Saturday 29 May 2010

Horses & Pharoahs

Last night Marte, some friends and I went out to a stables on the far edge of Haram, just by the old desert gate. I felt so excited at the prospect of riding at full moon; as if I would be stepping into my Centaurian self and whilst the moon was rising in Saggitarius.

However, it didn't all quite happen as I had envisioned. After saddling up we were in a dusty, dark alley just before the desert; full of skittish horses and adrenalin charged boys with whips. The air was loud with commands and shabi music, the horses were on high energy; biting and kicking; eyes wild and blood filled. The moon wasn't visible and I became full of a sense of doom and felt compelled to get off my horse and return to the stable by foot. I then sat there alone waiting for my friends to return and feeling like a bit of a loser :-)

I shall attempt a second horse experience soon :-)

Today I have been editing student's work, hanging with Marte and introducing her to the vegan delights of tofu, working out where I can create more 'soft' sitting spaces and turn the back landing into a balcony and inbetween all this I have been gazing at my feet and thinking how with blue varnished toenails clad in black and gold 'ship ships' (flip flops) they resemble two moon kissed Pharoahs :-))

Thursday 27 May 2010

Welcome Changes at Full Moon

Marte Kjoell, a Raqs Sharqi dancer from Norway, has come to stay at ARC for an indefinite amount of time! She arrived yesterday and we had about one hour before I had to leave for writing class but then I brought us tameya and fuul sandwiches home when I got back :-)) She has an audition tonight for a dance spot on a well known boat here and she is in a flurry of mascara and fabrics getting ready for it. My two days off look to be full again; with the boys coming tonight (my boys writing group who like it so much they keep coming even though the course finished)and then we will go on a jaunt downtown to the re-opened Horreya; my paradise in Cairo!!! I dont know what the re-furbishments will be like.. I loved the ferrets and down at heel look of the place before.. but I'm excited about going back in to the best drinking den in town :-)) Then it will be onto the 'other' Greek Club to celebrate Dalia's birthday then into the early hours sleaze of cabaret... looks set to be quite a night! Monday night Seni will arrive and Amira and her friend Elizabeth; a house of poets!

Sunday 23 May 2010

Gigs!!!

I have two more gigs coming up on 3rd and 4th June.

The writer Seni Seneviratne is coming to stay from 31st May and at the same time Amira Hanafi is returning for a few weeks along with a poet friend of hers; so we will be a house of poets! I organised a reading for Seni and then decided to get some other poets involved and myself and then managed to get 2 gigs;

Poetry Reading by:

- Seni Seneviratne (Sri Lanka - England)
- Linda Cleary (England)
- Amira Hanafi (Egypt-USA)
- Marwa Abu Daif (Egypt)
- Mohamed Salem Obada (Egypt)

3rd June at Diwan Heliopolis 7pm
www.diwanegypt.com

4th June at Darb 1718 Fustat Old Cairo 7pm
www.darb1718.com

days daze

I haven't posted for a while. Things have been so busy! I am now running 5 courses a week and also have private students and I have been making the most of my two days off. I can't even remember Thursday... oh yes I can.. WOW.. fantastic Sudanese gig down at MAKAN. I was totally swept away by the drums and had a whole lustful story going on with the sexy dancer drummer boy.. I might get him to play at my next gig.. and I decided I had to go down into Africa.. I thought about Ethiopia; the promised land and all that. It just felt like there was so much joy and freedom at that gig. And I ended up being asked up to dance by the two belly dancers as I was obviously getting into my thing sat on the chair.. my trousers nearly fell down.. but not quite :-) Then on Friday I went to my dear friend Lorna's and we hung out then we met some other girls and went on a felluca down the Nile and drank white wine as the sun set. After that Dalia invited us to her place which turned out to be this luxurious pad overlooking the Nile and we got pretty drunk. Her husband Claus suggested we went downtown and we ended up in this mad little belly dancing cabaret bar called Kings. It was the real low end of the spectrum with prostitutes and even a transvestite dancer at the end of the night but it was fabulous. Other than that I've been teaching class and doing admin for ARC and my project which I hope is going to be picked up by some organisations (to work with Egyptian women on creating text and merging it with film and image). I have good days and difficult days. I have times where I feel thoroughly in control and independent and times where I feel a lot of sorrow and pain at the end of my relationship and how it ended (so coldly and now is nothing). But I have good friends and good things happening. And yes.. two more gigs!!! 3rd and 4th June. I will post links soon!!!!

