FAMISHED, performance by Poet Cherry Smyth
Thursday 30 May, 6-7.30pm
St. Mary's Cathedral, Bridge Street, Limerick
In association with Limerick City Gallery of Art & St. Mary's Cathedral
Thursday 30 May, 6-7.30pm
FREE EVENT
Famished: The Irish Tour
Famished is a poetic sequence by Cherry Smyth that explores the Irish Famine and how imperialism helped cause the largest refugee crisis of the 19th century. Smyth collaborates with composer Ed Bennett and vocalist Lauren Kinsella to draw on the power of collective lament, using music and expanded singing.
In this dispassionate, intelligent work, Smyth teases out the under-examined role of colonialism in causing the largest migration of the 19th century and brings to it her trademark blend of emotional density and spacious compassion.
Soft white air blanked moon and stars.
Sleepless in the alcove
of turf light:
we were in death poses but didn’t know it.
Through the collaboration with a composer and vocalist, Famished broadens the poetic text to a cross-arts performance. The commissioned score by Ed Bennett provokes the boundaries of Irish traditional music resulting in a 60-minute performance, with spoken word, music and expanded singing.
“Still haunted by Cherry Smyth's poem performance of Famished” - Lise Langebek, film-maker
“An absolutely amazing poetry performance by Cherry Smyth: deeply meditative, pertinent. Touched me as a Bengali diasporic with our genocidal familes of millions by Churchill and the British colonialists. My Irish friends were also deeply moved. My cultural highlight of the year so far.” - Hamja Ashsan, author of Shy Radicals
Further information www.cherrysmyth.com
Famished is now out from Pindrop Press
www.pindroppress.com/Bookshop.html
