Before you read this, it might help to read this https://godisamanc.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/acceptance-dike-omeje-1972-2007/
January 13th 2017 is the tenth anniversary of Dike Omejé’s death. I want to celebrate his achievements with friends and family and introduce new readers to his life and his work.
So, a group of his friends are in the process of organising “Articulate -Dike Omejé” A day to celebrate the life of our beatiful friend and amazing poet and performer.
It’s taking place at Contact Theatre on Saturday January 14th between 12 noon and 10pm
We aren’t fully sure what is going to be happening yet, but we do know that we want to Articulate Diké – whatever that means!
We want to do workshops at both his Primary and Secondary schools
We want to talk about his life
Get people to read his poems
Assemble a collection of video, recordings and photos to share
Have a collection of his books on sale
We want to hear the amazing Speakeasy band, a wonderful collective of musicians who Diké performed with regularly (please see a festive performance here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjLXZ1jjil4) and generally remember him.
If you have any recordings or photos or anecdotes about Dike please send them to me at
mikegarry@hotmail.com
But most importantly, put january 14th in the diary and lets celebrate and Articulate – Dike Omejé
Ok, the majority voted to leave and as a “remain” voter, I accept that but will it be “Hard” or “Soft”?
What are the terms of our exit?
Who decides?
Theresa, Boris and Nigel want it “hard” but they can’t just decide exit terms without some sort of consultation or vote – That’s be undemocratic and considering one of their arguments was to win back our Parliamentary Sovereignty, it seems peculiar that they don’t want Parliament involved in negotiations concerning our exit terms.
Thank God Miliband, Clegg and the “rebel” MP’s went to the High Court or the our exit would be crueler, harder and uglier than we could have imagined.
I wrote a poem about it which was aired on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio Manchester (Gods own country) – The text is below but if you want to hear me reading it, follow this link
I contemplated Suicide once – For 1 Millionth of a second – then i realised, It’d hurt and not just me – So, I sat down and wrote this
Suicide Song
Cast your shadow across midnight Stand up to your knees in the tide Wait till the morning and you’ll disappear – Drown by tears of fright
Illuminated by sunshine Toasted by the sun Escape with yourself in a ball of flames – There’s never any need to run
Swallow yourself whole for pudding Don’t ask for custard or cream The whole street’s been out looking for you – But only I know where you’ve been
Shoot yourself in the face with a water pistol – Slash your wrists with an Easter egg Have the time of your life on a cerebral ride – But never trust your own head
Dive off the Empire State Building – Get chased by a dog in the Park Ask your dad if he was Jack The Lad – Ask your mam if she was Joan of Arc
Sing to the coppers at the football match – Start on the cock of the school Never get paid for a full weeks work – Better to be honest than a fool
Turn the T.V on at midnight Spin it round to face the wall Bung your ears with cotton wool You’ll hear the whisper of the bullet as you fall
I’m launching it tomorrow night at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival Hub in Albert Square from 8
I’ve invited some of my favourite poets down to celebrate with me
Sahra Al-Shamiry – an 18 year old Moss Side girl who is taking the poetry scene by storm
Marvin Cheeseman – the funniest darkest poet I’ve ever met
Toria Garbut hurling vocal javelins from her Yorkshire council house window
And there’s live music as well
I’m launching my book @mfdf16’s Poetry Not Poverty night because they support Streetsmart – the Homeless Charity
if you’ve never heard of them, Check out the brilliant work they do here……..http://streetsmart.org.uk
Copies of Men’s Mourings will be available for sale on the night but if you can’t make it email me mikegarry@hotmail.com – I’ll sign copies and post it out to you
I’m doing the Edinburgh Festival at the Scottish ARTS Club August 20 – 25 at 12 noon daily
I wouldn’t normally be interested in the hassle of it all but I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse
So, I’ve decided to have fun with two of my closest mates.
I’ve known them both for forty years and have loved the music they create so i set them a task of creating a soundscape to go along with my poem
I’ve decided to use a twenty year old poem and update it a bit – it was featured on BBC Radio 4 in May and Jackie Kay, The Scottish Makar responded to my Men’s Morning by writing a Woman’s Morning – it was Pick of the Week – have a listen here
After an amazing weekend in Glasgow and Edinburgh with John Cooper Clarke and Simon Day and an incredible week of love and kind words from around the globe for Men’s Morning on BBC Radio 4 (If you haven’t heard it, you can listen again here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ctvg1 ) and the Sottish Makar, Jackie Kay’s response to Men’s Morning, “Moss Side Mirrors” (If you haven’t heard it, you can listen again here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07dklgf#play )
I am very proud to announce that Men’s Morning will be Premiered Live at this summers Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I shall be performing it at the Scottish Arts Club in Rutland Square in the heart of Edinburgh from Saturday 20th of August – Thursday 25th
Tickets are available at the The Edinburgh Fringe site https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/men-s-morning
Then, Slum Clearance and we moved to new house and slowly, glimmers of light would flicker through peoples eyes and I’d hear singing in peoples voices and a thing called the sun was rumoured to live behind the grey clouds
Warmth existed in peoples words and kindness lived behind the beamed smiles
I went to new places
I experienced new things
I ate pasta
I started to live a new life and people inspired me, not pop stars or film idols, just ordinary people that I would meet on my street and in my neighbourhood
And they still inspire – Heroes, every one of them.
