Free Welfare Benefits Training - Monday 17th April 2023

We would like to highlight some upcoming free Welfare Benefit Training for volunteers and staff from community groups and organisations starting in April. Attached is a poster with the full details, please feel free to share.

 Coming soon, free training on welfare benefits provided by Mark Portlock of the Birmingham Carers Hub. Mark has a reputation across the city for his expert knowledge on welfare benefits. In the past his training has been delivered to social workers, health professionals, carers and carer support groups.

Now the Sutton Coldfield NNS is funding a course of 6 training workshops to local groups and assets. The 6 workshops will cover different types of benefits and each one will last 2 and a half hours. The first session, an introduction to benefits, will take place at The Harvester function room on Boldmere Road on Monday 17th April. The same session will be provided in morning and afternoon. You can attend one workshop, all six or pick which are of most interest to you. List to be published soon.

If you would like to attend the first session please do get in touch to book your place and preferred slot (morning or afternoon.)

Email us at nns@ageconcernbirmingham.org.uk 

 

Melati Suryodarmo - Passionate Pilgrim exhibition at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Melati Suryodarmo - I'm a Ghost in My Own House
Performed at Lawangwangi Foundation Bandung (2012. Photo courtesy of the artist

17 May – 3 September 2023

Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Free entry. Open Weds-Sun, 11am-5pm

This summer, Ikon becomes home to a major exhibition of ground-breaking performance art with the first UK solo show by acclaimed Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo.

Suryodarmo is renowned for her strenuous durational performances that last several hours, testing the limits of the human mind and body. Through live performances from the artist and “delegated works” performed by over 50 associated artists and community activists, the exhibition, which occupies the entire gallery, celebrates her dedication to pushing the boundaries of her own practice and building performance art networks.

Suryodarmo’s exhibition at Ikon is supported by the Bagri Foundation, the British Council through the Connections Through Culture grants programme, and the Melati Suryodarmo Exhibition Circle: A.I. Gallery; ShanghART; Tanya Michele Amador and Michiel Verhoeven; and Michelangelo and Lourdes Samson. Developed in collaboration with Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), Jakarta, Indonesia.

Accessible Community Games

 

Warwickshire Local History Society talk in April

Creative Commons wikimedia

"The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas and Movements in the English Revolution"

Warwickshire Local History Society (WLHS) continues its programme of evening talks on Tuesday 18th April with a talk given by Professor Bernard Capp.

Held at the Primary School Hall, Aylesford School, Tapping Way, Warwick, CV34 6XR, this talk is entitled “The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas and Movements in the English Revolution”.

Following the society’s AGM at 7.15 pm, the talk will start at 7.30 pm with tea and coffee served from 7 pm.

There is no need to book and non-members can attend for just £3, refundable if they join the society on the day.

If you have an interest in local history and have good organisational skills WLHS would like to hear from you. We are looking for a new Programmes Secretary to run our programme of evening talks. To find out more about the role please visit www.warwickshirehistory.org.uk.

For an informal discussion about this role please contact info@warwickshirehistory.org.uk.

For more information about the society and events please visit their website,

www.warwickshirehistory.org.uk. Facebook: @historysoc; Twitter: @Warwickshistsoc

Nothing Happens (Twice) - Spaghetti Gazette Theatre Review

Nothing Happens (Twice) 

A theatre production by Little Soldier Productions

17 March at Midlands Art Centre (MAC), Birmingham

Reviewed by Pete Millington

Multilingual physical theatre duo draw parallels between Waiting for Godot and autobiographical experience of being dressed as flamingos in Westfield 

Devised by Mercè Ribot and Patricia Rodriguez | Directed by Ursula Martínez

The promotional literature for this production sketches a picture as to what to possibly expect from this quite wacky though very clever two-woman show. Some main elements:

Physical theatre - according to Wiki, a genre of theatrical performance that encompasses storytelling primarily through physical movement. Performers can communicate through various body gestures (including using the body to portray emotions), Waiting For Godot - a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladmimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives. Strangely I have never seen, studied or even read Waiting For Godot but I feel I have grasped the concept sufficiently by osmosis, and imagined the detail and dialogue, such that I would feel confident to discuss at a dinner party. 

Two Spanish women dressed as flamingos promoting the Andalucian tourist board in Westfield shopping centre... ok, at which point the intrigue began to set in and I became more tempted to see this production than I probably would be to seek out Beckett''s original, as intellectually genius as it undoubtedly is.

