Music and poetry come to Shropshire Libraries
A collaboration between poet Jean Atkin and acoustic musicians Whalebone is set to bring live music and poetry to libraries across Shropshire, starting at Shrewsbury tomorrow and Whitchurch on Monday.
Understories, a piece especially created to be performed in local libraries, is a brush with the new folklore of Shropshire, and features urban and rural myths, and tales just out of living memory. It includes tales of grisly murders, haunted roundabouts, pigs kept in railway stations and a boy who burrowed under a church.
Whalebone
Charlotte Watson, Whalebone guitarist, said:-
“We’re very excited to be bringing live performances to these wonderful inspiring places. Libraries are ideal spaces for Understories’ mix of poetry and acoustic music, and we’re looking forward to partnering with the Shropshire Libraries team to put these shows on.”
Lezley Picton, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture and leisure, said:
‘This new collaboration highlights the cultural role of libraries and the importance of making arts accessible to all, something that libraries are well placed to do. Shropshire Libraries are proud to host these events, so come along and enjoy this creative way of storytelling.”
Poet Jean Atkin agreed:-
“It’s immensely exciting for me to be bringing Understories around Shropshire Libraries with the talented members of Whalebone. The whole Understories project is about Shropshire’s borrowed and handed-on stories, so really there’s no better place to introduce it than in a local library. We hope our audiences will take away a headful of tales, poetry and music – but will share their own stories with us in exchange.”
There is free admission to the performances which come to Shrewsbury Library at 1pm on Friday 1 March 2019, and Whitchurch Library on Tuesday 5 March 2019 at 4pm. The performances are supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
For more Understories events please see http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/libraries/library-events/ or email libraries@shropshire.gov.uk.
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