My formal education was atrocious but what I learned from certain experiences in certain places, was more than I ever learned at University
One such place was Men’s Morning at Moss Side Leisure Centre
Every Friday morning the whole of the leisure centre was a “man only “space – so, you were free to do activities such as 5-a-side, badminton, squash, weights, table tennis, swimming etc and it was all finished off with a good scrub and sweat in the Steam Room and Sauna.
At 12.30 all the men would leave and the afternoon was a Woman only space.
Equality in Moss side, circa 1980’s.
I first started attending Men’s Morning at the age of 13 – I had a football injury and my doctor recommended it. I think he recommended it more for the mind than the body. I loved it
I loved listening to grown men speak of “Grown up” things. I loved the competitive nature of the sport. I loved the banter and the fun and the confrontations and hanging with the “bad boys” – I continued to attend through my teen years and into manhood (??) and i was amazed by the range of people and the stories and the lives that were shared. It was a special place and it was made special by the people.
I can’t remember whether it was Arthur Rimbauld or Eric Cantona who said “An artist in my eyes is someone who lightens up a dark room.” If that is the case, Men’s Morning was full of artists.
I write about the things I’ve seen and experienced. I try to capture beauty in words and I want to share that beauty because the more beauty we see, the more beautiful we become. I wrote a poem called Men’s Morning that attempts to capture the essence of what Men’s Morning was about. Its people, stories, its spirit and its warmth and those things words alone just cannot capture .
It later became my first book, I remember typing it up on my old Mac Classic I bought from Johnny Roadhouse for £100. (I’ve still got that computer) Then, I got my mate Ant Ball to lay it out for publication and do a cover. I got an ISBN and everything.
Job done. I’d made my first book. I launched it in May 2000 on a boat called “La Pinta” in Salford Docks and I read it with my beautiful friend Diké Omeje (rest in peace)
It was an amazing night – amazing things happened and continue to happen
Sixteen years later, someone from BBC Radio 4 heard it and liked it and asked me to make a programme about Men’s Morning.
I love Moss Side. It’s the back drop to much of my poetry. It made me what i am and who i am. I am so proud of the place and it’s people and i’m proud to have grown up there. So, when Radio 4 asked me to go back and to talk to some of the people from my poem and men who attended men’s morning, I felt honoured.
The programme will be broadcast in May and part of the programme will be a live reading of the poem from Moss Side Leisure Centre on Wednesday March 23rd.
The boat was packed in Salford on the launch night and a kind of magic happened that only happens only a few times in a persons life
If it felt one millionth as good as it did that night on the boat, it will be beautiful.
It starts at 7 and your invited but we’d love you to get there for 6.30
2016 is the 60th anniversary of the publication of Allen Ginsberg‘s Howl – a seminal piece of work that changed the world of poetry and one could argue, that it changed America
Now, i could go on about his influence on Kerouac and the other Beats but it’s the personal things that mean so much more to me
Like the time I was playing at the Henry Miller Memorial Library in the Big Sur in California. I met a guy who grew up in San Francisco but his family had a cabin by Bixby Creek Canyon close to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s cabin where Kerouac wrote “The Big Sur”.
A beautiful man who took me for a walk down the canyon, under Bixby Bridge and onto the beach he played on as a kid. He told me some amazing stories but my favourite was the time he was walking to the beach as a young man and saw someone stark naked on Ferlinghetti’s cabin porch, just stood there, looking out – starkers – “A tall hairy man” he described him to his father. It was Alan.
When I’ve played with Philip Glass and Friends, we always finishes the show with “Footnote to Howl by Alan – It makes an amazing climax to the show and allows everyone involved to come on stage and share in the reading of the poem. Usually, he gets Patti Smith to read it but when Patti isn’t with us, he asks me to read it – What an honour and what an amazing poem – Here’s Pattie performing it with tibetan monks for a special visit from the Dalai Lama
And finally, My Gaffer, Dr John Cooper Clarke told me a story about him and Alan Touring the UK and Johnny introduced Alan to his mum. Alan said it was a pleasure to meet her and described Johnny as “One of the most polite men he’d ever met” – Johnny was really pleased by this and explaining this to me he said, “What else does a mother want to hear? It’s the greatest compliment that can be given to a mother about her son”. And on reflection, he’s probably right.
Yesterday was the Anniversary of that famous reading of Howl in Berkley and today we are celebrating it with a Beats Day in Luton. The day celebrates Allen Ginsberg, his life and his poetry
The day looks like this
2pm – Opening of Beat day by Jeff Towns who introduces the day and his
2.15pm – Allen Ginsberg and GUERRILLA TV – New York filmmaker David Shulman in conversation with Jeff Towns. They will explore David’s 1990 film and show rare footage of Ginsberg narrating the introduction.
3.05pm – Black Breton: White Negro – Ideas of Race in Jack Kerouac’s writings: talk by Professor Daniel Williams.