Beckett's original? Though herein lies the twist because Nothing Happens (Twice) is not actually an interpretation of Waiting For Godot (not a close one at least) as much as being a play about not being allowed to perform an interpretation of Waiting For Godot. Which is where this play of parallels becomes both clever and entertaining, as the audience quickly realises that we are part of the creatively-brilliant conspiracy to witness a story about not being allowed to witness a story. Having not seen or studied Waiting For Godot I don't actually know whether such ironic themes run through it, though it is described as a play where nothing happens, so perhaps that's an irony in itself. When asked what his play was about, Beckett answered "it's a play about symbiosis", which I think refers to the close, ongoing relationship of the two main characters and certainly Nothing Happens (Twice) is a wonderful exploration of the relationship between these two clownish characters, Mercè and Patricia, at times both energetic and desolate, playful and sardonic, but always symbiotic.

The set for the play is very simple, combining a minimalist stage with some videography conveying text and purposely mundane photography. Yet the interplay of Mercè and Patricia is captivating from beginning to end and at frequent points the audience are howling out loud with laughter. The physical theatre is strong, using props as metaphors and not forgetting the flamingo costumes, and indeed the costume changes (which exemplify the Nothing Happens (Twice) title to an exasperating degree). I note in the promotional material that Mercè Ribot and Patricia Rodríguez have worked with Paul Hunter (Told by an Idiot) whose production about Aston Villa winning the European Cup I saw at The Rep last year and was the first time I had read a description of what physical theatre actually is (and a bit like Waiting For Godot - I knew what it was without knowing what it was, probably through watching Charlie Chaplin as a kid). I do very much like the genre of physical theatre, the sense of crazy, clowning ad-lib whilst at the same time being a vehicle for pathos - the tears of a clown or in this case two clowns.   

I don't know how long Waiting For Godot takes as a theatre production, I have in my head it should take about 6 hours to do the concept full credit, but Nothing Happens (Twice) is of a very manageable length, less than an hour including the clever interval where the 'off-duty' actors play a game with the audience just to prove they have read Waiting For Godot but without breaching performance copyright. 

I feel that disallowing Little Soldier Productions from performing an interpretation of Waiting For Godot smacks of the publishing company's legal department shooting itself in the foot, a bit like the Tolkien estate instructing a cafe near where the author lived as a child in Moseley, change its name from The Hungry Hobbit, one is left thinking "oh! Come on!" But in this case the genius of Ribot and Rodríguez has prevailed.

Sutton Coldfield Neighbourhood Network Scheme - We Can Help!

 

Butterflies and angels take over The Commandery in Worcester

 

Wayne Warren, Golden Wings 2014-2022, © the artist

Aspire - Contemporary art exhibition by artist Wayne Warren

The Commandery, Worcester

Aspire arrives at The Commandery, Worcester on 1 April until 3 September 2023

8 works on the themes of aspiration, dreams and ambition placed at significant points

Free family workshops with artist Wayne Warren on Easter Monday 10 April

Butterflies and angels are taking over The Commandery in an exhibition filled with hope and aspiration. Aspire opens at The Commandery on Saturday 1 April and runs until Sunday 3 September 2023.

The artworks have been created by contemporary artist Wayne Warren in response to the beautiful Commandery building and it’s amazing one-thousand-year history. The artworks represent aspirations, dreams and ambitions.

Visitors can follow the trail of artworks around The Commandery, take a selfie in front of huge angel wings in the historic Great Hall and enjoy a programme of wing-inspired family activities over the Easter holidays, including a workshop with the artist himself on Monday 10 April.

Situated in the heart of Worcester, The Commandery has been a medieval monastic hospital, a Tudor home and a 1950s print works, but is most well-known for being the headquarters of the Royalist army during the Battle of Worcester in 1651 – the deciding battle of the English Civil War.

The artworks include Golden Wings, situated in the building’s beautiful Great Hall; and Growth, a new artwork commissioned especially for the exhibition at The Commandery, featuring gold leaf on oak leaves and acorns, situated upon a stool made of wood from the Boscobel Oak, purported to be the tree King Charles II hid in when fleeing from the Battle of Worcester.

Wayne Warren’s work has been exhibited at Worcester Cathedral and internationally in Hong Kong, Beijing, New York and Venice. Wayne says of his show at The Commandery: “My work reflects my thoughts and feelings about the 1,000 years of history contained within the fabulous building.”

Commandery Manager Rachel Robinson says: “It is fascinating to have The Commandery’s history interpreted in new ways and to shed light on its many layers of history. We hope visitors will enjoy finding the artworks around the building, taking their angel wing selfies, and having fun with the family activities.”

