Suppose numbers play a part and to control any market one must impose and dictate and to quote Raworth ''the meek inherit unmarked graves''. My point purely probably related to apartheid in the arts in an Irish context rather than any critique of Hastings and its many links and diverse writers. Being from Cork clearly is no help with it comes to getting a chance to surf the annual gravy train there but drinking from cans behind curtains ain't my idea of drinking in that city. Draught is more to my liking and mixing with ordinary people who dwell in ordinary homes or sleep under the stars. Hearing the Shandon bells at dawn from a cold morning on a school bench on the Mardyke is a rare experience while relatives sleep in warm cosy beds. Few poets are poor but almost to a guy and gal claim ''poverty''!

State funding is a huge help in ensuring one's guests are watered and fed but my only Cork reading was in MacCurtain Street in 2005. A small crowd of course as The City Of Culture ( God Help Us!) was in full swing. So a dogs dinner crowd + the usual smirk on the person who ran the venue who no doubt was on overtime. He did not offer one cent towards B and B costs in a dive of an Aussie backpackers hostel which made me lament the nights of St. Joseph's School's hospitality bench where water rats ran freely to keep one company. The Arts Director no doubt was in a dash to hear the Euro folks in translation and get some free drink and food. I had to pay my own way and in that wasteland of the city even takeaways were closed.

A moral tale but no fiction or faction and no doubt my chances of ever reading again in my hometown are as remote as my body and mind leaving the solar system. My native country is a great place for long distance revolutions but we only do rebellions which always end in compromise.

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>
To: BRITISH-IRISH-POETS <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Mon, Sep 16, 2013 11:10 am
Subject: Re: Black Huts Festival, Hastings, Nov 1-3

Michael Gosh I read 'retro fruturist -that would be something!!a new school?? P 
just retro

-----Original Message-----
From: British & Irish poets [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 16 September 2013 10:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Black Huts Festival, Hastings, Nov 1-3

That's a wonderful constellation, Paul!  ... and of course, as you say, there 
always are others. 

Hastings' connexions with disaffected literature must go way back. I remember 
one of Peter Riley's earliest poems was there. 

>Well, there's Ken Edwards, poet,avant-narratiser & Reality Street CEO,
there's Richard Makin, avant-post-langpo(??) grand narratiser, there's me , 
neo-occult chaoist  retro-futurist, and of course, there's Nicolas Johnson who's 
lining up the Black Huts. In addition,  Mr. Sinclair maintains a spectral 
presence from time to time.

Sean, sorry,I was ambiguous. I meant to exclaim at how many amazing writers 
there are in Hastings, not complain about anything.