WORD

Monday 27 May:

7-9pm Assembly Hall: Cubitt Education presents their fourth annual Spring Ball – a contemporary tea dance and multi media extravaganza that explores the power of the written word through the visual arts.    The event is led by the local older community and celebrates the wisdom, creativity and inspiration of our elders. All ages welcome.

and…

7pm, The Castle Pub, 34-35 Cowcross St, London EC1M 6DB – Tales and songs of high life and of low life from Apples & Snakes – Helen East “a mistress of storytelling”  as spendthrift kings meet honest publicans and songs of the “long way to the pawnshop” are proved untrue by royal short cuts.

This weekend sees a number of events and performances for all ages across Islington:

Saturday 25 May:

11am and 2pm: Water and Wells for Wealth, Health and Stealth walk with Helen East, meet at Farringdon Tube Station, London (meet outside Cowcross Road entrance). FREE – From Turnmill Street to Spa Fields, this walk winds round Clerkenwell, following the route and influence of the water running under our feet – once the ‘River of Wells’ or Turnmill Brook’ or ‘Fleet Ditch’. As many names as points of view, reflecting how the water was used…

12-6pm: The Highbury Time Tangle and the Door of Dimensions – a legendary House of Fairy Tales time travel adventure , The Loxfords (85 Highbury Park, N5 1UD)- a fabulous interactive event for all the family. Time is a tricky thing, easy to lose and hard to seize. Be bold, be brave, be silly! FREE

2pm & 4pm: The Readathon Don, Platform by Islington Community Theatre’s Oracle Project. When RR begins to wail at the announcement of the celebrated Readathon, the young people of Fearless Town are confused. It’s what they’ve all been waiting for, a chance to dress up like their favourite characters, read mountains of books and win awesome prizes. Price: £6  / £4 concession Click here to book

Sunday 26 May:

2pm & 4.30pm: The All Change B Project present B VOICES at Platform – sensory explosion of spoken word, theatre, photography and singing, created and peformed by young women aged 13-19, guided by professional artists Kat Francois, Sarah Ainslie & Marysa Dowling, exploring identity and womanhood. (Parental guidance recommended). Free admission. Click here to book

Thursday 23 May:

Fiction Flicks at Platform – great films inspired by great books: 11am Breakfast at Tiffany’s free screening for parents and under-5s; 2pm It’s a Wonderful Life – Free entry

We Have a Voice! 1.30-3pm Free Word Centre Join a chorus of young people to celebrate the power of storytelling with Translator-in-Residence Canan Marasligil. £5 (£3 concessions).

6.30pm The Acoustic Café, 60 Newington Green N52JG – join Apples & Snakes storyteller – Helen East for A Feast of Islington Stories.

This week Word2013 enjoyed a visit from Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England pictured here with All Change B Project Peer Leader Arjeta Xhemajli and the B VOICES photo exhibition, which is touring the borough this week in outdoor locations. Wednesday 22 May, 5-7pm you can see the photos, created by Marysa Dowling, working with young women in Islington, outside Islington Town Hall. A publication of the photographs and poetry ‘I AM’ created by young women with writer Kat Francois is published this week as part of the festival and a combined arts performance takes place this Sunday 26 May at Platform.

Today’s ‘Free Word of the Day‘ means ‘a small opening or space between’ and can be found in a location which offers angelic performances in Dagmar Passage!

Tuesday 21 May 6.30-8pm: Express Yourself – is a youth led panel discussion at Platform exploring what young people like to read and what kind of work they like to create. The culmination of the Write Ideas project – a partnership between Hot Key Books, the Edge Writers Group, Islington Libraries, All Change’s B Project and Platform. With authors Sara Grant and Sarah Mussi. Free admission.

