Poet #1 - ELIZA KENTRIDGE
Join Eliza Kentridge, Tessa Berring, Clare Best, Isobel Dixon, Alan Gillis, and Rob A. Mackenzie at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, on Wednesday 17 August, 7pm for a prompt 7:30 reading start, to finish at 9:30 – 3 poets in each half, with a short interval for wine and book buying. The evening is free, but donations are welcome. Sign up on Eventbrite or Facebook.
The Fruitmarket Gallery is right by Waverley Station: 45 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DF - View Map
The poets will read new work and from recent collections, and the night will include some original poems from the poets inspired by the work of Damián Ortega in the gallery’s current exhibition. Damián Ortega is one of the most prominent artists of the new Mexican generation and for The Fruitmarket Gallery’s summer exhibition, Ortega has made new sculptures, mostly from clay, focusing on how the forces of nature – wind, water, earth and fire – act on the earth both independently of and in relationship to humankind.
Here’s an introduction to the first of our six poets:
About Eliza:
Eliza Kentridge was born in 1962 in Johannesburg. She came to England in 1988, and has lived in a riverside village in Essex since 1990. She is a visual artist. Her first book of poems, Signs For An Exhibition, (Modjaji Books) appeared in 2015.
SIGN POEM 56
When I was six, I had a doll
I loved her so much
I believed she was alive
I believed she left a warm patch on the bed
CELESTE
When I was thirty, I had a baby
YOU LOVE HIM MORE THAN ANY DOLL
Sage grandmother, you were right
I did and still do
Same with the girls
Celestial cellmates
Squidgy arms threaded through Raggedy Anne sleeves
Flesh of my flesh
Wet, warm patches on my heart
See more about Eliza’s work on her website here.
And come and hear more at the Fruitmarket Gallery!