SCARY LITTLE SALONS
Scroll down to listen to examples of new writing from our first Salon in February 2009.
OUR MOST RECENT SALON WAS HELD ON 1ST MAY 2009 AT BODRUM CAFE:
Read on for full info on Scary Little Salons, including future events and submissions...
Across 2009, SLG are going to running 4 new writing and performance salons to try and extend our network of connections and contributors. We also want to provide a cheap but satisfying feast for our audiences that can be enjoyed even in this year of belt tightening and cut backs!
Quite by chance the date of the first salon is the 1st of February, which our collaborator, Siren Press, tells us is Imbolic. As you will know (but we didn’t, shame on us for letting the matrifocal side down!) this is one of the four main Celtic festivals in their calendar. Once we knew that these follow the life cycle of a woman and are spread pretty evenly throughout the year, the Scary Little Salons project was born!
If you would like to contribute to the salons either as a writer, artist or performer please contact Katherine Hughes our Literary Manager on literary@scarylittlegirls.co.uk If you have an idea for a home for one of the salons or you would like to discuss hosting one in your area please contact becca@scarylittlegirls.co.uk
Here is an outline of the Scary Little Salons for this year which is of course subject to changes based on the feedback from audience, performers and contributors after our first salon.
Scary Little Salon, Imbolic, Women’s New Writing
Date: Sunday February 1st, 2009
Time: 7pm-9pm
Place: Bodrums Cafe, 61 Stoke Newington High Street, Stoke Newington, N16 8EL
Imbolic Info: In Ireland this time of year is linked to Brigid, a goddess known as the “exalted one”. She presides over poetry, healing and Smithship and symbolizes regeneration, abundance and great inspiration. As a smith She rekindles the fires of creativity and rejuvenation and is a bringer of light in all it’s sources.She is often connected to holy wells and scared flames, including the sun.The Celtic Scots celebrated the rebirth of the Young Maiden of Spring from the Old Woman of Winter with this festival.
Salon Themes: Set at the beginning of what the Old Scots knew as the Wolf Month, this salon welcomes the brave to step forth and put their creative newborns into the spotlight. Abundance is the order of the day at this café salon as we enjoy practically embryonic new work from authors, playwrights, singer-songwriters and comediennes. All new work is put across by a team of SLG performers or by the creator of the new work themselves where appropriate.Regenerate yourself from dormant winter to creative spring with this exciting and eclectic package of goodies, all given the loving, lively and informal SLG treatment.
Additional information: This salon is presented in collaboration with Siren Press, who came up with the idea with us one night round a pub fireside in December 2008.Bodrums Café has excellent and very affordable food and drink which we hope our audience will enjoy while they give us their attention, feedback and, dare we ask it, occasional applause…
Scary Little Salon, Beltaine, Work in Development
Date: Friday May 1st 2009
Time: 7pm-9pm
Place: Bodrum Café
Beltaine Bulletin: Beltaine was celebrated with community bonfires to bring down the sun from the sky. The word itself, also spelt Bealtaine, means “Lucky Fire” or “Bright Fire”. Jumping between two Beltaine fires was good luck.and this festival was a time of unbridled fertility and merrymaking (yes, we mean sexy times). This festival is a Doorway of the Celtic year and begins the Light Season. It’s a time of purification and transition, heralding a season of hope and of a good harvest later in the year.
Salon Themes: What better time to look with hope and passion at new and developing work. Maybe we will see the return of some of our creative newborns, now honed and matured from their first outing…or perhaps people will bring us some bits and pieces to workshop…or maybe you have something coming up that you would like to give a run in to a friendly crowd for some constructive criticisms before you take it into the big wild world. Whatever stage of development your work is at, this evening will aid your creative transition and be a intimate and engaging experience whether you are creating, performing or watching.
Additional Information: This salon may not be women’s work only, so if you feel that your work is matrifocal or feminist and might be something we would be interested in please get in touch with us whatever your gender!
Scary Little Salon, Lughnasadh, Performance Pieces
Date: Saturday August 1st, 2009
Time: TBC
Place: TBC
Lughnasadlh Links: Lughnasadh is a time of new harvests when artists and entertainers traditionally show their stuff. This festival is usually a big party to celebrate fruitfulness, abundance and reunion and it’s a time for unions, partnerships, hand fastings, and brief or trial marriages.The ancient goddess of the harvest is honoured through singing, dancing, garlands, competition, ribbons, fasting and these celebrated the land and the goddess as one.
Salon Themes: A chance for our Associate Artists and the companies we collaborate with to strut their stuff, this salon will be a cornucopia of performance. Between them these artists span the worlds of live art, singing, dance, comedy, performance, visual arts and music – and so much more…Who knows what they will offer up when given the scope this event presents?!From new pieces to classics, anything our artists want to perform will be celebrate in this vivacious event. Some SLG favorites might show up here and some requests played out if anyone makes them to us.Lets hope for a well attended event that creates a union between audience and artists and allows us all to revel in an opulence of creativity!
Additional information: This salon is a chance for all of our associates to show off and enjoy being playful so it won’t be woman performers only, though it’s safe to suspect a strong female bias to the event! If you know there is some SLG material that you would like to see performed again at this event please do let us know and we will try to meet your requests. If you would like to host this event or have a good idea for where it could go on please do get in touch with us and let us know.
Scary Little Salon, Samhain, New, Developing and Existing work
Date: Sunday 1st of November, 2009
Time: TBC
Place: TBC
Samhain Summation: Samhain is a Doorway festival to the Season of the Dark. As it marks the beginning of a whole new cycle it is very powerful festival. It is celebrated through offerings, sacrifices and thanksgiving.These celebrations evoke the whisperings of new beginnings, the stirrings of the seeds below the ground, the kindling of new dreams, projects and hopes for the future and improve the soil for the year to come.Samhain means “Summers end” in Gaelic and is the first day of Winter.
Salon Themes: Contributors to this salon are invited to haunt us with work we’ve seen before or giving us prophesies of work to come. The seeds of new projects or imaginings for 2010 are welcomed and we are particularly keen to receive submissions that focus on the gothic, ghostly, transgressive or mutatory!
Additional information: The further away we plan the more likely we are to change our plans…but that gives those of you who are getting involved with the salons, either as performers, contributors or audience, license to tell us what you like these events to embody. You will know best what you want and we live to give you what you want…we await your orders…!
