Welcome to May 2020 from English and Drama at Queen Mary. We hope you are keeping well and staying safe in these strange times. We hope this newsletter can help provide some comfort and distraction this month.
Our student of the month for May is Yue Wang (pictured above middle, pre-lockdown), one of our English PhD students.
Read on for news on events such as the new journal Diaspora Speaks, Show and Tell podcast relaunch and projects from our students and staff.
Online Events
OPEN DAY
Virtual Open Day – for 2021+ Applicants
Friday 26 June 2020, 2-5pm BST, Online
Booking is now open for our June open day – Open Day’s are a great chance to explore the subject, discover the QMUL campus and to meet our students.
LISTINGS
What Now My Love? Care Café
Thursday 7 May 2020, 7pm BST, Online
Our very own Lois Weaver (Drama) hosts Care Café, a place for people to gather their wits, thoughts and comrades in action.
‘We are all trying to figure out how to breathe through this present moment, how to take care of ourselves and others, and find ways to keep connected to each other.’
News & Links
Sawdah Bhaimiya (Second year English Student)has co-founded a new publication, Diaspora Speaks,which strives to project the voices of students of colour.
Get involved here
Jerry Brotton (English) discusses English Touring Theatre’s staging of Othello in this videofrom an online event.
Charlotte Byrne (PhD English)has just published a Young Adult fantasy adventure novel called Folked Up.
Eve Bolton and Jasmine Rothon (2nd Year English Students) have become part of the Quest Radio management team. Eve will be the Station Manager next year, and Jasmine will be Head of Production.
Joshua Fraser (2nd Year English Student) has become co-editor of CUB Magazine.
Genna Gardini (PhD Drama) took part in Keep on Writing 2020, presenting a new play via Twitter called Dress for Success. Watch it here
Jen Harvie (Drama) recommends Sally Rooney’s Normal People, adapted by Rooney and playwright Alice Birch, on the BBC iPlayer. Jen says it’s: ‘A very faithful and powerful adaptation of the novel, its really thoughtful direction (by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald) and nuanced acting (especially, for me, by Paul Mescal as Connell) get at the excruciating difficulties of communicating and holding self-belief.’.
Michael Hughes (Creative Writing) recommends watching this new video piece by theatre company Forced Entertainment. Recorded via a 6-way Zoom call, he says it’s: ‘The best piece of work I’ve seen in any form responding to the current crisis, and the first time in a few weeks I’ve properly laughed out loud watching something.’.
Michael is also taking part in regular literary ‘shindig’ ‘A Leap In The Dark’, hosted on Zoom by writer and critic David Collard every Friday and Saturday evening. He says: ‘It’s an eclectic mix of readings, interviews and performances, and I’m there every Friday, reading the latest instalment of the poem Spring Journal, a living record of the current crisis by writer Jonathan Gibbs, inspired by Louis McNeice’s poem ‘Autumn Journal’. Places are limited to 75 each week, so for an invitation, contact David on Twitter @DavidCollard1, or via his blog https://davidjcollard.blogspot.com/. The poem so far can be read on Jonathan’s blog here.
Maggie Inchley (Drama)’s essay ‘sticking in the throat/keyword bitch: aesthetic discharge in debbie tucker green’s stoning mary and hang’ has just been published in debbie tucker green: Critical Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan).
Hari Marini (Drama/Admin team)’s poetry book has been reviewed here. She has also launched a new video of her Spirals project, online here. Hari’s company Partsuspended is part of Live Art Development Agency’s Something Other Live online series, which is ‘searching for queer ways of occupying the present and its differences’.
Daniel Oliver (Drama) has been running Queen Mary Arts and Culture Writing Retreatson Wednesdays. To sign up, or for more information, please contact us at qmul-arts@qmul.ac.uk.
People’s Palace Projects has been awarded £2.7 million in funding from Barts Charity to establish a Youth Resilience Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London, starting in March 2021.
Claire Preston (English) highly recommends this FEEL GOOD DANCE video saying ‘if this doesn’t make you smile, don’t call the doctor because you’re already dead!’.
Nisha Ramayya (Creative Writing) has published a poem for May Day as part of the TENANCY project edited by poet and academic Helen Charman. Read the poem here
Matt Rubery (English) has written a blog post Audiobook highlights, which explores what goes on behind the scenes when producing an audiobook.
Show & Tell podcast is relaunched on the Anchor.fm platform, with fresh new talks from inspiring speakers in the creative industries – including a BAFTA winning TV writer and our very own Jen Harvie (in an episode is introduced by Lois Weaver).
Solitude and COVID-19 Barbara Taylor (English/History)’s Solitudes project is posting a series of blogs under the heading ‘Solitude and Covid 19’. It includes pieces on self-isolation and loneliness, the treatment of the over-70s (‘Killing Off Older People), Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, Donne’s hellish sickroom solitude and more. Next to come is a blog by a former Iranian political prisoner, who spent two years in solitary confinement, on self-isolation as imprisonment.
Split Britches’ (aka Lois Weaver – Drama and Peggy Shaw – Drama Fellow) Lesbians Who Kill is available to watch online here.
Wasafiri Magazine partnered with the online Bookbound Festival 2020. Guest speakers and participants included our very own Susan Rudy and Malachi McIntosh.
Watch the recorded videos here
Whilst we try our hardest to make sure listings are accurate, we recommend contacting the event organiser or registering before attending as mistakes can be made and we apologise for these.
If you have any news or events for our June newsletter please email us.