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Make Hay
The Hay Festival programme is out. Details arrived by email on Saturday, which is fortunate as the next letter of the A-Z writing challenge is H. The Hay Literature Festival is more than a book event. It is two weeks of stimulation and reflective entertainment. This year the dates are 26 May to 5 June 2016 We are not going to make the trip to Wales, but that does not stop me looking through the programme and highlighting writers, drooling over books, and soaking up ideas. Here are a few events, just in the history section, that caught my eye. Sinclair McKay and Thomas BriggsBLETCHLEY AND ENIGMAEvent 11 • Friday 27 May 2016, 1pm • Venue:…
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Bernardo Carvalho and Will Self – Flipside
One of the liveliest sessions of Flipside was created by the presence of Will Self. He explained that he enjoyed exploring women characters “as he is not a very manly man.” “It is like shape-shifting to explore the female persona.” Will read from his book “Umbrella”, and the whole text came alive as he invited the audience to hear his London 1930s characters’ voices. On the same platform, Bernardo Carvalho shared his thoughts on identity. He read from his novel “Nine Nights” and said that in contrast to Will’s novel, he felt his writing lacked description. Will contradicted this observation with examples of description from “Nine Nights” and then made profound statements about…
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More photos from Flipside
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Flipside – Other Carnivals – New stories from Brazil
This last event at Flipside was introduced by Liz Calder, as a celebration of some of Brazil’s writers. Everyone attending the workshop was given the book “Other Carnivals – New stories from Brazil”. This is a book of 12 short stories and four of the authors, were not only present, but they read parts of their work. The artwork in the book is by Jeff Fisher. He also created the colourful and distinctive artwork for the Flipside stage. The Suffolk Chair Collection should perhaps also get a mention as the classic wooden chairs were a feature of the stage. First, Ariana Lisboa read from her short story “That year in Rishikesh.”…
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Flipside day 2 – Brazilian Literature and Music Festival
The sun and smiles came out for the 3rd day and final day of the Flipside Festival. Identity was the theme that permeated the day yesterday and dislocation and exile is the undercurrent to the first session today. Adriana Lisboa and James Scudamore both shared aspects of their novels that delve into this rich source of inspiration. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Adriana Lisboa has many awards, including the José Saramago Prize for her novel, “Symphony in White”. Her new novel “Crow Blue” is one of the many Portuguese/Brazilian books that Bloomsbury has published in translation. This book was launched today at Flipside. This event was chaired by Daniel Hahn , the Director…
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Flipside – Brazilian Society through Football
In the lunchtime event on Sunday at Flipside, the author Alex Bellos talked to Susie Nicklin from the British Council, about the Brazilian defeat in the 1950’s World Cup to Uruguay. As old footage was shown, Bellos commentated and explained the coverage which focused both on the pitch and the animated and excited crowd. He told the audience at Flipside, that after the defeat all aspects of that game were considered, even the fact that the team wore white and there was a thought that this was the wrong colour for a Brazilian team. This prompted a competition to be developed with the condition that all four colours of the…
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Flipside – Festival of Literature and Music – Looking for the Portuguese
The Snape Maltings setting for this International Festival is full of contrasts with Paraty, the home of FLIP. Arriving early on Saturday morning, meant I was able to not only see the setting up of the Festival, but I also wandered around, a very English Farmer’s market. The market did have echoes of Portugal and Brazil, not least in the selling of fish, olive oil and succulent tomatoes. It was not Portuguese though, the sounds the smells, the warmth were absent, but the food looked colourful and very inviting.
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Flipside – Brazilian Literature and Music – the start
Snape Maltings, in west Suffolk, is the home of Aldeburgh Music, which is renowned as an outstanding year-round performance centre. On Friday evening, the Flipside Literature and Music Festival opened with “The boys from Ipanema”, by paying tribute to the composer and essayist Vincius de Moraes and the musician Antonio Carlos Jobin. They “boys” (actually two men and a woman) sang and played their way through a fabulous and clear explanation of Bossa Nova, illustrating the entwining of Greek myths and African rhythms. Author and composer, Jose Miguel Wisnik, Arthur Nestrovski, a very talented guitarist and Paula Morelenbaum, one of Brazil’s great singers, entertained and enlightened an appreciative audience. The…
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Books, London Book Fair and Tavira reading “flash mob”
A couple of years ago a few book enthusiasts organised an event for young people at the Library in Tavira. The idea was that children of different cultures would come together and share their favourite books and read in their own language from those books. Children practiced their reading aloud to an audience and each other and on the performance day they were very excited about being heard and being able to read their treasures. This last week in Tavira, there has been a celebration of reading and young people from many of the local schools have organised themselves with the help of their teachers and the Library to read and create…
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International women’s day in Tavira
Here are a few photos from International women’s day in Tavira. In the library this morning there was a display of books. There was also a tree with cards and ribbons ready and available, so that people could write on the card and celebrate a woman that has meant something to them. The photos after the library event are from Min-Arifa. This event was organised by Lyndal Bale and Paula Ferra.
