Planning ahead: Live Literature Event

LIT UP – A Spotlight on Performance Poetry, Literature & Spoken Word

Wed 20 – Fri 22 September 2006, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

LIT UP is a brand new event for arts professionals: a showcase of performance poetry, literature and spoken word events alongside debates and discussions, all designed to explore new ways of developing the role of live literature in performing arts programmes.

Whether you’re a director, programmer, venue manager, marketing professional, arts officer, educationalist, administrator, practitioner or indeed any arts professional, LIT UP will help you see live literature in a new light!

Contact LitUp@breweryarts.co.uk to register your interest

The showcase will feature six specially commissioned pieces of new work, alongside performances by a number of established artists/companies, all of which challenge perceptions and bring fresh thinking and skills to live literature events.

LIT UP offers the opportunity to see a wide range of live performances; discuss the work with other arts professionals; and tackle the issues around programming and promoting live literature. A series of formal and informal debates and discussions will look at how new ways of staging the written word can attract new audiences, as well as developing existing audiences, introducing a completely new element to arts programmes.

LIT UP will be a celebration, a chance for reflection and strategic thinking, and a catalyst for leveraging the power and attraction of literature in all forms into a dynamic live artform. It’s presented by the Live Literature Consortium, a groundbreaking group of venues who are committed to developing new ways of presenting, programming and promoting live literature, funded and supported by Arts Council England.

LIT UP runs from Wednesday 20 September to Friday 22 September 2006 at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. Easily accessible by train and road (just three hours by rail from London), Brewery Arts Centre provides a series of interesting and varied spaces to showcase live work and host forums, formal and social events, all set in the beautiful Lake District.

I ran a workshop Writing Fiction to get Published in Kendal earlier this year and it was great fun: committed students, beautiful scenery and excellent organisation from Linda Graham and Kate Harrison Whiteside. As Linda is involved in this project too, I have every confidence it will be a complete blast.