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Teenage Writing Class at Diwan

Teenage Creative Writing Course
For 12 – 16 years
By Linda Cleary

Start Date: 23/05/2010 6.30 pm
4 weeks (8 hour course)
One session per week (2 hour session) on Sundays
Time: 6.30 pm-8.30pm
In Diwan Maadi
Maximum 9 people per class
Price: 420 L.E
Please register in your nearest Diwan branch
 
The 4 week Creative Writing course will act as an extended masterclass looking at various techniques and exercises to open up and improve writing skills, work with metaphor and imagery, create texts and narratives to given themes and word counts, as well as free writing.
There is no criteria other than a willingness to open up one's writing; the course is designed that people of varying writing experience can participate and each draw their individual benefits.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Temple of the Heart

Last night I went to Sama'Khana next to Prince Taz Palace in the Citadel area and saw the wonderful Iva Bittova, who is a renowned singer from Czech Republic who works with a lot of gypsy and world songs; and Anwar Abudragh a singer and musician from Iraq presenting classical Arabic and Sufi music. It was totally amazing. I felt like I was in a healing temple of sound; there were times I wanted to cry, times I was smiling from deep within, times I wished to crawl on the ground and writhe and times of bliss and divinity. The venue itself was beautiful;practically all wood with carved Arabic design and in a round with balconies. I was stunned that anyone managed to find the place though as it was tucked away down a small, historic street but then this is Cairo and when one is lost one becomes found.

There are performances on throughout the next week; all part of the Spring Festival 2010 including the poet Benjamin Zephaniah and many other international performers.

I begin another new writing class tomorrow; it will be weekly at Diwan for one month and then I start a second class at Darb 1718 as demand was high for the 1st one. I also hope to start my copy editing work for a new publication and not forgetting my post as 'writers' recruiter' for The New Hermopolis situated in Middle Egypt.

The family have been here for one week and will stay until 16th and I then hope to be accommodating a film crew who will be making a piece on The City of the Dead; an area here where people live in tombs. The poet and writer Seni Seneviratne will come end of May and Amira Hanafi will be also staying (she liked it so much the 1st time) :-) with a poet friend of hers. I am organising a reading to hopefully take place at Darb 1718 in early June and this will be Seni, Amira, myself and also Mohamed Salem Obada and Marwa Abu Daif who will be reading in Arabic.

Soooooo... it's all go!!!! :-)

Tuesday 4 May 2010

DIWAN Creative Writing Course

Please see www.diwanegypt.com and read on for details of my 4 week (12 hour) Creative Writing course beginning Monday 7pm May 10th at Diwan, Maadi.

Registration is through Diwan and must be done before the course start date with payment in advance at any of Diwan's branches (Zamalek, Heliopolis, Maadi.

Diwan's website calander of events: http://www.diwanegypt.com/en/node/88004.


There is maximum student space of 15 people. Cost 420 LE for entire course.

Creative Writing Course at Diwan Bookstore, Maadi.

One 3 hr session a week for 4 weeks (12 hr course). Maximum 15 people per class.

The 4 week Creative Writing course will act as an extended masterclass looking at various techniques and exercises to open up and improve writing skills, work with metaphor and imagery, create texts and narratives to given themes and word counts as well as free writing.

There is no criteria other than a willingness to open up one's writing; the course is designed that people of varying writing experience can participate and each draw their individual benefits.

On completion of the first course other short courses available in:

Writing a Short Story

We work with further expansion techniques, read published short stories for discussion and understanding format; focusing on the necessary elements to produce a final draft of a 1000 word narrative.

