Tyne and Esk Writers

1 April

Stagg’s (Volunteer Arms), behind the Brunton Theatre, N. High Street, Musselburgh

Critical imagination failure alert here as I copy word for word my e-mail message! Hello, yes well obviously if I say it’s an April Fool’s Day Hotpot you will all expect to turn up and find either that it’s not on at all or else I’ll have disguised it as a cross dressing Crufts fire eating morris dance extravaganza. And you’d be right. Ha! April Fool! No, in fact it’ll be another ladle full of Musselburgh’s own open floor accoustic performance hingmy, where you can arrive at Stagg’s at 7.30, saunter through to the back room and put your name down to get up (or up to get down) in front of a warm, soothing night nurse of an audience, who’ll clutch you to their figurative collective bosom, as you give it a shot with your song, poem, story, tune, robotic dance, mass hypnosis display etc., all of which will kick off at 8pm. Or indeed you can just come along to be part of that collective bosom. Or night nurse. An entirely voluntary £1 will open the door to pleasures beyond human comprehension. And you won’t be offered that right often of a Sunday evening. Lots of love, Stephen xxxx

A reminder that the Tyne & Esk Writers AGM will be held on Monday 26th March at 7:30pm in the John Gray Centre, Lodge Street, Haddington. After the formal part of the meeting there will be an opportunity for discussion and, time permitting, an Open Mike session, where members can have short reading spots. Graham Leake will be compering the Open Mike spot. If you want to read, please let him know when you arrive.

Money Where Your Mouth is …. Spoken Words for Oxfam

Friday April 13th, 7.45 for 8.00pm in the comfortable Blenheim House Hotel Lounge, North Berwick.

Theme is “ A Stroke of Luck” and, as usual, related meanderings!

Dear Member,

You are warmly invited to attend the Annual General Meeting of Tyne and Esk Writers at 7.30pm on Monday, 26^th March at the John Gray Centre, in Lodge Street, Haddington.

By the time of the AGM I will have been the convener for a year and a half. I am prepared to continue in this role for another year.  Graham Leake, the vice convener, took up his post approximately 6 months ago. He, too, is prepared to continue in this role as is Diana Stevens, the recently appointed treasurer. At the moment there is nothing in the constitution which advises on the election of office bearers. This is an area which, with the members’ agreement, we will need to amend before the next AGM.  While the office bearers are willing to continue in post for the next financial year, I suggest, however, that if there is a desire for others to be nominated that, in the interests of democracy, we go ahead with that procedure.

Motions  with regard to policies etc. should be sent to me by e-mail or by post before the 13^th March for initial discussion at the committee meeting on the 14^th March. My address is 26 Erskine Road, Gullane, East Lothian. EH31 2DQ.

Under AOCB we shall have the opportunity to discuss plans for the financial year 2012/2013.

If anyone would like to sell their publications at the AGM, please contact Colin Will by e-mail. His e-mail address is colin.will@zen.co.uk

Refreshments will be served at the AGM. Hopefully, this will be a social occasion as much as it will be a formal business meeting. I would like to ask for volunteers to assist with serving the refreshments.

Finally, I have asked all of the reps to discuss the position of rep for their group  for the year 2012/2013 and to let me know who their rep will be.  While it is important to have continuity at committee meetings, it is also important that people who have not held that role before  but who  would like to,  have the opportunity to do so  if the group wishes. Also, it is important that current reps do not feel that they have to stay in post indefinitely.

I look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

With best wishes,

Brenda Thomson (Convener)

Please note that the formal agenda for the AGM is on the Committee Page.

Edinburgh, 22nd – 24th March.

Free poetry walks for World Heritage Day, conducted by Ken Cockburn.

Full details on this downloadable Seven Hills pdf.

• • Sunday, 4 March 2012
  • 19:30 until 22:30

• Back room of Stagg’s (Volunteer Arms), behind the Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh

• Yes indeedy, in another neatly themed installment, the Musselburgh Hotpot returns to celebrate all things Marchy with an Ides of March/St. David’s Day/General Welshness/My Dad’s Birthday extravaganza, so haul your dainty carcass down to Staggs in order to salute any or all of the above at Musselburgh’s own monthly open floor performance hoojamabob, through the medium of song, poem, tune, story, kazoo, semaphor, smoke signals, performing pigs, origami etc., or else be part of a beautifully gobsmacked audience. Mosey along at 7.30 to put your name doon to do a wee turn, or by 8.00 if you merely desire to be a fragrant spectator. An entirely voluntary shiny pound coin or a hundred lucky pennies would make you ours forever. ‘twould be unutterably lovely to see you all there xxx Stephen

Ten poets, ten minutes each, what’s not to like? Check full details on the TenRed Facebook page. 7pm, 7th March, Persevere Bar, Easter Road Edinburgh, £3

The StAnza International Poetry Festival takes place in St Andrews, from the 14th to the 18th of March. Full programme and box office at www.stanzapoetry.org