A writer, a poet and a singer walk into a bar. In Liverpool (53 degrees North, 2 degrees West).
This is not a joke. This is the bar of the Rodewald Suite of the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. This is a Liverpool Irish Festival event, organised by Writing on the Wall, entitled Derry-Londonderry (54 degrees North, 7 degrees West): so good they named it twice.
Walk on, walk on,
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
This is Hope Street, which is bookended by cathedrals: The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King (Roman Catholic) and The Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (Church of England/Anglican).
Also in the vicinity of Hope Street are a noodle bar, an hotel, a Mexican restaurant, offices, social housing, pubs, the Oratory Public Park, The Blackburne House Women's Technology and Education Centre, The Liverpool Trust for The Performing Arts (LIPA), the former Hahnemann Homoeopathic Hospital, The Everyman Theatre (under reconstruction), The Liverpool Medical Institution and the Victoria Gallery and Museum.
And, of course, the Philharmonic Hall, with the Rodewald Suite, where the writer, the poet and the singer walk into a bar. To read/perform/sing their work.
Culture is the matter in hand and how it manifests in the first ever UK City of Culture year, 2013, in Derry Londonderry, where the majority of adult citizens vote for Irish nationalist parties.
The programme of events for the UK City of Culture year, 2013, is launched on Thursday 25th October and available at www.cityofculture2013.com/
The programme is varied, fascinating, complex and contested. As are all matters in public life.
The citizens of Liverpool have some experience of the hitching of culture to the wagons of economic, social and cultural development, from the year 2008, when Liverpool was European Capital of Culture.
Derry-Londonderry, as UK City of Culture 2013, manifests very specific experiences.
A successful programme will engage with both the common and the distinctive. ... I expect the UK City of Culture to reflect these identities (Ulsterman, Ulster Scots, British), in what it delivers and I appreciate that other cultural identities that are Irish, Gaelic and many others will be included.
The people in the Rodewald Suite listen to the writer, the poet and the singer present their stories in various forms: literary, dramatic, verse, performance, song. Then they question and debate with each other. And with the writer, the poet and the singer.
What will the future be like for Derry Londonderry? Are we optimistic? Can we put The Troubles behind us? Why are we always negative? Will there be enough hotels? Can't we see the Big Picture?
There is no Big Picture. There is a gallery of pictures: small, medium and large. You need to get up close to see the human factor, in the detail. Viewed from a distance, the picture appears big, yet is inadequate to the actuality of lives lived in particular economic, social and cultural contexts.
It is rarely a question of either/or. More usefully, and/both questions are faced.
The beauty and the grime. The violence and the peace. The serenity and the torment. The wealth and the poverty. The turmoil and the quiet. And the many states in between.
Everything is named twice. And more. Not only the city.
Look closely at the Hillsborough (Liverpool) and the Bloody Sunday (Derry-Londonderry) Families. Up close. In detail. A complex gallery of pictures.
Vivifying. Never alone.
So good the state apologised twice.
It is impossible - now, at this point in the long journey of human culture – to avoid the sense that pain is a necessity, that it is neither accident, nor malformation, nor malice, nor misunderstanding, that it is integral to the human character both in its inflicting and its suffering. This terrible sense tragedy alone has articulated, and will continue to articulate, and in so doing, make beautiful ...
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
The News Letter: newspaper; page 8; Gregory Campbell, MP for East Londonderry; Belfast; 20.10.2012
Death, The One and the Art of Theatre: book: Howard Barker; Routledge; Abingdon; 2005
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