Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6ER
FREE event, no need to book.
Poets & Players and Manchester Literature Festival present another very special event set against the beautiful backdrop of the Whitworth Gallery.
Sam Willett’s remarkable first collection ‘New Light for the Old Dark’ was shortlisted for four major prizes including the 2010 T S Eliot Prize, and is extraordinary for its maturity and originality. His poetry covers his years addicted to heroin but also his mother’s experiences of the Holocaust and his childhood pleasures in Oxfordshire. Sam Willetts read English at Wadham College and has worked as a teacher, journalist and travel writer.
Sam will be joined by musicians Glenn Sharp (guitar) and Chico Pere (cante) from the group Calaita – Flamenco Son.
Glenn has studied guitar with tutors including Juan Martin (UK), Francisco Morales (Seville). He has gigged and toured with numerous world-music artists including Nitin Sawhney, Aref Durvesh and Nizar Rohana, as well as musicians from Nigeria, India, Egypt and Spain. Glenn’s current project, the ‘Jadid Ensemble’ is a fusion of flamenco, Arabic and Turkish music.
Chico Pere grew up in Triana, Seville in a family of flamenco musicians and singers. He worked with bands in Barcelona before touring Andalucia as a singer and percussionist with a group specialising in Sevillanas and Rumbas. Chico then studied Piano and Flamenco Guitar at the Juan Pension Bon Academy before completing his first album, ‘Son las cosas del buen Son’. Glenn and Chico are currently working in the studio on the first ‘Calaita’ album.
You can read the Manchester Literature Festival blog’s review of Willetts’ reading and of the music played by Glenn Sharp and Chico Pere here.
Poets & Players 