The Commandery is open Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 11am – 3pm. It is also open Bank Holiday Monday 10 April 10am – 5pm and there are workshops at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Normal admission applies, no extra fee for the exhibition. Small fee for the family activities. For more information, please visit www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk

Autin Dance Theatre

Eko's Irish Premiere

This month our sensational 13-foot-tall Sea Giant sets off on an adventure across the sea! Eko and our amazing team are coming to Dublin to join the St. Patrick's Day Festival celebrations!

Friday 17th March 2023, Dublin, IRELAND

Eko and our amazing team are coming to Dublin to join St. Patrick's Day Festival celebrations! A tale told in two parts – an interactive promenade and a physical theatre duet – transports its audiences into another world, to tell a story about our own. Through dance, movement and masterful puppeteering, Out of the Deep Blue dives into the themes of the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis in an outdoor spectacle featuring a 13-foot-tall Puppet operated by 5 world-class puppeteers and contemporary dancers. The show has been designed with children and family audiences in mind, and this magical story about the power of empathy and collaboration between these two beings – an ancient creature, a dispirited teen – speaks to the world at large.

More info

Free online workshop on being fundable - Friday 10th March 2023 12.30 - 14.30

 

A free funding workshop for small groups and community assets in Birmingham. 

Email Sutton Coldfield NNS to let us know you will join us online on 10th March and we will send you the link.

Birmingham Rocks - every Sunday - Free admission

Introducing the boisterous younger brother of Henry’s Blueshouse! Every Sunday at 6:30pm at Velvet Music Rooms, you can let loose to live music from some of the best bands that Brum has to offer.

From Rock and Roll to Ska to Soul to Cajun to Rock – making all the stops along the way.

You’ll find Velvet Music Rooms on Birmingham’s Westside at 200 Broad Street, Birmingham B15 1SU. For directions, click here.

UPCOMING BANDS

Sunday 5th March – The Shakedown Brothers

Sunday 12th March – Jayler

Sunday 19th March – Travelling Riverside Blues Band

Sunday 26th March – The Jo Baldwin Project

Sunday 2nd April – Tipitina

Sunday 9th April – Thomas Atlas

Sunday 16th April – Back On The Road

Sunday 23rd April – White Tyger

Sunday 30th April – Blue 2 The Bone

Sunday 7th May – Hard Graft

All performances free admission unless otherwise stated, admission subject to capacity. Pub open from 12pm.

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Keep up to date with who we’ve got coming up and other fun stuff over on our Facebook page and by signing up to the Birmingham Rocks mailing list:

A DIRTY STOP OUT’S GUIDE TO 1970S BIRMINGHAM

From Barbarella’s to Black Sabbath – ‘70s Birmingham unmasked like never before

With industrial unrest on an unprecedented scale and the city enduring one of the worst IRA atrocities on mainland Britain, cultural life in ‘70s Birmingham could have taken a very dark turn.

But exactly the opposite happened. The city went on to produce some of the biggest names in popular music history and venues like Barbarella’s and Rebecca’s – owned and operated by ‘King of Clubs’ Eddie Fewtrell – dominated the night scene for the majority of the era.

The decade is chronicled like never before in the brand new ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Birmingham’ book which has been researched and written by local brothers Jim and Ron Simpson who have been at the very heart of the city’s music scene since the late 1960s.

Duran Duran, UB40, Dexys Midnight Runners and many more found initial success in the 1970s and feature in the story.

The book’s co-author Jim Simpson is arguably more qualified than most to write about the decade – he helped create success for one of the city’s biggest cultural exports of the era, Black Sabbath.

He was their first manager and took them to the top of the charts. He also managed other successful bands, found, toured and recorded American blues musicians and ran Henry’s Blueshouse and the Big Bear record label.

The ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Birmingham’ – which is full of rare photos and memories from luminaires spanning Jasper Carrott to Tony Iommi – features venues like the legendary Mothers, once described by John Peel as the best club in the world.

Jim Simpson said: “Birmingham had a thriving live music and nightlife scene in the 1970s. It was an exciting place to be and this book is a true celebration of the decade.”

The ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Birmingham’ follows best-selling editions of the book series that have been previously launched in the likes of Coventry, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Chesterfield and other places.

Ron Simpson added: “It was the decade that gave us everything from disco to punk via heavy rock and reggae and Birmingham was at the centre of everything.”

