Having started in great style last year, this year’s festival looks to be even bigger –  in more ways than one. Threshold 2012 won’t be held under one roof but several, taking over the entirety of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle for a whole weekend, in venues including Camp and Furnace, the Blade Factory, the New Picket, Elevator, the Nordic Church, the Lantern Theatre and the Brewery Tap.

Curated as a collaboration between promoters Under The Influence and the Contemporary Urban Centre (unfortunately recently  closed in physical form but very much still ongoing in spirit), Threshold has been a champion of arts at grassroots level; the ethos at its heart being to engage with the arts, music and performance promoters, providing them with a platform to create and explore.

Amongst the highlights of a bumper line-up is a Performing Shakespeare workshop by Max Rubin (Lodestar, Liverpool Shakespeare Festival) and Script In Hand Theatre at the Lantern Theatre and a Philosophy in Pubs discussion of Culture of Capital at The Brewery Tap.

One day tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday cost £10 each, with Weekend tickets costing £25. All tickets are available from Skiddle.com or via the Threshold Facebook page . Full schedules and line-ups can be found on the website, through Twitter and Tumblr.

Original and outstanding artworks purposely designed in book form in an astonishing variety of shapes and styles will be on display and available to buy. The beautiful designs are often published directly by the artists, with works from a range of makers and artists including local artist Elizabeth Willow, staff and students from Wirral Met and Cafè Royale Books, whose publications are held in collections belonging to the Tate, V&A, MoMA and the Japan Museum of 21st Century Art. If you’re looking for a unique and unusual Christmas gift idea for a literature or art lover, you couldn’t ask for anything better.

For an Saturday afternoon out, you may also want to combine your visit to browse this extraordinary collection of bookish art with a visit to the exhibition of Matisse’s beautiful illustrated books currently showing at the Walker Art Gallery.

The artists’ book fair is on from 11am to 5pm and is free.

Taking part in the increasingly popular art of ‘poetry bombing’ (which despite the name, is actually a good thing) Argentinian artist Agustina Woodgate has constructed a fascinating project which aims to place poetry directly into the lives of a wide range of people, by putting it in something that is utterly essential. Armed with the weapons of needle and thread, and some inspirational and affirming words – quite appropriately, skirts are supplied with the line ‘Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts’ from Poppies In October by Sylvia Plath, while otherwise standard workaday suit jackets and trousers are given a lift with Li Po’s reminder ‘Life is a huge dream /why work so hard?’ – Agustina turns second-hand garments into pieces of poetry infused couture, surreptitiously; she buries herself amongst the rails hoping not to be noticed as she sews in the lines, keen to keep the element of surprise for purchasers. As well as providing the joy of unexpected discovery, Agustina hopes that by providing clothes with a ‘voice’ people who have not generally come across poetry will begin to readily embrace the written word. She explains: “Sewing poems in clothes is a way of bringing poetry to everyday life just by displacing it, by removing it from a paper to integrate it and fuse it with our lives. Sometimes little details are stronger when they are separated from where they are expected to be.” It’s not just restricted to the rails however; the Poetry Tags project is being extended to reach residents of a women’s refuge, allowing them not only to sew together but also share stories, memories and experiences with each other. The thread of poetry bringing inanimate objects to life and also weaving lives together – really, it’s the perfect metaphor made true.

At The Reader Organisation, we’ve always believed that the power of poetry is at its most potent when it becomes embedded in the very heart of the ordinary and everyday. Perhaps what is most striking about this method of presenting poetry, along with the edible poetry cakes, poems-in-a-tin and pick n’ mix poetry that make up poet Sally Crabtree’s Word M’art supermarket-themed poetry project, are not just that they are creative and hugely fun but because, like the words they channel, they get to the core of us. As well as providing important things like shelter and sustenance, clothes and food make strong statements about us as individuals, with the choices we make speaking volumes. It’s often said that we are what we wear or eat, so crucial are such things to our lives. In the same way, certain poems speak to us and certain poets can, through their words, identify much about who and what we are, talking of life in all its forms and giving the inspiration to live the biggest and best we can. To celebrate Agustina’s amazing work – and to further define how connections in life can be so closely stitched together – is this rather appropriate poem by Walt Whitman. Not only does the act of weaving here produce powerful results – as Agustina’s project is clearly doing – but its power is seemingly unstoppable; even when not required to do so any longer, we shall ‘forever weave’. And forever will poetry be woven into us all, even if some discover the threads before others.

