2017 BlakeFest
BlakeFest 2017 included the musical acts David Devant & His Spirit Wife, Gwyneth Herbert, Tymon Dogg and Joe Butt. The event was held at Bognor Regis' Newtown Social Club.
2017 Promo
Here is a selection of the promotional materials used for the 2017 BlakeFest events.
2017 Media
Here is a selection of the media output from BlakeFest 2017's events.
2017 programme
These were the contents of the programme from BlakeFest 2017.
2017 Micalef Blake
In 2017 Stephen Micalef created this minibook of drawings to capture Blake's time living in Felpham especially for BlakeFest.
Stephen Micalef:
Poet & Artist. Wrote for the 1st Punk fanzine - Sniffin' Glue, as Steve Mick, in 1976/77.
Studied English at Ruskin College, Oxford and then founded & ran the Brixton Poets for 10 years.
Has performed & exhibited widely for many years & his work is published in several books. He leads Punk & Blake walks in London & teaches poetry workshops.
He had just written 'Blake & Hayley - the Felpham Poems' - launched at BlakeFest 2017. Available from Entropy Press.
2017 Dandelion Visions
Dandelion Visions Exhibition @ Bognor Regis Library
In the unlikely location of the West Sussex seaside town of Bognor Regis a cultural stirring was occurring. The Dandelion Visions exhibition was the centrepiece of a townwide celebration of the life and work of William Blake (1757-1827) who is nowadays recognised as a visionary poet, artist, engraver and prophet despite dying unrecognised and close to poverty. This Exhibition was free to attend and was running at Bognor Regis Library from 16th September until the 7th October 2017.
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Blake lived in the village of Felpham, on the outskirts of Bognor, from 1800-1803 where he saw visions of Angels, was inspired to compose the text which is known as, and widely-celebrated as, 'Jerusalem' and also ended up on trial for assault and sedition after an altercation with soldier outside a local drinking establishment. In a letter to John Flaxman from 1800, Blake wrote that "Felpham is a sweet place for study because it is more spiritual than London. Heaven opens here on all sides her golden Gates; her windows are not obstructed by vapours; voices of Celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard, & their forms more distinctly seen; & my Cottage is also a shadow of their houses." His cottage, which he described as having "a roof of rust'd gold" and being a "perfectly proportioned palace" is currently in the hands of a Trust who one day hopes to open its doors to the public. Before that is possible, due to necessary extensive restorations and renovations, as part of the Dandelion Visions exhibition, a Virtual Tour of Blake's Cottage will be available to view through VR goggles to bring a 21st Century view of Blake's existence and work at the very beginning of the 19th Century, curated and spearheaded by local resident and Blake-enthusiast Rachel Searle to gather together different artistic streams to celebrate William Blake.
Blake's work has spread like dandelion seeds through the generations, persistantly inspiring groups of artists beginning with The Ancients including Samuel Palmer, George Richmond and Edward Calvert, who all studied directly under Blake until his death. The Ancients inspired the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, notably Dante Gabriel Rosetti, who resided, for a time, in Bognor and acquired a manuscript book of Blake's "from an attendant at The British Museum" which he obsessively studied and laboriously copied out. Modernists such as James Joyce clearly show Blake's influence and his influence also inspired such 60's Beat Generation poets and performers as Allen Ginsberg, Michael Horovitz (who is performing at this year's Blake Fest), John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and Patti Smith. His legacy lives on strongly today and he has been heavily referenced by, among others, Stephen Fry and musicians such as Bono, Richard Hawley and Pete Doherty in recent years.
Bognor Regis is a town poised at the brink of regeneration following similar projects in Margate, Hastings and Liverpool, possibly including a major "William Blake Theatre" (in one of the proposals), which channel local Culture and Arts to enrich their current heritage and touristic allure. Blake Fest 2017 highlighted a variety of Arts in various forms around the town including acclaimed poet-in-residence Stella Bahin, who created a unique 'community poem' infusing ideas sounds and visuals, guided walk with psycho-geographer Niall McDevitt, and performances from Stephen Micalef, (the aforementioned) Michael Horovitz with his William Blake Klezmatrix Band, Tymon Dogg, Attila the Stockbroker, Martin Chomsky, Luke Wright and Gwyneth Herbert.
The Dandelion Visions exhibition at Bognor Library took its initial inspiration from a broken pair of Blake's spectacles, found in the garden of his Felpham cottage, which are one of the very few surviving artifacts from his life. Its curator, Mikey Georgeson, is best known as singer/frontman of conceptual band David Devant & His Spirit Wife (who also performed at this year's BlakeFest) where he was known as 'The Vessel' and showcased his installation, 'the Nonbifurcatedman'. Georgeson currently lectures in Art at The University of East London specialising in, and regularly exhibiting, his non-representational art at galleries across the country.
In Georgeson's words:
"Dandelion Visions is an audio-visual exhibition celebrating Blake's belief in the value of imagination and the visionary powers of every human individual. It gathers together a group of international artists who have responded to Blake's universal influence. (The) installation 'the Nonbifurcatedman' takes us on a car journey into nature and the role played by the imagination in the creation of memory and collective reality.
Blake's spectacles found in the garden of his cottage of Felpham will be on view as a reminder of his idea of the boundless fourfold vision of imaginative engagement. A virtual reality tour guides us through Blake's home in Felpham where he wrote the lines known as Jerusalem. Therein visitors will encounter the allegorical figure at the heart of his vision.
Before the opening there were workshops with Stella Bahin where participants collectively explored the poetry of time and memory found in the dandelion and its magical seeds. The resulting work will help map the exhibition's town-specific soul."
Mikey Georgeson curated the Dandelion Visions exhibition from many artists who have contributed work, ranging from as far as Berlin, India and Istanbul.
2017 AV Tour of Blake's Cottage
In 2017, as part of our Dandelion Visions project, BlakeFest commissioned a Virtual Tour of Blake's Cottage where you could explore the place he lived from 1800-1803 in Felpham. This was the only time Blake lived outside London and there he wrote, among other things, what was to become the words to "Jerusalem". The Virtual Tour was enhanced with Blake's images and angels to create a magical and visionary experience.
2017 Kenny White Flyer
Here is the flyer for the Kenny White gig that BlakeFest organised and promoted in Bognor Methodist Church. Kenny is an acclaimed songwriter and has the respect of and has worked with many great artists such as David Crosby from Crosby Stills & Nash. The event was such a success that Kenny played for far longer than was originally arranged!
2017 Vibrators
In 2017, punk rock legends The Vibrators, who were the first punk band to be played on Radio One and released the classic album Pure Mania, played a gig for BlakeFest at Bognor Regis' The Pier Bar music venue. Support came from solo performers Sedge Seymour and Joe Butt.
2017 BlakeFest Poetry
At BlakeFest's 2017 event we had a selection of performance poets who entertained and enlightened our audience, showing how relevant this form of communication still is. Poets included Glastonbury mainstay Atilla The Stockbroker, punk poet Stephen Micalef and Luke Wright.
2017 Talks and Spoken Word
As part of BlakeFest's Dandelion Visions project, our poet-in-residence Stella Bahin ran a free community poetry workshop at Bognor Regis Library to explore poetry writing and create themed poems for us.
