DRAF Studio: The BLOOMING Alliance
at DRAF, Camden

10 June 2016

An evening of poetry and music in DRAF Studio with CAConrad, Jo Mariner, Sophie Robinson and Douglas Dare.

Roberts Institute of Art

CAConrad performs recent works including MARFA Poetry Machine in 36 Things, 2016 (pictured right): a unique opportunity to see the legendary American poet’s work live in London.

CAConrad introduces British poets Sophie Robinson and Jo Mariner who also read their work.

London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare plays a solo piano and vocal set, the very first performance of songs from his upcoming second album (to be released on Erased Tapes Records label later this year). Dare’s rich and haunting vocals are combined with lyrics crafted from his own poems and short prose in his unique and intimate songs.

CAConrad

CAConrad is award winning poet and the author of eight books of poetry and essays, the latest ECODEVIANCE: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness (Wave Books) is the winner of the 2015 Believer Magazine Book Award.

They are a Pew Fellow and has also received fellowships from Lannan Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, Banff, and Ucross. They are currently the subject of a feature-length documentary The Book of Conrad (Delinquent Films, 2016), wherein the 'eccentric Elvis worshiping poet and tarot card reader confronts his violent past and the suspicious death of his boyfriend, Earth… Conrad wrestles with his inner demons through a series of unconventional rituals and a tour of the deep South.'

Jo Mariner

Jo Mariner lived in the Northeast United States until 1995 when she settled in London. Her poetry has been published and performed in both the US and the UK.

She was associate editor of American Writing: a Magazine 1990-93, and co-editor of a start-up poetry magazine, Shrike, in 1996. Her poems are about 'the struggle a woman can have when she attempts the heroic – which is to follow her own mind without distraction'.

Sophie Robinson

Sophie Robinson is a poet based in Norwich. Her first book, a, was published by Les Figues in 2009, and her second collection, The Institute of Our Love in Disrepair, came out from Bad Press in 2011. In 2011 she was also the poet in residence at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Sophie has a PhD in Queer Writing from Royal Holloway, and is currently a Lecturer in Poetry at the University of East Anglia.

Douglas Dare

Douglas Dare is a London-based singer-songwriter, originally from the coastal town of Bridport, South West England. The son of a piano teacher, Dare began composing instrumental music from a young age but it was not until studying popular music at University in Liverpool in 2008 that he began songwriting.

After releasing his debut album Whelm in 2014, Douglas went on to tour extensively around Europe and North America, including support tours with fellow Erased Tapes artists Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm as well as Nina Tune’s Fink. Whelm achieved universal critical acclaim, ranked by Metascore as one of the top ten best rated debut albums of 2014.

Q&A with CAConrad

Roberts Institute of Art

Live Forever

An afternoon of performance and conversation at DRAF Studio

Roberts Institute of Art