5 March, 2.30 – 4.00pm – Admission FREE
Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Road, M15 6ER
Mario Petrucci’s performances have attracted international recognition for their distinctiveness and memorability. He has received many awards for his poetry, including the London Writers’ Competition (a record four times) and the 2002 Arvon/ Daily Telegraph International Poetry Prize. ‘Reminiscent of e.e. cummings at his best’, he has generated an immense body of work that is ‘vivid, generous and life-affirming’ ‘(Envoi). Inspired by Black Mountain, his innovative poems embrace contemporary issues of searing social and personal relevance, but their chief characteristic is humanity, a profound ability to move us. From the intimacies of love and loss, via the tragedy of Chernobyl, to i tulips with its ‘modernist marvels’ (Poetry Book Society), Petrucci promises no less than ‘Poetry on a geological scale… a new track for poets of witness’ (Verse).
Aileen La Tourette is in her final full-time semester of teaching creative writing at Liverpool John Moores. She has just finished editing her fourth novel, The Oldest Girl, due out in July 2011 from Caliband books. She also has two poetry collections out with Headland, Downward Mobility, 2004, and Touching Base, 2006. She lives in New Brighton (Wirral).
JT Welsch grew up near St. Louis and studied music in Boston before completing a PhD at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing last year. His poetry has appeared recently or is forthcoming in ‘Blackbox Manifold’, ‘Boston Review’, ‘Manchester Review’, and ‘Stand’. A chapbook ‘Orchids’ was published by Salt in December.
The Gondwana Orchestra is a jazz outfit, created by trumpeter, composer and arranger Matthew Halsall. It includes Nat Birchall (sax), Chris Davies (flute/percussion), Rachael Gladwin (harp), Holly Simpson (violin), Semay Wu (cello) and Gavin Barras (double bass). This is a special live performance in preparation for their debut release on Gondwana Records and as a warm-up for their gig at Brecon Jazz Festival on Sunday 14th August 2011.
Poets & Players 