Y Gair #14
ALRIGHT GAYS AND THEYS. Who’s got rainbow socks and tote bags ready? It’s Cardiff Pride Weekend! We’re super excited to say a big fuck you to Pride Cymru for being bootlicking losers, and attending the Big Queer Picnic to celebrate collective community organisation.
On Saturday 17th Saturday, we will be hosting a Pre-pride Social! Lucy Smith and Hannah Walters will be helping you to make protest signs and apply face-paint. This is also a safe, quiet space for you to meet friends and get changed into your beautiful pride outfits. We’ll be open 9-11am, but will then be closed for the rest of the day!
What else have we got on this month, do you ask? Fucking loads, mate:
Friday 16th - Creative Kindling
An evening of poetry, music and collaboration! Christina Thatcher will be performing poems from her collection, How to Carry Fire, collaborating with Steven Kenward (Small Miracles, The Warden), and also a cellist. Christina is one of the best poets in Wales, she’s been on our Featured Poem and has performed at our open mics. Christina and Steven will be performing, chatting about their work, and displaying objects and artefacts from their work together. The evening will be warmed by our very own Joshua Jones, who is reading from his debut short story collection, Local Fires, for the very first time.
Wednesday 21st - Open Mic + featured guests
I’m so excited to hear Adam Gnade read at this event - he’s over from the US on a UK tour giving poetry readings, with Andrew Mears (Foals/Youthmovies) in tow. Adam is as DIY as they get, lives on a farm and runs Hello America Stereo Cassette, publishing poetry on cassette tape. Andrew is a leading poet in radical uncertainty, the capacity of poetics to imagine ecological futures beyond capitalist realism, temporalities, and the entanglement of the human and non-human. They’ll be performing poetry and songs with support from everyone’s favourite Wormo!
Instead of signing up online, this month just sign up ON THE DOOR - so make sure you arrive on time to claim your space, as these are limited!!
Tix for Creative Kindling and the Open Mic are available online via Eventbrite or on the door,
Sunday 25th - Book Swap
Our 2nd bookswap eva! The last one went so well and was so fun, we thought we’d make it a semi-regular thing. Bring books, swap books, chat about books. Easy peasy and super chill! As usual, hot drinks, juices, water and refreshments are available.
Featured Poem
Best bit of the newsletter, lil nuggets!
The Demoiselle Crane
By Melanie Mauthner
From ‘Too Young Too Loud Too Different: Poems from Malikas Poetry Kitchen’. Published by Corsair, 2021.
This poem is a call of arms: to embrace alternative ways of living as an act of protest against the cis/het capitalist way of living. Pick berries, make elderflower cordial. This is a romantic poem that encourages the reader to ‘be fearless’. Living slowly, allowing oneself to be quiet and to love nature in a world of fast-living and consumerism, requires courage. - Joshua Jones
Book of the Month
Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman
By Rebecca Tamás
In Strangers, Rebecca Tamás explores where the human and nonhuman meet, through pain, grief, accepting the mysterious. This collection of essays establishes links between the folkloric, the political, the environment and the personal. Often transcendental, always lyrical, these essays are a psychogeographic vision between body, spirit and land. — Joshua Jones
Both Featured Poem and BOTM books are available in our library!
And finally, don’t forget to check our new exhibition, FLUID, HYLIF, an exploration of queer ecology by 12 Welsh/Wales-based artists, now EXTENDED until Sunday 30th July! Watch out for news of a closing event!
That’s it for now, see you on Friday! Remember, Pride is a protest! Thank you for reading x
—
Joshua, Rey, & Lucy x
Dyddiau Du
Fri-Sat 11-6pm, Sun 11-4pm
Capitol Centre, Queen Street, Cardiff, CF10 2HQ
dyddiaudu@gmail.com
Twitter & Instagram: @dyddiaudu
Buy us a Kofi, so we can afford to stay open!