Songs to stay awake to (2021)
‘Songs to stay awake to’ is a series of spoken songs with a specially curated collection of poems chosen from an open call with the support of Quotidian - Word on the street. In the manner of "spoken song" Lee uses a mixture of spoken and sung voice, and many in-between inflections and combinations to musicalise the poems in these 9 songs. The poems from the project engage with themes ranging from personal memory space to cycle of power structure, attempting to point towards "things that keep us up at night".
Songs from this album have been featured in
BBC Radio 3 | Unclassified
RTÉ lyric fm | How The World Begins Again
Poetry Day Ireland
Heritage Film Festival
Following poets who kindly contributed their work to this project.
Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan ENGINE OF LOVE
Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is a Dublin-based arts manager and writer from India, who has also lived in North America, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK. She has been featured on The Moth and Mortified podcasts, with work aired on NPR and Irish radio, and regularly performs her poetry at literary and cabaret events in Dublin Chandrika was selected for the Irish Writers Centre XBorders programmes in 2018 and 2020. Chandrika’s poetry is included in Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets from Dedalus Press.
Twitter: @ChandrikaNM
Instagram: Chandrikanm.art
Christine Murray Nocturne for Voices One and Two
Chris Murray is a poet and essayist from Dublin. She adores the micro-poem, the under-stated, the un-stated, and the notion that the poetic image drives the work of the poem. Her latest collection 'Gold Friend' which includes Nocturne for Voices One and Two, is due to be launched in September 2020 (Turas Press). Chris wishes to dedicate the poem to those friends who have lost family members in 2020.
Darren Donohue Crossing
Darren is a poet and playwright based in Co. Kilkenny. His poetry is published with Poetry Ireland Review, Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cyphers, Sixteen Magazine, Rebel Poetry, Best of Vine Leaves, The Poetry Box. He was nominated for a Hennessy Literary Award in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020. He is currently nominated for the Irish Times, New Irish Writing, Poetry Award and the Storkestown International Poetry Prize. He was writer-in-residence at Carlow College, St Patrick’s, 2019.
Personal website: https://donohuegoresbridge.wixsite.com/darren-donohue
Agent: https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/darren-donohue
David Butler These Are Not Days
Gabriel Rosenstock Tanka Series
Born c. 1949, Kilfinane, Co. Limerick, in postcolonial Ireland. Poet, tankaist, haikuist, novelist, essayist, playwright, author/translator of over 180 books, mostly in Irish (Gaelic). Member Aosdána (Irish academy of arts & letters). Rosenstock also writes and translates both poetry and prose for children, is a recipient of the Judges’ Award, Irish Book Awards, and has recorded his translations for Walker Éireann on Soundcloud. His most recent volume of poems is Glengower: Poems for No One in Irish and English. (The Onslaught Press).
http://roghaghabriel.blogspot.ie/
Lind Grant-Oyeye The Immigrant’s Landing
Lind Grant-Oyeye is an award -winning poet of African descent.The recipient of the UHSRN human rights poetry award, the Irish Times aid Africa Poetry award, Lind has work published in several international literary magazines, anthologies and curated poetry projects. She loves visiting new places and when she is not writing, she helps her community and her world, through her contribution to the mental health of young people.
https://www.facebook.com/lindgrantoyeye/
Liska Pleines Visiting the House I Grew Up In
Liska Pleines has been writing ever since she could hold a pen. Her stories come from within and are full of life and its tragedies, capturing the diversity of people, trauma and love. But also joy. And so much of it. Above all, she knows that it is vital to always, always sing. Find her on https://www.liska-pleines.com/
Siobhan Campbell Rain on us all
Siobhán Campbell’s fourth collection is Heat Signature - ‘a poet who is invested in words as a powerful social currency.’ (Compass). Previous books include Cross-Talk (Seren) and The Permanent Wave (Blackstaff). Siobhan has won the Oxford Brookes International prize as well as awards in the Troubadour and National Poetry Competitions. On faculty at The Open University, she collaborates to explore the place of creative writing in different social environments, working in projects in Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Iraq as well as in end-of-life care. Her poetry appears in the Irish Poetry Archive, the Forward Book of Poetry, Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe) and The Field Day Anthology of Irish Literature (NYU Press) and in magazines including Poetry, The Southern Review, Magma and Agenda.
www.siobhancampbell.com @poetrySiobhan
*This project is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland & PRS Foundation and The New BBC Radiophonic Workshop through The Oram Awards talent development bursary
