POSTED: FRI 9 Apr 2010
>
> Goldie’s Rough Diamonds
>
> World Renowned DJ/Producer/Musician/Actor Goldie will be scouting raw
> musical talent in the streets of contemporary Britain during 2010 for
> a trilogy of films to be screened Autumn 2011 on BBC Two.
>
> With the help of some of his friends, Guy Chambers and Soweto Kinch,
> who just happen to be some of the best in the business they are
> looking for people just like him, in his words he describes himself as
> a: “mixed race, care-home kid dumped on the scrap heap”. We are
> looking for young people who perhaps haven’t had opportunities thrown
> at them in the past or have somehow ‘slipped through the net’.
>
> He knows there are others out there like him with lots of talent but
> not enough opportunities to be seen by those who have a big influence
> on what we listen to in the UK.
>
> So if your aged between 16-24, come from any genre and play any
> instrument from timps to tabla, beatbox to bass guitar, folk fiddle to
> decks we want to know who they are.
>
> Please get in touch with Rose Nunu [email protected], forward their
> name, a short paragraph summarising their background and musical
> talent and where possible a link to some sort of recording –
> myspace/youtube or even CD/DVD footage.
>
> Artist Submission Deadline; Monday 30th April 2010
>
> This is such an exciting project and we really hope that you can get
> involved! Thank you.

——

POSTED: 25/2/10

Do you know a young artist who’d like to submit work for the first UK Young
Artists event, which will take place this autumn in Derby? Or perhaps you
are one yourself.

If so, now’s the time to register an interest and be notified when the call
for submissions goes live. Work should be new and can be any artform
including visual arts, performing arts, literature, applied arts, film and
fashion. Artists must be between 18 and 30 and be UK citizens or UK based.

Around 15 of the artists chosen for the UK Young Artists (UKYA) event will
represent the country at next year’s International Biennale of Young Artists
of Europe and the Mediterranean.

Register your interest

To register your interest and be notified when the call goes live please
visit the UK Young
Artists website.

UKYA was set up by the Arts Council and four East Midlands universities to:

* * showcase the best of the UK’s young and innovative creative talent
at regular national and international events
* * support young artists (18-30) at a critical time in their careers
* * increase confidence in young artists and support emerging creative
networks and professional development
* * promote the values of intercultural dialogue, art as a language of
peace and cultural exchange

The week-long UKYA event will take place every two years in Leicester, Derby
or Nottingham. It will showcase the best of the UK’s young and innovative
creative talent at regular national and international events.

In 2012, UKYA will be partners in a world event for young artists as part of
the Cultural Olympiad. This event will bring together up to 2,000 young
artists from around the world and a substantial world audience to the East
Midlands and the UK.

Nike Jonah
Senior Diversity Project Officer – decibel
Arts Council England, National Office
14 Great Peter Street
London, SW1P 3NQ
Direct line +44 (0)20 7973 5351
Fax +44 (0) 020 7973 6581
Mobile 07775 727 446
Email [email protected]

———————-

**Press Release**

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness

Second biennial festival celebrates poetry’s power as an agent of change

Washington, D.C. — Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness comes to the historic U Street neighborhood of Washington, D.C., March 10-13, 2010. Poets, artists, social justice activists, and community organizers from across the area and the nation will take to the stages and streets of the capital to celebrate poetry as an agent of social change.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival offers a diverse mix of programs, including poetry readings every evening on the main stage at Bell Multicultural High School, workshops and panel discussions about the intersection of poetry and social change, a book fair, films, youth programming, parties, and activism.

As the country continues to grapple with two wars, the economic crisis, and social and environmental ills, Split This Rock offers participants opportunities to speak out, make common cause, and explore the many ways poets are working for change through their writing, activism, and community work. Co-Director Sarah Browning said, “At times of crisis, poetry that looks directly at our world and struggles to understand, to bridge differences, to imagine other possibilities than those endlessly repeated by politicians and pundits is more important than ever.”

A new feature is a free Social Change Book Fair. On Saturday, March 13, at the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage (1816 12th St. NW), festival participants and members of the public can explore progressive presses, literary magazines, independent newspapers, and social justice and literary organizations. Other free events during the festival include a youth poetry open mic and the final round of competition for the D.C. Youth Slam Team, the teen poetry group that will go on to compete at the national slam competition in Los Angeles in June.

As the country reaches the milestone of $1 trillion spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, festival participants will engage in peaceful action and use poetry to speak to those in power. A “public poem,” to be spontaneously created at a federal government site on the afternoon of Thursday, March 11, will imagine what the next $1 trillion could — and should — be spent on. “Based in our nation’s capital, Split This Rock provides opportunities for all who gather to speak out for a more just ordering of our nation’s priorities,” Browning said.

Split This Rock was incorporated in Washington, D.C., as a nonprofit organization in 2009. The biennial festival is just one part of Split This Rock’s larger mission. “All Split This Rock’s programs are designed to integrate poetry of provocation and witness into public life and to support the poets who are writing this vital work,” Browning said. “We collaborate with community and social change organizations, organize public events such as the festival, readings and forums, sponsor contests to promote socially engaged poetry, and provide workshops on craft and the writing life for youth and adult poets.”

Featured poets are Chris Abani, Lillian Allen, Sinan Antoon, Francisco Aragón, Jan Beatty, Martha Collins, Cornelius Eady, Martín Espada, Andrea Gibson, Allison Hedge Coke, Natalie Illum, Fady Joudah, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Richard McCann, Jeffrey McDaniel, Lenelle Moïse, Nancy Morejón, Mark Nowak, Wang Ping, Patricia Smith, Arthur Sze, Quincy Troupe, and Bruce Weigl. Biographies, photos, sample poems, and interviews are available upon request.

Major contributors to the festival are Busboys and Poets, the Institute for Policy Studies, DC Poets Against the War, and Teaching for Change.

###

For interviews, news inquiries, and bookings, please contact Sarah Browning, 202-787-5210, [email protected], www.splitthisrock.org.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival

1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600

Washington, D.C. 20036

202-787-5210

www.SplitThisRock.org

[email protected]