have i got gigs for you?

So after a long silence I return; which is the way it should be for a writer – except I haven’t been writing that much. I’ve been editing and putting events together, and twiddling my thumbs wondering if I’ll be able to pay my Uni fees this year. Anyway, enough of my issues… The good thing is I am just getting back into the flight of things, a bit of writing, a bit of performance – maybe too much even… I just realised I have a gig this Sunday in Hackney, but I also have aromapoetry on, which I’m supposed to host; so anyone who fancies hosting aromapoetry do e-mail back :) - I’m serious!

In the meantime I’m hosting Outdooring tomorrow (August 20) and it promises to be a really good show with former basketball player/ Yale English major turned novelist Benjamin Markovits and Libyan writer Hisham Matar and a whole lot of stuff from me so please come down (Information at: http://outdoor.x-bout.com/), on Sunday (August 21) aromapoetry is on, but I will be reading at a Sable Magazine Poetry Picnic in Haggerston Park at Hackey from 2.00pm, then on Thursday August 25 (this is exclusive) we will be having a Tell Tales press launch party (FREE) at Zyrus Bar 102-108 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5SA from 7.30pm where I will be reading some short fiction before we begin to boogie – stop by and support me if you can. And then the real Tell Tales tour launch happens, details as follows:

TELL TALES: THE SHOW
A SHORT STORY EXPERIENCE WITH A SOUNDTRACK
Friday 26 August 2004, 7.30pm doors
The UCL Bloomsbury, Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH (Euston tube)
8.00 / 6.00 (concessions/list members)
Box Office: 020 7388 8822
EARLY BOOKING ADVISED!
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With acclaimed novelists Maggie Gee, Courttia Newland and Rajeev Balasubramanyam and emerging writers Heather Imani, Biram Mboob and Sharmila Chauhan. Hosted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Please book and come out and support what proved to be a fabulous tour last year and promises to be even better this year.

And finally, (long one this time), I have had some work published in the recent issue f the Liberal so pick up a copy if you can afford it (it’s a good magazine), otherwise I have put part of the poem that was published in it below. It’s part of a series I’m writing based on conjecture of what might have happened if the slave trade was conducted by balloon…

ballast III

It probably never registered, even
after the advent of balloons

that vertical velocity increases
when you drop weight. The focus

no doubt remained on keeping
the slave trade aloft after 1783

when slave ships experienced a curious
legal falling from grace, negative upright

thrust, because the Zong tossed slaves
overboard in a quest for profits.

Faced with ruin for fraud, I wonder
if the ship’s Liverpool owners looked

to the sky and contemplated
the possibilities of balloon transport;

how men offloaded from high
enough just might attain the right

speed to make the transition
from nuisance to pure light…

Hope to see you all at the Tell Tales party at least... Being a dreamer I’ll hope for even more than that. I promise to send more listing info later ‘cos I have a few gigs coming up… Oh, and I think I’m on some breakfast show soon too… can’t remember the details but I’ll tell you when I do.

Later,
Nii

www.niiparkes.com