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Litro Live! Summer Party

Thursday 22nd July

Venue: The Paradise, by way of Kensal Rise

Time: 6pm-12am

Litro Live Ticket

After a month of near non-stop sports and intense sunshine, it may be time to take advantage of the cooler, long evenings with a night of great literature, music and poetry. Litro Live! aims to do just that in July, with an evening packed with literary and musical talent. We’ll be at The Paradise (near Kensal Rise) on Thursday 22nd July from 6pm until midnight, showcasing the following fantastic line-up.

Host:

Paul Lyalls – the first poet to perform at the new Wembley Stadium and co-presenter of the ‘Big Slam Poetry House’, Paul has gigged over 10 Edinburgh Festivals and has performed at many varied and prestigious venues, from Belfast to New York.

Words:

Joe Dunthorne – having won the Curtis Brown prize for his debut novel Submarine and been compared to J.D Salinger by the Observer, Joe Dunthorpe is quickly becoming Hackney’s hottest literary property.

Sabrina Mahfouz – an award-winning poet, playwright and writer, Sabrina has just returned from Glastonbury Festival.

Mark Pilkington – editor of Strange Attractor and writer of the Guardian’s ‘Far Out’ column, Mark’s new book, based on the aforementioned column, is out now.

Murray Lachlan Young – a firm favourite at previous events, Murray returns with his often surreal, frequently rude and always hilarious performed verse.

Brigitte Voutsa – Brigitte’s one-woman show has already garned critical praise and now she brings her eccentric and charming blend of music, comedy and poetry to Litro Live! in July.

Music:

DJ 10SUI / Soldiers of the Knight – 10SUI, the ‘First Lady of Breaks’,  returns to Litro Live! after having spun the decks for us at the Candem Crawl.

The Maybirds – an all-woman folk foursome, this up-and-coming band produce haunting and melodious folk music.

MZ Bratt – hailed by those in the know on the urban music scene as one of this year’s ‘one to watch’ artists.

Tickets will be available at the door, priced at just £5.  Friends of Litro can receive half-price tickets for Litro Live!  This July we are entering new subscribers into our draw to win one of five pair of tickets to the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition, so now is a great opportunity to become a Friend.

There are no horizons in a city,

only those within yourself.

I couldn’t tell where the city ended

and the people began,

there were only individuals

with crowd-like tendencies

and eternal hopefuls

dreaming of big fat redundancies.

I went through every street in the city

and couldn’t find one person whom I remotely liked.

The revolving doors of human happiness

were jammed shut with people

pushing in every direction

apart from the right one.

To escape the city, I took to the country

… only to find that the city had got there first,

flanked on all sides by ivory tower blocks.

I felt like driving my fist into an oncoming truck

or smashing up a train,

or injecting raw words straight into a vein.

I switch on the TV – which tells me,

apparently,

everything is

drifting towards a state of perfection

but never quite getting there.

Modern living is getting faster

and there are more twists in it than novelty pasta.

We prefer a little truth and a little lie

to a bigger, more factual picture

and life and death

take on different aspects

depending upon

which side of the street they’re viewed from.

Inscribe the child with the tribe

or welcome to evolution MTV style.

And all the while

the cure for a lack of love remains

a long time coming.

We need another inept leader,

kerb-crawler or crank caller,

like a fish needs a trawler.

We have nothing to fear but soaring prices,

global warming, mass unemployment,

economic collapse and government by the

Liberal Democrats

– and fear itself.

We are eating a starter in the

This-Wasn’t-in-the-Brochure Diner.

A Fawlty Towers style waiter

will bring the main course later.

 In 2008 Paul was poet for the London borough of Brent and he performed at the new Wembley Stadium. He has two poems in the new Penguin A-Z of children’s poetry. ‘Don’t try this at home’ is taken from his new collection Catching the Cascade. (www.paul-lyalls.com)