Monologue and short plays in various formats

We look at the format of writing monologue and plays for stage, screen and radio and how to capture a character's authentic voice, find the central message of the text and prepare it for presentation.

Presentation of written word

For bringing developed pieces of text to peformance level; working on voice, rhythm, projection, stance and movement, character, direction, subsequent re-writes and edits from further developing the pieces.

Work on review and critique

Looking at the process of reading work for review and critique; getting past our own opinions to be able to appreciate what is valuable. We read several published texts for discussion and written comment and explore the steps to be able to review and critique work. Participants can also apply this to their own work.

Poetry

Reading the work of known poets; from a plethora of ages and movements. We discuss content and form and work on writing poetry that emulates certain styles as well as looking at one's own poetic expression and the form, rhythm and imagery that it takes.

Linda Cleary – Artist Biography
Linda Cleary is a poet - writer – performer, originally from Manchester and now living in Cairo. Seen as being in the vanguard of young female performance poets and emerging as a radical nouvelle vague Romantic Poet. Her former drama training lends her performance a certain theatricality and she has performed in a variety of bands, theatre & performance groups.

Linda works across disciplines; creating non traditional, diverse work of spoken & written word at times fusing performance, music and image. Her work often carries an urban and contemporary thrust ; some themes may be timeless, universal, but carry a modern twist and juxtaposition in delivering the tale whilst carrying a definite honouring to classic influences.

Her performance poetry and style has been seen as unique, strong, raw and challenging; 'Powerful, uncompromising, rhythmic verse. Tough, lyrical beauty. Packs poetic punches with aching sensitivity. A unique new voice. If you need a comparison, think; a young Joolz Denby, laced with Patti Smith overtones.' (Apples&Snakes)

Education Biography
Linda has experience of working with children, young adults and adults with differing needs and delivers workshops in creative writing & poetry for schools, colleges and community groups; those from isolated or rural areas as well as regeneration or urban.

Having left school and becoming immediately involved with theatre her community work began with a placement with NACRO in '89 where she assisted with facilitating a creative writing and psycho-drama course. She then went on to train in '91 at Manchester Polytechnic in Recreational Arts in the Community. This enabled her to successfully set up and run a variety of community courses in creative writing and also theatre; working in Holland, Czech and Australia as well as the UK. Between 93 – 94 she was invited to Czech Republic to work at the prestigious JAMU Academy of Performing Arts & Music in Brno where she delivered theatre workshops to two adult actor groups; one an audibly impaired group. She runs creative writing courses and a script development for presentation course and teaches general literacy as well as her poetry, writing and performance work and has just set up an artists' residency in Cairo.

Saturday 1 May 2010

The Sea

Merry Beltane and May Day

Today I went to the sea! I finally got to the Red Sea at Ain Sokhna on the eastern coast; about 90 minutes drive; or maybe it only took one hour... Sylvia was driving fast :-)

We went to a massive hotel spa/beach; something that I would normally not think to enter. But it was brilliant. During the course of the day I swam in the sea, swam twice in the mineral salts pool, went twice into the steam room and had one sauna. I also lay on the sun lounger on the beach, sipped lemon drinks and ate some chips with mustard :-)

The 'family' arrived at 7.30am this morning; so it was another VERY early rise for me and I only had a certain delerious nap at the beach. But tomorrow I can get up at my usual 1pm... ohhhh heaven :-)

I have just got back from a bin mission... the ferral cats out back claw the rubbish and it is very annoying.. so I've been obsessing about a bin for outside for some time. I finally got it together and went to do it. I managed to get a pink one for the kitchen and will move the boring one out. I got some VERY tasty kushari on the way back (thank you Azumi for finding that place)and am about to go out again any minute now for a drink..

The next days are writing classes, Darb 17 18, working on projects, European cinema, Al Azhar park, party at Ain Sokhna (with my mozza girlfriends)and being a general host to the 'family'. Hope that doesn't sound offensive Adam! :-) Just an easy name for you 'all' :-)

I will report again sooooooooooon!!!