Visit Big Bear Music to order your copy

Coming to IKON in March 2023

 

BRIAN J. RANCE: A MIDLAND MEANDER

Wednesday 1 March, 6-7pm Free, suggested donation £5 Booking essential Join author Brian J. Rance who discusses his new book A Midland Meander, in which he takes a circular walk around the West Midlands. This event includes a Q&A and book signing.

BOOK TICKETS FAMILY SATURDAY Saturday 4 March, 11am-3pm Free, suggested donation £5 No need to book, just drop in Join artist Mengxia Lui in Ikon’s second floor galleries to create badges inspired by the beasts and bold colours that feature in Ismael Monticelli’s artwork Spaghetti Junction (2022). FIND OUT MORE LAUNCH: FOKA WOLF Tuesday 7 March, 4.30-8pm Free, suggested donation £5 Please note this event takes place across two venues Drop In Event (Ikon Gallery), Booking Essential (The Exchange) Join Ikon and The Exchange for the launch of Foka Wolf: Why Are We Stuck in Hospital? This event includes workshops with artists, Foka Wolf and Tat Vision, and talks with partners, University of Birmingham and Changing Our Lives. FIND OUT MORE STUART WHIPPS PLUM PUDDING: BOOT HOUSE Saturday 18 March, 2-3.15pm Free, suggested donation £5 Off-site event at Perry Common Library, B44 0HH Booking essential Artist Stuart Whipps presents Plum Pudding: Boot House at Perry Common Library, a collection of stories that centre around three modernist buildings in the West Midlands – Whipps’ family home in Perry Common, Birmingham Central Library and the Wolverhampton School of Art. BOOK TICKETS BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY STUDENT SHOWCASE Monday 20 March, 6-8pm Free, suggested donation £5 No need to book, just drop in Architecture and Design postgraduate students from Birmingham City University showcase new work made in response to Horror in the Modernist Block. FIND OUT MORE SPOTLIGHT TOURS Fridays, 1pm & Sundays, 3pm Free, suggested donation £5 No need to book, just drop in Join a member of the Ikon team for a 15-minute spotlight tour focused on a key work in the exhibition. FIND OUT MORE

Herefordshire Cabinet Commission presents options for restoring the Wye

A progress report has been published setting out some preliminary findings and recommendations from The Cabinet Commission for Restoring the Wye.

The Commission was set up by Herefordshire Council last year to investigate options for restoring the River Wye to good health. Its membership also includes the other three councils with responsibility for parts of the River Wye catchment area - Powys, Monmouthshire and Forest of Dean. 

 

Presently river protection is provided through the delivery of a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) overseen by the River Wye Nutrient Management Plan Delivery Board). Following a review of these measures the conclusion reached is that the present voluntary activities do not provide the protection and actions needed to prevent further deterioration of the river’s Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and will not deliver river restoration. More needs to be done, and the Commission makes a number of recommendations.

 

One of these recommendations is that other forms of regulatory and monitoring schemes for farming practices are explored, as a matter of urgency, to rule them in or out as viable solutions to deliver certainty for the river. Agriculture is assessed as contributing more than 70% of the phosphate pollution in the river catchment.

 

In order to achieve legal compliance in protecting the river, any scheme will need to deliver changes to farming practise over a sustained period of time. Discussions have been taking place with representatives of the farming community about these schemes for some months. The next stage will be a ‘farmer to farmer’ consultation to explore whether consensus and commitment to a preferred scheme can be secured.  Viable schemes will be the subject of more detailed development work before a business case can be submitted to the UK and Welsh Governments - hopefully later this year.

 

Alongside the continued work of the Commission, the NMB will also press Ofwat and the Environment Agency to encourage water companies to play their part in reducing phosphate pollution from their water treatment works – assessed as contributing more than 20% of the river pollution.

 

Cllr Liz Harvey, Chair of the Commission, said: “Any compliant scheme would have to meet the principles that ‘the polluter pays’ and ‘fair share’ in terms of the burden placed on participants. It is likely to take quite a while for any compliant scheme to be fully implemented. There is no quick fix to deliver full river restoration. It’s important we keep the momentum going which we’ve already built up - the sooner we get agreement on a workable solution, the earlier improvements can start to be made.”

 

The Commission also proposes that the Council and its statutory regulatory agencies - Natural England, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales - agree to review and strengthen the existing Nutrient Management Plan and streamline the Delivery Board overseeing it.

