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+33 626 90 13 26

Cheers,

David (Organiser)

Theme: Trouble

Sign up from 8pm

SpokenWord begins 8.45pm

Theme – Ghosts / les phantoms

Theme – MASKS

We’re back.

For the first time in 16 months, back at the Chat Noir.

Coming home.

For the last 2 Mondays in July.

SpokenWord:

Performance poetry. Lire vivant. Poésie sonore. Stand up. Monologue. Stories. Beat poetry. Spoken word. English. Français. Your own original texts. Old texts from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron. Chacun a son mot à dire. Make the words come alive. All languages welcome. Acoustic songs also welcome.

WICE have asked me to run my successful poetry class again,

Writing Poetry – Craft and Inspiration

starting 30th September.

This will be a hybrid class – you can attend either in person or online. That way we can run it successfully despite Covid, strikes or bad weather. You can attend any or all of the classes online, whether it’s just that you’re outside Paris or it’s because you need to self-isolate.

Course description:

A poet needs both something to write about and skill in writing. We will focus on these two themes so important in strong poetry – finding inspiration and mastering elements of craft. Each week we will do some writing in class and a homework task will be set so that we can share what we’ve written the following week. Teaching will cover how to write stronger poetry and where to find sources of inspiration. All levels of experience welcome.

I’m confident the class will thrive as it has in previous years – developing a strong sense of mutual support and community around the writing and sharing of poetry.

Maximum of 7 participants.

Dates and times:

It will be 3.30pm – 5.30pm every Wednesday for 6 weeks.

• Sept 30th
• Oct 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
• Nov 4th

Fees: €195 euros + WICE membership fee of €25/30/50

Staying safe:

In the classroom we’ll wear masks and be 1m apart. Everyone will have their own desk and chair and surfaces will be wiped down. If anyone develops symptoms that could be Covid then they can still attend online. Similarly if they have been in close contact with someone contagious.

About the teacher:

David Barnes is a British poet who ran a weekly writers’ workshop at Shakespeare & Company for a decade and organises and runs the open mike poetry night SpokenWord Paris, now in its 15th year. He is the Editor in Chief of The Bastille literary magazine and was co-editor of Strangers in Paris – New Writing Inspired by the City of Light (2011, Tightrope Books) which included work by such writers as Alice Notley, Jorie Graham and John Berger. His poetry has been published in various magazines. He is a teacher and psychotherapist.

In August he was the featured poet at Literary Lavatory, Obejvak, Prague.

Signing up for the course:

Register online here
or contact WICE and give the course code or name:

WS301 Writing Poetry – Craft and Inspiration

WICE: Where Internationals Connect in English
www.wice-paris.org
Tel 01 45 66 75 50
10 rue Tiphaine, 75015 Paris

Cheers all,
David Barnes

This week hosted by Sophia Lucia!

Meet at the Place Louis Aragon from 8pm.
It’s the western end of the Île Saint-Louis.
Open air poetry starts at 9pm.
Theme – Boredom
We may move to other locations nearby. So if you arrive and we’re not there, text +33 626901326
Bring your own drink.
Wear a mask and respect social distancing – otherwise the police may fine you 135 euros and close down the event.
We’ll probably wind up in a bar after the words have been said, the songs sung.
Cheers all,
David Barnes
Organiser

Theme – Raw
Place – Place Louis Aragon (Western end of the Île Saint-Louis)
Day – Moon day, 31st August
Time – Gather there from 8pm. Poetics begin at 9pm.
More info – check the Facebook event

Monday Aug 10th – theme Hot & Cold
Monday Aug 17th – theme On the Road

Meet at the Place Louis Aragon from 8pm. It’s the western end of the Île Saint-Louis. Open air poetry starts at 9pm. If you can’t find us, text +33 626901326 Bring your own drink.

We’ll probably wind up in a bar after the words have been said, the songs sung.

Who was Louis Aragon?
Poet, surrealist, Communist, journalist and editor, novelist. Born in Paris in 1897, involved in Dada before founding the surrealist review Littérature with André Breton. Many of his poems were put to music and sung. He died in 1982.

The essentials

I love you by black paths
Like those who have no home
And who walk all night
Everywhere, exerting themselves
I write your name on all the walls
That my love won’t die with me
Let them be memory at my whisper
And proof of where I passed

Where I lost my human shadow
Where I mixed living and my dreams
Where I took your hand in my palm
And crossed your steps with my steps
So much that finally the time that rises
As well as a perfume, complete
The dawn of us whose wonder
Is that we will not see it

— from ”Je t’aime par les chemins noirs”

David (technical assistance) and Cesar (poetry) in July.

Here’s a poem he wrote in 1944 about his city:

Paris

Où fait-il bon même au coeur de l’orage
Où fait-il clair même au coeur de la nuit
L’air est alcool et le malheur courage
Carreaux cassés l’espoir encore y luit
Et les chansons montent des murs détruits

Jamais éteint renaissant de la braise
Perpétuel brûlot de la patrie
Du Point-du-Jour jusqu’au Père-Lachaise
Ce doux rosier au mois d’août refleuri
Gens de partout c’est le sang de Paris

Rien n’a l’éclat de Paris dans la poudre
Rien n’est si pur que son front d’insurgé
Rien n’est ni fort ni le feu ni la foudre
Que mon Paris défiant les dangers
Rien n’est si beau que ce Paris que j’ai

Rien ne m’a fait jamais battre le coeur
Rien ne m’a fait ainsi rire et pleurer
Comme ce cri de mon peuple vainqueur
Rien n’est si grand qu’un linceul déchiré
Paris Paris soi-même libéré

Louis Aragon, 1944

Cheers all,
David Barnes
Organiser