen to perform in the UK as part of the Twin Cities cultural exchange between Ó Bhéal (Cork) and Fire & Dust (Coventry), with poetry appearing in spoken worlds: sound as character (Ó Bhéal, 2017). In 2014 Stanley co-founded Solstice Sounds with fellow creative Shane Vaughan. A bi-annual audio production, Solstice Sounds remains the only regular spoken word publication to have been produced in Ireland, which Stanley and Shane curated until 2018, releasing eight editions, each of which featured an eclectic range of spoken word recordings.

You can see and hear more of Stanley’s work at: www.stannottecreations.ie

You can listen to Dmytro’s reading here.

Dmytro Lazutkin was born in November 1978 in Kyiv, where he graduated from mathematical and musical schools. He received his higher education in the National Technical University and later in the Kyiv International University. He has worked as a metallurgical engineer, a karate trainer, a journalist, an anchorman for television and as a sports commentator, including at eight Olympic Games. He was a bronze medalist of the World Cup in kickboxing and champion of the Euro Cup. He now works as a military reporter on tv.

Dmytro started writing patriotic poems when he was in the kinder-garden and got really into lyrics at the age of 11 when he first fell in love. His love came to an end but poems stayed. Included among his numerous poetry collections are Benzyn [Gasoline] (Fakt, 2008), Chervona knyha [The Red Book] (Knyhy-XXI, 2015) and Arterya [The Artery] (Staryi Lev, 2018). He is the winner of such literary prizes as: “Literary Olimp”, “Smoloskyp” «Kyiv laurels» and has been shortlisted for the National Shevchenko prizes (2019). He also won the inaugural Open Ukrainian Slam Championship. Dmytro was scholarship holder of the international program Gaude Polonia (Poland). His poems are translated into ten languages.