Artists in residence at The New Art Gallery Walsall, a.s.s., are inviting you to join them for 1 hour sleeping sessions as they experiment with lucid dreaming in The Cage.
Sessions are taking place at 12 noon and 2pm today, next Sunday 12 December and 14 December, and teams of sleepers will attempt to meet up in The Other Place. They also have a few bits of information on lucid dreaming on The Other Place blog.
During the lucid dream training we will be building on this by attempting to dream collectively, trying out different methods and making notes and drawings based on this. We will be explaining and preparing for lucid dreaming beforehand, and discussing experiences afterwards.
If you’d like to participate, make sure you wear comfortable clothes and arrive half an hour before the session’s due to start. Find out more about a.a.s. events and experiments on the website.
There’s a couple of Christmas parties coming up at the Hare & Hounds…
First is BIAD’s Christmas p-Arty on 9 December, which is £5 in with live music from Black Heart Generator and the Juneau Brothers, plus sets from dj Cassie- Philomena and a portion of poetry from Jodi Ann Bickley and the Mongrel S.Mutt.
They have only one request…
Dress code is no biggy but please leave your pikey mates at home. I’m sure no-one wants to be Santa skanking it out next to a Lacoste cladded pisstramp.
Too true.
On 11 December, Chicks Dig Jerks are hosting their Xmas bash with a few local bands including The Velvet Texas Cannonball, Ignoramuss & Tim Lowe, Filthy Habits and Stinky Wizzleteat. Tickets are £5/£3 before 11pm and all night if you make the effort with your Christmas themed attire.
Birmingham Salon will be debating just that on 8 December at The Studio, joined by authors Helene Guldberg with her latest book ‘Just Another Ape?’ and Jeremy Taylor discussing ‘Not a Chimp: the hunt to find the genes that make us human’.
Today, the belief that human beings are special is distinctly out of fashion. Almost everyday we are presented with new revelations about how animals are so much more like us than we ever imagined. The argument is at its most powerful when it comes to our closest living relatives – the great apes.
They’ll be discussing issues including whether apes should have rights and how ape communications have been wrongly elevated to the status of human language.
Anyone up for some deep discussion and heavy debating is welcome, the group will meet from 6.30pm – 8.15pm.
The Creative Future blog highlighted this event happening on 31 October. Real Talk are hosting a Black History Month Sale at Oakland Young People’s Centre in Handsworth.
For more information, contact Craig Pinkney on 07973728465
The generally stress free holiday of Halloween presents an excuse for some thrilling fun for all ages. Here’s a run down of a few things going on in Birmingham;
- Invisible City‘s final event, Media Circus, takes place on 29 Oct at Fazeley Studios. With entertainment, music, drinks, performances and digital displays, along with the winners of the Invisible City categories to be announced. Fancy dress is along the lines of Victorian Circus.
- CBSO’s Friday Night Classics: Nightmare on Broad Street takes place on 29 Oct, 7.30pm at Symphony Hall, with a pre-concert talk at 6.15.
- Town Hall host a Halloween Silent Movie Special with the 1923 classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame on 31 Oct at 7.30pm.
- Black Country Living Museum are holding Halloween at the Museum on 30 & 31 Oct from 6.30pm – 10pm, with opportunities for psychic reading and trick or treating along the cobbled streets.
- Take a guided tour of Aston Hall, exploring the ghosts and legends on 31 Oct at 7.30pm. Full of spooky surprises, this is not suitable for children of a ‘nervous disposition’.
- Halloween Night at the Museum Collections Centre invites you on a spine tingling trail for a chance to see some of the scariest objects not on general display, join the tour on 29 Oct from 6.30pm – 9pm.
Since Halloween falls on a weekend, it would be a crime to let an opportunity to get dressed up go unmentioned. Most weekend club nights will be welcoming heavy eyeliner and fake blood, on the only occasion where you can get away with wearing a bin liner, here’s a few that stand out;
Plus outfit inspiration is provided by this month’s issue of Area for how to pull off a creepy-but-cool costume, with just the right amount of effort to keep your street cred.
The Slavic Soul Feast is taking place on 23 October, organised by Polish Expats Association as a part of Black History Month.
This offers an opportunity to promote knowledge on the contribution made to society by Black people along with the distinctive dances and costumes and original melodies from over 70 regions in Poland.
Lively Hops, picturesque twirls, energetic, joyful movements, coral necklaces, flowers, ribbons, head scarfs, and embroided, gaudy fabrics!
…This is also a pretext to learn more about diverse histories, heritage and culture traditions of other ethnic minorities living in the UK. Along classics of Polish alternative music you will hear the whole range of contemporary Slavic folk beats!
With contemporary art videos examining multicultural society and ethnic identity by Andrzej Karmasz, followed by delicious vegetarian pierogi and meaty bigos.
The event takes place from 7pm at Stan’s Café @ A.E. Harris. Tickets are £3 on the door, for more information contact roma@polishexpats.org.uk
The Traditional Arts Team have got a busy Autumn schedule, filled with dancing, storytelling and folk music. With events held across Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull, there’s plenty of opportunities to get involved all the way through to December.
A few highlights include the Storytelling Cafe which is held at various venues, Moseley Village Band held fortnightly on Thursdays, Sunday Workshops at Moseley Dance Studio, Ceilidh Dancing for all ages, Storytelling courses, and music and song sessions.
