Hello my loves,
Today I’m sharing this new piece made in collaboration with Wolfgang Dubieniec. This is our second poetry-film following our debut 'While Justice Waits’
June 8th 2024 marks the 75th Anniversary of ‘1984’ by George Orwell so it seems fitting we share this new piece ‘2084’ this weekend. ‘1984’ was published on June 8th 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime.
As a young poet I remember I was particularly moved and inspired by Orwell. I feel a closeness to Orwell, we share a birth date, we were both born on June 25th alongside George Michael. I have often joked I feel like a mash up of the two Georges. I once had a ‘1984’ themed birthday party and some of my friends came dressed as Orwells’ Winston Smith and the others came as Wham and Club Tropicana. It was a very messy party needless to say.
Looking back I can vividly remember reading ‘1984’ for the first time and watching the film starring John Hurt. I recall being haunted by it, afraid of it, drawn to the dark truth of it. ‘1984’ challenges my idealism, it confronts my optimistic hopes for the future, but in a good way, I think ‘1984’ taught me to never give up on dreaming and doing and being.
‘2084’ is a 3-piece work, it is quite long, so I am just sharing the last section here. It was written as a homage to ‘1984’ — In my story, we imagine a world where words are taxed, where dreams are censored and poetry is the property of a darker force. It is a statement on censorship and the freedom of speech and creativity. ‘2084’ is a mixed-form work, written in part as a short story, prose, script and poetry and is now published in ‘With Love, Grief and Fury’ if you would like to read the whole piece or hear it on the audiobook.
This work began life as a commission written some years ago for a BBC radio programme co-presented with the poet Kate Fox. When I was editing ‘With Love, Grief and Fury’ I read old notebooks and found all this extra writing I had done in this 2084-world which was not aired or used in the finished BBC broadcast. It seems the younger me had deeply imagined a terrifying Orwellian tale, a world of dead books, the horror of the muting of peace keepers and poets, the silencing of lovers and writers, and the monetising of dreams. It was a world which is not so very different from the times we are witnessing now and today. We can all see books burning in Gaza and the destruction of Palestinian libraries and universities. We are all noticing the shadow banning and censorship of our posts on social media platforms. We are all reading about AI and how our words, dreams, art and creations can be mirrored and replicated. We walk around with our Big Brother surveillance in our pockets. We are seeing books being banned. Always be sure to read the banned books, share the banned books. This is a most challenging time to be an artist, to be a poet, to write books, and to be in the business of sharing a truth of what it is to be a human.
So here we are 75 years later. Happy birthday ‘1984’ - Here is my salute to Orwell. As the saying goes: ‘1984’ was written as a warning and not as an instruction manual.
I believe ‘2084’ was written from place of fear, it was written with an early realisation that we must unite and fight hard to protect art and books and heart and soul.
And so here’s the third and final act in ‘2084’ accompanied with glorious film and music by Wolfgang Dubieniec. Thank you Wolfgang.
I’ll share the the pages of the poem as they appear in the film below:
Excited to add:
Both of the new poetry-films 'While Justice Waits' and '2084' will be included in an exhibition this month at The Garden of Tomorrow Festival, June 13-15, come along, find out more and get your tickets here houseofhackney.com
Coming up next:
I continue my book tour with a batch of LIVEwire shows, I will be on stage with my dear friends Matt Abbott and Maria Ferguson and all of these mighty and powerful and brilliant poets. I am so looking forward to all of these shows.
Tix are on sale now, please head to livewirepoetry.org/events for links!
• Thu 13 June - The Edge, Manchester
• Fri 14 June - Wrecking Ball Arts, Hull
• Sat 15 June - Leeds Lit Fest, Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
• Thu 20 June - Front Room, Weston-Super-Mare
See ya there... Xx
Before I go, here’s links to 4 delicious new listens and reads and things out now; a link for you to stream our packed out live and lively shows at Lyra Poetry Festival in Bristol, two very wonderful poetry podcasts, and a beautiful new poetry anthology, Poems As Friends by The Poetry Exchange:
NEW Watch: Lyra Festival
NEW Podcast: We, The Poets
NEW Podcast: Poetry Archive
NEW Anthology: The Poetry Exchange
NEW Review: Hastings Independent, a beautiful response written by Merlin Betts to 'While Justice Waits' - https://www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk
NEW Read: Last year I was a key speaker for a conference on ‘consolation in literature’ at Lyon University. I met with Héloïse Lecomte. Out this week is her incredible deep dive into the heart of my debut novel 'Mrs Death Misses Death' - https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/14509#tocto1n2
Poetry and books out now…
Out now: With Love, Grief and Fury
Out now: Springfield Road
Out now: Pessimism is for Lightweights
Out now: Mrs Death Misses Death
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/salenagodden
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2084