Monday 20 May – two different storytelling and poetry events are on offer today:

6.30pm at The Charles Lamb Public House and Kitchen, 16 Elia Street, Islington, London N1 8DE, FREE. Strange stories of a place you thought you knew… with Apples & Snakes musical storyteller Helen East. All kinds of creatures, helpful and hateful – from the light hearted laughing ghost of Lamb himself to the sorrowful ‘Bridge of Sighs’ – this night’s tales touch on the Other Side (and underside) of Islington life where even bricks and mortar might have opinions of their own… and 7pm ‘Words are Birds’ at Thornhill Primary School (£3 donation) – join pupils, Word2013 Poet-in-Residence Paul Lyalls and special guest John Hegley for an evening of poetry to launch the new Words are Birds book published by All Change. ‘Some really, really good stuff, good stuff really really. Really superb aren’t they-really’ John Hegley.

Plus at 4.30pm look out for All Change’s ‘B Voices’ photo exhibition outside the Business Design Centre, as it begins its tour across the borough.

Saturday 18 May:

For fans of the Arsenal FC: 11am – All Change and Arsenal in the Community present Grandads, dads & lads and 2pm Ladies Day @ Arsenal – stadium tours and poetry workshops with Paul Lyalls for male and female family members inspired by the beautiful game! Booking Essential 020 7689 4646 and 7pm watch Fever Pitch (15) as part of Fiction Flicks movie screenings at Platform – admission free!

Fancy some fun for all the family? Come along to Sing-Along Summer Picnic at Royal Northern Gardens 11am-1pm, bring a packed lunch and enjoy music and crafts; or experience Saturday morning pictures with ‘James and the Giant Peach’ (U) as part of Fiction Flicks, 11am at Platform. Admission Free

Fancy a walk around the borough with a difference? Join Apples & Snakes storyteller Helen East for Footsore and Fortunate – Dreamers, Drovers and Leaders 11.30am Archway Library, Hamlyn House, Highgate Hill, London N19 5PH (meet outside). Click here for more details. Or for those who prefer an evening experience join Inua Ellams and Spread the Word for the Mini Midnight Run 6pm-Midnight, £8 per ticket – meeting point revealed when you book – info@spreadtheword.org.uk

And if you happen to be anywhere near Highbury Fields at 1.30/2pm ish – look out for something extraordinary – a special Read-In Flash Mob event brought to young people from Islington Community Theatre, One Youth Dance and All Change’s B Project!

Sunday 19 May:

12-4pm A Picnic and a Play by Islington Community Theatre – 6 brilliant new plays, each developed by professional playwrights and young people and performed ‘script in hand’ by young people aged 12-19 on Highbury Fields. Arrive with your picnic, choose a 15 minute play from the Play Menu and young people will perform for you on, over and around your picnic rug. Free – just turn up!

Or join Helen East, Apples & Snakes for her second walk Ghostly Traces and Lost Places, 2pm Angel Tube Station, London (meet outside) Click here for more details

Friday 17 May, 6pm: Elvis Has Left the Building – Travel back in time to one of Britain’s best loved music venues and former cinema, the Rainbow Theatre at Finsbury Park. Go ‘behind the scenes’ with the former Rainbow Theatre stage manager, Rick Burton: ‘It was a wonderful and  sometimes dangerous five years’. Tonight’s unique presentation is a must for music fans or rock, reggae, punk and new wave music everywhere! Free – no booking required. Islington Museum.

Looking for today’s Free Word? – don’t be scatterbrained or skittish, concentrate hard and you’ll find Lewis Carroll has a little something to share : )

Thursday 16 May – 4pm:

Teen Read Vote at Waterstones, Islington Green – Since March young people have been voting across the borough to select their favourite book for the Islington Teen Read Vote 2013.

Join author Charlie Higson for the announcement and a lively discussion with the author.

Wednesday 15 May: “Whirling, twirling, twisting tales, reeling rhythm, giddy rhymes, playful poems pirouette, listen as we spin some sound” Word wizards from Apples & Snakes cook up wonderful ways to play with words for an invited audience of Primary School children at Platform today.

6.30-8pm at Central Library join Paul Gravett for Who is Afraid of Comics? talk, and explore What lies behind the moral panics, media scares and strict censorship that have besieged comics in Britain and around the world? Is there something inherently dangerous, or radicalising, about the form’s weaving of words and pictures? Visit the Islington Comic Forum blog