3.45pm – Ah! Sunflower – British writer, documentarist, film maker and poet, Iain Sinclair introduces a screening of his seminal film of Allen Ginsberg in London in 1967.
4.30pm – Break
5.00pm – Mike Garry – Live dynamic performance poetry. A passionate Mancunian, his “Saint Anthony” on YouTube is read by Iggy Pop. He performed backed by New Order at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has just written the libretto for a new Phillip Glass commission.
5.45pm – American Smoke – Iain Sinclair talks about his Travel/memoir across America in search of Beats, described by The Guardian as “grippingly haunted”.
6.30pm – A rare screening of No More to Say & Nothing to Weep For – A fine filmic eulogy to Allen Ginsberg.
7.30pm – Howl – a live performance with Ceri Murphy as Ginsberg reading the poem accompanied by graphic illustrative projections.
8.30pm – Round table summing up with Iain Sinclair, Dan Williams, Mike Garry and David Shulman, who will discuss the topics raised – chaired by Jeff Towns.
It looks like an amazing day & tickets are still available, so come and join us and for more info and a 10 time better blog than mine, have a look at what my mate Jeff Towns is saying as he’s arranged the day – http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/fridays-weekly-round-up-260_18.html?m=1
For this tree is a ladder and each branch a new rung
So, kids who once on branches swung
They learned to climb
Did their time
Held tight – feeding each other
Like family – like brothers
I’m honoured to have done some work with Seddon Ltd. They’re builders based in Bolton.
They Emailed me and asked me to come in for a meeting with the prospect of doing some work together.
I thought, building firm and poetry??? – Sounds good. Sounds interesting. So I tweeted
“Anyone done any work with Seddon Ltd?” and within 2 minute i was tweeted 4 times by people saying
“Yes, Seddon. They Built my mothers Care Home and were brilliant.”
“Yeah Seddon, they built a new block at our school – Bolton Firm aren’t they?”
“Seddon built the hospice my Gran was in and were wonderful”
All positive and all good. So, i went and met them and was amazed.
I discovered that they’re a family owned Building company that span three centuries and 5 generations. Established in 1897 when George and John Seddon, two orphans, who climbed out of a coal mine and set up their bricklaying firm in Little Hulton. The business now delivers nearly£200 millions of building projects across the UK employing nearly 800 people.
But, Seddon are not your average business – their priority is not profit and their values run right through everything they do
To behave as a family, providing support to our customers, staff, supply chain and stakeholders
To act ethically and do the right thing regardless of personal consequence
To take the wider view in decision-making, looking at longer term rather than short term gains
To provide stability in the employment and training of our people
To enjoy what we do and have fun in doing it
I decided to write a poem about the history and ethos of the company and present it at an annual event organised by Seddon.
To write the poem, I worked with a range of their employees in their offices in Bolton but I also went out to building sites and talked to brickies and Sparks and apprentices to capture the essence of what they do – i.e. Build Houses. Captured here by Granada Reports https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ0chgkoFlw
I worked closely with the family as well, notably with Jonathan Seddon, the Managing Director since 2007. He amazed me. Early 40’s, young family, learned his trade “hands-on” doing a YTS at the age of 16. First as a Brickie, then a Spark, then a plumber. He learned the fundamentals of building houses. His dad treated him like any other employee, harsher most probably, so as no-one thought he was getting “special treatment”. They guy still cycles to work.
I spent some time with Christopher as well, his father. He retired in 2007 but couldn’t resist continuing to be involved with the things that interested him at Seddon. But, he was the captain of the ship who had steered her through many years of growth and development and couldn’t just “let go” over night.
I was quite scared of him to be honest. He reminded me of a really strict but decent Headmaster. It was fear with great respect. He was sort the of guy who wouldn’t say a lot but what it did say, you listened and listened carefully. And, having done so much research on the company and it’s history and politic, I knew what this man had achieved and how hard he worked to achieve it.
I wrote a poem about Seddon and their history and ethos called “It Runs Right Through“. A section of the poem focuses on Seddon’s work with Young People, something Christopher Seddon was passionate about. So passionate, he made Seddon’s commitment to delivering first-class apprenticeships part of the company’s DNA.
An apprentice bricklayer himself was later awarded an MBE for his services to apprenticeships and local charities he had worked for 56 years.
I’ll never forget delivering the poem to the family and company heads sat in the Board room at Seddon headquarters in Bolton – I was petrified that they wouldn’t like what i had written.
I read the poem…………….waited for a reaction……………………………………….. and Christopher stood up and walked toward the door but stopped in front of me, patted me on the shoulder and said
“You’ve done a great job.”
Nothing else mattered – I knew that if he like the poem, I’d “done a great job”
Sadly, Christopher died in August 2015 after a battle with Cancer.
Now, I could sit here and write endless lists of Christophers achievements. I could write wonderful testaments to his character and tell you what a great man he was.But I’m not going to because it wasn’t his style and it isn’t Seddon’s style
However, to commemorate his life and most importantly, his commitment to working with young people, I’ve taken a section of the poem, worked with closely with Seddon staff and made a video that we believe champions the work Christopher.
