179° – Zoë Skoulding & Samira Negrouche collaboration
In an encounter between languages and sound, poets Zoë Skoulding and Samira Negrouche are working together on a cross-cultural and cross-media collaboration at this year’s Ledbury Poetry Festival and the Mosaic Rooms in London.
In 179° the poets explore poetry in translation as a journey of multiple routes. Poems are turned to face another language but carry traces from their source in a process that is never completed. Working between languages – mainly French and English but also Arabic and Tamazight – extends the work of listening that is already present in the original poems.
A performance combining voice, electronics and recorded sound will explore the interface between poetry and music that is a recurrent interest in both poets’ work.
there where a path lights up
the journey sketches itself
another’s path
no proof but contrast to your own
which irrigates which weaves which multiplies
the parallel is not the path
the path thickens.
— Extract from a draft translation of Samira Negrouche’s ‘A/rhythmic suite’ by Zoë Skoulding
The residency, which starts in Manchester and continues in Ledbury, culminates in public performances at Ledbury Poetry Festival and the Mosaic Rooms in London. An open session will give audiences an insight into the collaborative process before attending the performance.
179° – live events
Residency Open Session
Ledbury Poetry Festival
Tuesday 8th July
5 – 6pm
Free but ticketed
Performance
Ledbury Poetry Festival
Wednesday 9th July
8 – 9pm, £8
Performance
Mosaic Rooms London
Thursday 10th July
7pm, free but book via email: rsvp@mosaicrooms.org
The Museum of Disappearing Sounds by Zoë Skoulding was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.
Samira Negrouche is an Algerian poet, author and medical doctor living in Algiers. Recent publications include Le Jazz des Oliviers, A l’ombre de Grenade and Le Dernier Diabolo (forthcoming, January 2015).
