Poetry meets Geordie geography in Glow project
Dec 11 2008 By Alastair Gilmour
A GLIMMER of history is about to burst into brilliance around Newcastle in a dazzling display of light, words and images. From today
The Glow project, in Newcastle-Gateshead Winter Festival, features the engravings of Thomas Bewick, images of Grainger and Dobson’s urban environment, 19th Century maps and contemporary photographs.
Central to this is an atmospheric poetry reading in Morden Tower, one of Newcastle’s four remaining defensive structures, on Saturday, December 13 (5pm-8pm) to celebrate North East poetry, its heritage as a poets’ meeting place and the life of Bill Griffiths, whose love and careful documentation of North East dialect has left a lasting legacy.
Morden Tower is a British literary landmark. Poetry meetings started there in 1964 and since then hundreds of poets have come from all over the world to give readings in the ancient turret-room, including Allen Ginsberg, Seamus Heaney, Tony Harrison, Steve Smith and Simon Armitage.
Bill Lancaster, director of the Centre for Northern Studies, says: “A huge light show featuring Bill Griffiths’ dialect poetry will be projected on to the walls of the House of Correction.
“Poets from Britain and abroad – including novelist and journalist Gordon Burn and theatre director Lee Hall – will speak and deliver poetry on Saturday. It’s a five-star line-up ready to celebrate the work of a poet with universal appeal, but it also goes beyond that. Bill Griffiths was a genuine polymath and the original Renaissance man, who has been described as the best poet in the English language since Ezra Pound. He was trained as a classical pianist and even became a Hell’s Angel, covered in tattoos.
“When he settled in the North East – he was originally from North London – he lived in a small ground-floor flat in Seaham, County Durham, because he believed that North East English is not a bastardised version of our language, but all we have left of Old English. He would set up displays in villages all around Seaham and ask people to bring him their words and the words of their parents and grandparents, which he catalogued in – amongst other books –
Glow will reveal buildings, spaces and views tucked away in Newcastle.
Described by its creative director Phil Supple as “a visual exercise in Geordie Geography”, the projections are being brought to the city by the team behind Northumberland Lights.
Bill Griffiths would say he could listen to northern dialect all day. Now we can see what fired his enthusiasm.
Sally Forth
IN Newcastle from Thursday, December 11, until Monday, December 15 (4.30pm-9.30pm) Glow illuminates: West Walls, Bath Lane.
This area is the most impressive section of Newcastle’s remaining city walls. It includes four of the wall’s original 17 towers: Morden Tower, Ever Tower, Heber Tower and Durham Tower. Glow will be illuminating the West Walls at Gallowgate, Morden Tower, and The House of Recovery. Newcastle’s town walls were build in the 13th Century when in 1265 the burgesses of Newcastle decided to add to the defences of the castle to protect them from the raids of invading Scots.
The walls were more than two miles long, always at least seven feet thick, and up to 25ft high.
Sally Port Tower, Tower Street
Sally Port Tower is one of only three towers remaining from the town walls to the east of the city. In medieval times it was from this gateway that defenders of Newcastle would sally forth against the enemy.