For regular news and events around the West Midlands, The Traditional Arts Team also produce a monthly magazine, acting as a diary of all things folk. Folk Monthly is only £14 for a 12 month subscription.
Moseley Exchange are hosting a hosting a workshop on 14 October, organised by Moseley and Kings Heath Labour Party, around how those areas can support the creative community locally.
Discussions will be led by the following locally-living people (this copy/pasted from the email I received):
Places are free, but email events@compasswestmids.org.uk to reserve your place.
Anyone got any pre-emptive thoughts on this?
On 6 October at 7.15pm, ARC (Anti Racist Campaign) and Duende Performance Co. will be hosting this event at The Drum.
A panel featuring film and theatre makers Kenan Malik, Colin Prescod (Institute of Race Relations) and Dave Rogers (Banner Theatre) will dicuss why they believe immigration has been, and is, good for Britain.
Excuse the fruity language in the poster (what is this, Question Time? Whatever happened to reasoned and intelligent political discourse) but I thought this had an amusingly old-skool vibe to it. And soundsystems – that’s cultural, that is.
It does raise the prospect of turning the Rotunda into a big speaker stack, though. Urban Splash didn’t think of that did they? Also, police tactics may not yet have evolved to deal with such an approach – how does kettling apply to a building? All food for thought.
Via BiNS.
From Birmingham Friends of the Earth, via the City of Secrets blog:
Tomorrow’s the day for leaving the car at home and cycling/walking/rollerblading in instead. Sign up here.
Speaking of cycling-related events in the city centre, I’d have liked the Sky Ride that took place the other weekend a lot more if there had been any useful information anywhere about which roads were being closed off. Grumble.
Oh, and on a vaguely related note, did anyone do anything for Park(ing) Day on Friday?
Just a quick round up of everything going on this weekend, there’s a lot and we wouldn’t want you to forget and miss out on anything!
Cum Clubbing – Hosted by VIVID, this art party does not look like something to be missed (although it’s happening now, so get down quick). From 8pm – late, VIVID’s project space will be taken over by live music, DJs and visual artists who’ll conspire to create an excitingly strange evening of camp disco. Tickets are £5.
To save time I’m going to be both lazy and efficient, and link you to everyone else who’s been talking about this. Take a look at Digbeth is Good, More Canals than Venice, brianduffyhasabigbrain, and Birmingham: It’s Not Shit.
Zine Festival - Not put off by the scale of Artsfest, this niche festival has a weekend full of events for you to get involved in.
- Starting this evening at The Edge is a screening of ‘$100 & A T-Shirt‘, Joe Biel’s documentary on zine culture. Entry is a £1, which also gets you a bag of popcorn, along with a talk from Pete Ashton and Rob Horrocks on the emergence of the small press comics scene and music zine influence in the 80s.
- The Victoria is host to the Zine Fair on Saturday from 12 – 6pm, along with a workshop from 2 – 2.30pm with Peter Lally, as he runs through the history of Alternative Press and curates a Q&A session on running your own zine events.
- At 5 – 6.30pm Island Bar are inviting zine fans to ‘Drop in + Draw’, offering a pencil and paper to unwind with, before the party starts with the Atta Girl Zine Party, 8pm – 2am.
- From 6.30 – 8.30pm, Get A Grip will be guiding guests through the process of making your very own totally unique t-shirt. T-shirt, equipment, inks, images and expertise supplied for £20 per person. If you fancy it, book in advance, more details here.
- Sunday will be a chilled out picnic in Cannon Hill Park at 1 – 4pm. With nothing for sale and free to attend, the party will be meeting at mac.
Artsfest – As already mentioned, the weekend of free arts events kicks off this evening and will continue to entertain through to Sunday night. With live performances coming from Centenary Square and Chamberlain Square, along with short films and animations screened at the Crescent, plus various performances and workshops held at theaters and bars across the city, don’t let the miserable weather deter you from leaving the house!
So the programme for this year’s Artsfest is now up online, complete with a nice little selection of search options so you can filter through the events that you’re interested in.
The festival runs this weekend, from Fri – Sun, and is the biggest free arts and culture festival in the UK, with around 600 performing, visual and digital artists at events taking place all across the city.
I would give you a run down of everything happening, but there are heaps of events, performances, screenings, workshops and all sorts of goings-on, so I’m not even going to attempt it. Chris did, however, mention a few things to look out for the other week.
Following the one-off live event back in January before part of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre was demolished, Soul City Arts in association with mac and The REP presents Mohammed Ali’s Writing On The Wall – The Documentary.
Taking place 3 September, 4-7pm at the mac, the event will screen the documentary, plus live performances and a Q&A session with Writing On The Wall artists: Mohammed Ali, Zena Edwards, Amir Sulaiman, Dreadlock Alien and Jonzi-D.
Pete Ashton will also be on hand, chairing a panel discussion on the topic of ‘Creative collaboration – the way forward for cross-cultural arts and public engagement in B’ham?’
Take a peek at the documentary trailer, which we posted up a few weeks ago.
Tickets can be booked at www.macarts.co.uk, and are £5 / £3 concessions. This also gives you entry to a bonus event the following day: In Conversation with Amir Sulaiman & Performance, at The Hubb.
