April Daze in the Howff

Flouting the poetry ban we’ve got a new series. ‘Testimony of the Untested’, is a daily lockdown poetry series by Robert Alan Jamieson, who is in recovery from a corona-like virus. Read his “I sense the sadness’ here, and ‘I am losing the habit of speech’ here.

The lockdown experience has created a hoard of online live shows and performances across different platforms. Here’s a wee round-up of some of the best.

Tonight from 9-10 the epic and potty-mouthed Hollie McNish is doing a live show on Facebook. Go join her here.

On the 2nd May the Quarantine Cabaret has a stellar lineup with poetry from Katie Ailes and Leyla Josephine, drag from King Biff and music from Nicole Smit and Gordon from indi heroes Ballboy rounding off the show. They have live shows on Instagram every Saturday with proceeds going to help acts hit by the COVID-19 measures. Find them at @QuarantineCab

Glasgow Podcart has just released their Best of April playlist on Spotify and its a thing of great beauty. 25 songs right here.

Last but not least the London Review of Books has created a new #stayathome incarnation of LRB Screen, hosted by Gareth Evans.

This week they say “the focus is on the moving and personal exchange of ‘video letters’ that comprise Life May Be, the feature-length essay film by Iranian film-maker/actor Mania Akbari and Scotland-based director and critic Mark Cousins. Ranging across time and place, ideas and experience, it’s an all too relevant exploration of distance and intimacy, and the journeys, in all senses, of our lives.

These events are paying close attention to the precarious – but also potentially transformative – moment in which we find ourselves, and Life May Be is no exception. Whether Cousins is considering aesthetics and travel, or Akbari her own imposed movements, and medical crises, after leaving Iran, the film, produced by the indefatigably independent Don Boyd, is a telling and insighful document for our own displaced moment.”

In a format that may or may not be too complicated, you watch the film in advance the join a live discussion of it.

Then at 7 p.m. on Wednesday 6 May, join Gareth, Mania and Mark on our YouTube channel for a livestreamed discussion about Life May Be, here.