Weave In, My Hardy Life

Weave in, weave in, my hardy life,
Weave yet a soldier strong and full for great campaigns to come,
Weave in red blood, weave sinews in like ropes, the senses, sight weave
in,
Weave lasting sure, weave day and night the wet, the warp, incessant
weave, tire not,
(We know not what the use O life, nor know the aim, the end, nor
really aught we know,
But know the work, the need goes on and shall go on, the
death-envelop’d march of peace as well as war goes on,)
For great campaigns of peace the same the wiry threads to weave,
We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Joss refers to a perception of the use of the arts in health services as something to be commended, but low priority. This means organisations such as ourselves sometimes have to turn to third parties for our work in health settings, despite its obvious positive effects.

This magazine article echoes what our own staff working in health environments have said recently. At a recent Mersey Care conference, TRO’s Eleanor McCann argued that cultural practices in health settings should be considered ‘integral’ rather than ‘additional’. In her recent article, Katie Clark spoke of the positive impact Get Into Reading has had on people suffering from dementia:

…the power of language and the rhythms of poetry can soothe and calm, and also remove barriers in bringing people together.

Our ongoing work just goes to show how effective reading aloud together is. Not just with people who regularly use health services, but people in community groups, looked after children, prisoners and many more people have experienced numerous positives following TRO’s participation in their lives.

Joss says that in order for the arts to be given more opportunities in health care environments, research must be expanded so that funders can see quantifiable, results-based evidence of impact. The culture of research is constantly progressing amongst cultural organisations, something Joss acknowledges:

As research progresses, a shift becomes possible from grant-dependency to earned income – for services attuned to the NHS’s needs and fees large enough to cover the arts organisations’ costs. The Reader Organisation  is one of the leaders. It “renews the now lost sense of literature as a life-enhancing creative power”. It brings groups together to share and discuss literature – from the accessible to Dante and Milton. (Although these can be accessible! – ed) It has fee income from several NHS Trusts including Merseyside’s large mental health trust.

Let’s hope that following Tim Joss’ brilliant article other NHS Trusts begin to utilise the arts more, leading to an even better health service.

———–

Don’t forget you can like The Reader Organisation on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!

“Edmund Clark’s photographs of Guantanamo illustrate three views of ‘home’ in the context of political imprisonment.” Ed Clark and Amanda will be joined by Erwin James, who used to write for the Guardian from within prison whilst serving a twenty year sentence. He will give details about his own incarceration whilst offering his own interpretations of Clark’s work.

The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Call to Action’, encouraging people who may not consider photography a hobby to try it out, a philosophy very similar to our own with regards to reading literature.

The event takes place TOMORROW, 2 June at 7:30pm. Entry is free but tickets are required. To contact the Bluecoat call 0151 702 5324.

Mental Health Project Manager Mary Weston led a presentation on behalf of The Reader Organisation, speaking to all delegates about the rapid acceleration of The Reader’s involvement in Mersey Care services. Mary also spoke about both the pleasure and profound impact of bringing great literature to everyone.

Mary was joined by Mersey Care Reader in Residence Eleanor McCann, who went about challenging a preconception that reading groups were in place just to address literacy, and challenging the idea that cultural practices in health services are additional rather than integral parts of clinical care. Eleanor also presented the following video featuring TRO staff members explaining what Get Into Reading is:

Two service users based in Mersey Care community groups told of how their regular reading sessions were of significant help, Get Into Reading provided them with “something to look forward to,” one of the speakers said they were “now in a good place” and encouraged all trusts to become involved with The Reader Organisation before saying that they were “eternally grateful.” The fact that the two members of GIR groups were willing to stand up and talk in front of a room full of a couple of hundred delegates from across various organisations was testament to the strength of Get Into Reading, particularly in health care environments.

Other organisations present included Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool Tate, Everton in the Community (Everton F.C.) and National Museums Liverpool, with some offering workshops.

Delegates from The Reader Organisation attended various workshops. In the morning Bev went to the Philharmonic workshop whilst Anna McCracken, Casi, Niall, Grace and I attended the Tate workshop. Here we were split up into smaller groups and were given the title of an artwork from the Alice exhibition which starts later in 2011, based on the brilliant children’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I was a member of a team including Casi, Niall and Steve from Mersey Care. We were given the title ‘The Pool of Tears’ and had to draw our own interpretation of the title. We decided to depict the Liver Bird crying into the River Mersey, with all of us putting pen to paper in an attempt to eke out our creative sides. Here we are with our take on ‘The Pool of Tears’:

You can't see it very clearly, but trust me, it's a masterpiece!

