WORD

SIGNS – today at Free Word 1-2.30pm – Children from Frank Barnes School for the Deaf and Gospel Oak School share what they have learned  in workshops on signed poetry. Artist and performer Deepa Shastri, together with poet Nadia Nadarajah have led workshops in the schools exploring the richness of translation between sign language and English, encouraging children to come up with inventive ways to communicate across the language divide. As well as an invitation to think more about sign language as a rich mode of communication, this is a way of encouraging visual thinkers to taste some of the delights of poetry. £5 (£3 Concessions)

Today’s Free Word of the Day – is somewhere on a city basin, where young people can be found in canoes!

From Colman to Costello – a history of the Astoria Cinema and Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park starts today at Islington Local History Centre – learn about the borough’s cinematic and musical heritage from 1930 onwards. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra and Jim Hendrix all played here!

And have you found a Free Word of the Day yet? Here’s yesterday’s poster and first word CLEAVE – 1. To split or sever 2. To cling or stick to.

To find today’s word you might like to take a dip with a neon lady!

Word2013 starts today – with activities and events every day, and opportunities to discover words in unusual locations. Don’t miss the Bookwraps which adorn the trees at Highbury Fields and Whittington Park courtesy of Islington’s Tree Service or Today’s Special poetry by year 4 pupils at Thornhill Primary School at Euphorium Bakery on Upper Street!

6-7.30pm Wed 1 May – this evening, Birkbeck University present ‘Where We’re From Who We Are’ a performance poetry event hosted by Liane Strauss, featuring students and Islington residents exploring ideas about place and identity. Booking essential: email k.potts@bbk.ac.uk

This Wednesday 1 May 2013 sees the launch of this year’s festival – filled with activities and events for all ages across Islington for a whole month! Highlights include a ‘Free Word of the Day‘ every day popping up in different locations throughout Islington – courtesy of our partners Free Word Centre. There are prizes on offer if you spot one and tweet a picture #Word2013.  You’ll find Word2013 in bookshops, cafes, parks, football stadiums, libraries, theatres, pubs and museums. Keep and eye on this website for daily updates! Follow the Word Bird’s Tweets @WordIslington

Join your local Islington library during Word2013, download the application here Word Festival Libraries Leaflet  Deadline: Sunday 16 June 2013

or vote for your favourite book as part of LOVE BOOKS? – simply fill out a voting form at any Islington library and drop it into the competition entry boxes before Sunday 16 June for your chance to win!

The new festival brochure for Word2013, 1-31 May 2013 is available to download here: https://wordfestivalislington.co.uk/events/

Word2013 is pleased to announce a ‘Be-foreWORD’ event: Monday 22 April 6-9pm

‘Where we’re from, who we are’ a poetry workshop led by poet and Birkbeck University lecturer Anthony Joseph.

Download poster:Where we’re from

Islington Central Library, 2 Fieldway Crescent, N5 1PF

We’re pleased to announce we’ve confirmed some more organisations who will be providing extraordinary events, projects and activities for local residents of all ages for this year’s festival, including:

– Apples & Snakes, Platform, Almeida Projects, Talking News, Free Word Centre, House of Illustration, House of Fairy Tales and English PEN.

This year’s festival runs from 1 -31 May 2013. More news coming soon…

The programme for Word2013 and Word2014 is starting to take shape. We’re pleased to announce that  Islington Community Theatre, Spread the Word and Little Angel Theatre will be creating amazing projects and events with the local community for the festivals. More artists, organisations, events and activities will be announced shortly…

We’re pleased to announce the launch of both WORD2013 and WORD2014 taking place in May 2013 and May 2014 in Islington.

The Word Festival programme is an ambitious initiative, an eighteen month long programme of commissioned activities, events and workshops focusing on and exploring the pleasure of reading, writing and freedom of expression, targeting residents across Islington. The Word Festival Programme is a partnership initiative between Islington Council’s Library and Heritage Services, Arts Service, All Change and Free Word.

Islington Council is inviting expressions of interest from artists and arts organisations wishing to develop and deliver a broad range of arts activities and creative opportunities exploring the pleasure of reading, writing and freedom of expression and that will culminate in public sharing’s as part of the festival programme.

We are particularly keen to see expressions of interest that support creative collaborations between artists and or arts organisations and would welcome joint or consortium proposals.

The deadline for expressions of interest is 12 noon on 1st February 2012 Successful projects will be commissioned by 18th February 2012

Download the guidelines and application form:

WORD Festival Expression of interest guidelines

Word festival Expression of interest app form