 

Cllr Harvey continued: “It’s clear a more rigorous and regulated approach to monitoring the use of phosphates in the Wye catchment is required. The question still needing to be bottomed-out is can this be achieved voluntarily and collaboratively, or do we need to implement a Water Protection Zone with all the limitations such a regulated scheme would impose. Right now, the jury’s out on the question, but we are recommending that we test out the idea with farmers, regulators and government to see if a full WPZ can be avoided. The Commission will report further to Cabinet in July when, hopefully, the viable options will be much clearer. I would encourage all agencies and impacted stakeholders to work together on a joint plan for us to present to government”

 

Herefordshire Council has set aside £480,000 to ensure the work to progress a solution for the river can continue during 2023.

 

Nothing Happens (Twice) by award-winning Little Soldier Productions begins tour 11 March

Little Soldier Productions presents:

Nothing Happens (Twice)

Multilingual physical theatre duo draw parallels between Waiting for Godot and autobiographical experience of being dressed as flamingos in Westfield 

Devised by Mercè Ribot and Patricia Rodriguez | Directed by Ursula Martínez

Touring, 11 March – 7 July 2023

17 March Midlands Art Centre, (MAC) Birmingham

“Technically brilliant and jaw-droppingly entertaining hour of theatre” ★★★★★ The Stage (on Don Quixote)

@LittleSoldierP | #NothingHappensTwice | www.littlesoldierproductions.co.uk

Acclaimed multilingual physical theatre company Little Soldier Productions are combining slapstick humour with absurdist Beckett as they quest for the answer to ‘why do we carry on’. In 2018, after many successful shows, Spanish theatre makers Mercè and Patricia hit new lows when they find themselves dressed as flamingos in Westfield shopping centre promoting the Andalucian tourist board – and they’re not even from Andalucia. In the meantime, they’re struggling to get the rights to perform Waiting For Godot, and suddenly their shopping centre purgatory starts feeling a little like a the play they’re hoping to perform.

After an exciting few years making and touring shows all over the world, Mercè and Patricia have somehow lost momentum and hit rock bottom. They always knew that making theatre would be difficult, but when they must dress up as flamingos in a shopping centre to make ends meet, they seriously consider giving up. Can their shared dream of staging Waiting for Godot get them back on track or will their long-held ambition be strangled by red tape?

Mercè and Patricia have said ‘We started this show pre-Covid and developed it through lockdown, which really forced us to extend our research period and slow down the process. We would meet up with the team on Saturday mornings for a few hours over a long period of time. We really became obsessed by Beckett’s life and work, which allowed us time to really think about the central question of the show (why do we carry on?), how it mirrors Waiting for Godot and how we were going to tell our story.’

Director Ursula Martinez fuses theatrical concepts, personal experience, and popular forms to create innovative challenging, experimental theatre that is reflective of contemporary, post-modern world, with a commitment to exploring humour and what is is to be human.

Renowned as a leading and devising physical comedy theatre company in the UK, Little Soldier’s work ranges from laugh out loud, to heart felt autobiographies. The performing duo have been creating joyful, honest, and innovative theatre since 2010, winning The Stage Award for Acting Excellence (Don Quixote) and the Argus Angel Award (You and Me). Their award-winning and critically acclaimed productions have been supported by Arts Council England, Ovalhouse, HOME, Jacksons Lane, and Battersea Arts Centre amongst other venues and organisations. From touring productions extensively throughout the UK and across the globe Little Soldier’s productions represent one of the many perspectives found in contemporary England, elevating the national cultural landscape.

Patricia and Mercè have trained and worked professionally with practitioners: Philippe Gaulier, John Wright, Paul Hunter (Told By An Idiot), Aitor Basauri (Spymonkey), Caroline Horton, Emily Gray (Trestle) and Uri Roodner.

Specialising in devised work, physical comedy, and clown, working through games and improvisation to find the pleasure of being onstage.

Running Time: 60 mins | Suitable for ages 14+ (some strong language)

Company information

Directed by Ursula Martínez Devised by Mercè Ribot and Patricia Rodríguez

Produced by Sarah-Jane Watkinson

Assistant producer Lucy Bird Design by Verity Quinn Lighting design by Simon Bond

Videography by Mark Morreau Composed by John Biddle Dramaturgy by Adam Brace

Movement by Stephen Harper

Cast

Mercè Ribot and Patricia Rodríguez

Additional voices: Bertie Biddle and Alan Devally

17 March Midlands Art Centre, (MAC) Birmingham

19:45 | £9.00

www.macbirmingham.co.uk | 0121 446 3232