In the afternoon, most Reader delegates went to the Liverpool Philharmonic workshop. This was a fascinating experience led by professional cellist and Musician in Residence Georgina Aasgard. Georgina played some outstanding music on the cello before getting us all to join in, which included singing ‘Smile’ by Charlie Chaplin. Georgina recalled a moment when following a music session in one health service, a service user wrote a poem about birds, before she read the same poem to us.

In The Reader’s workshops Mary and Eleanor ran sessions where they read ‘Scaffolding’ by Seamus Heaney and the short story ‘Permanent Granite Sunrise’ by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

One of the group said “I used to think poetry was tosh, too abstract, but this is really human.”  Others were quick to apply the message to their own situations, and a number said that they would be passing the poem on to partners or other family members.

Overall the conference underlined the idea Eleanor spoke of in the morning, that cultural involvement in health services is not an out there concept that needs to be met with great scepticism; initiatives such as Get Into Reading should be viewed as integral to helping group members’ mental wellbeing.

Speaking about the conference and The Reader Organisation’s presentation, Mary Weston said:

When we heard we had been given a presentation slot alongside the Liverpool Phil and Everton Football Club, we were almost as thrilled as we were terrified.  Eleanor and I spent a lot of time planning it, with Cath McCafferty and Kirsty Morrison, our Trust partners.  Eleanor shot a brilliant video, going round The Reader office asking people to describe Get Into Reading.  Maryanne Wolf, at The Reader Organsation conference had threatened to fall off the stage, and thinking this was clearly the easiest way to imitate her dynamic presentation style, I tripped over a ramp near the podium.

After this though everything went beautifully. The two service users spoke very movingly – loads of people came up to them after the session.  I think The Reader Organisation came across as very human, vibrant and passionate, not just from the presentation, but from our presence as a body, with Grace, Casi, Jen, Anna, Bev, Niall and Dave there as well.  We made links with people in the Tate, the Phil, and the Merseyside Dance initiative, and our waiting list for Mersey Care groups has shot up again.

These bits of trivia have concerned a diverse range of topics including books (obviously), the history of the Easter egg, Jimi Hendrix’s influences, the healthy properties of tea and the fact that a colleague had never heard of the 90s TV programme Gladiators.

Jane recently told me it was a shame that more people did not get to read these facts, reaching the decision that there should be a related blog post. So here we are with Fact of the Week.

The first fact in the series is as follows:

Argentinian artist Marta Minujin has created the ‘Tower of Babel’ – a tower standing 25 metres high made out of approximately 30,000 books of various languages. Many of the books came from 50 diffrerent embassies.

The tower is based in the Plaza San Martin in Buenos Aires. The unveiling of the structure of literature coincides with the Buenos Aires Book Fair, with the city being UNESCO’s World Book Capital 2011.

On 28 May the structure will be dissembled with people invited to take a book home each, with the remaining books being used as stock for a new multilingual library – ‘The Library of Babel’.

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon (c. Katie Clark at TRO):

And here’s some of the fantastic feedback we’ve received:

“I enjoyed being able to meet new people and go home with new friends.”
“Terrific testimonials and readings.”
“Lovely to meet all the people involved. Amazing!”

If you were there, we hope you enjoyed yourself!

The lecture takes place on Saturday 9th April, 12pm-1pm, in the Concert Room of the Anglican Cathedral (St James’ Mount, Liverpool, L1 7AZ).

This is a free event but please book in advance by contacting Dianne Rothwell: 0151 702 7201 / dianne.rothwell@liverpoolcathedral.org.uk

Whether it’s video of the Rockettes in The Catcher in the Rye, the Italian opera tracks that accompany Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, the historical context and maps of The Odyssey, stunning South American photography for In Patagonia, or video of Kabul kite fighting for The Kite Runner, Book Drum take readers beyond the page to enjoy interactive content alongside their favourite books.

With the next generation of e-readers in mind, they are building the biggest library of multimedia companion content for books on the internet. Designed using Wiki principles, anyone can contribute to it, adding to and refining each others’ work, making Book Drum one of the liveliest online communities for booklovers worldwide. If you would like to become a Contributor and build a profile of a favourite book, then register here.

You can use the bookmarks as your companion guide while you read the book, or enjoy them in their own right by subscribing to Bookmark of the Day.

The summary may include plot spoilers, so be careful how much you read!