An Outpouring of Poetry

 

"There is an outpouring of poetry in Gibraltar," said Giordano Durante speaking at the Poetry Panel event during the Gibraltar Literary Festival earlier this month. As one of the founders and editor of Gibraltar's only literary journal, Patuka Press, as well as being a poet and one of the local champions for writing and literature in Gibraltar, Durante is perfectly placed to comment on a phenomenon people are beginning to notice.

I'm just going to look at Gibraltar's 'poetry scene' in the past couple of months to see what is happening to poetry here. Actually, I must pause. Even using the words 'poetry scene' would have been impossible a few years ago. To use the pandemic of 2020 / 2021 as a convenient time marker, pre-pandemic most of us who wrote poetry did so in isolation, and only a very few who had sufficient confidence, or the financial means, would self publish a small volume or pamphlet. Self publishing is not an easy feat, self promotion for some, myself included, is even harder, especially if you have to pay out for venues, advertising, a launch party and more, in the hope that enough readers will buy your scribblings so that you at least recover your costs. With poetry in particular, this is highly unlikely. 

Nevertheless, there were some published works from local authors, including from Durante himself and also Gabriel Moreno, Humbert Hernandez, Sonia Golt among a very few others. Notably, there was also an 'Anthology of Contemporary Gibraltar Poets' published in 2019. Clearly Gibraltarian poets had made small but steady and impactful efforts to expand the readership of their work and to encourage others to write and be published. All very noble, but it was post-pandemic when things began to change, and, probably the most influential factor was the launch of Patuka Press in 2023.

In Gibraltar, other than self publishing, making a bit of a splash for a day or two in the local media and hoping people read what you write and like it, there is no other way of having your work published. You can, of course, submit to international presses and publishing houses and perhaps you will be successful, but in Gibraltar itself, there is no bar set for standards, no measure against which you can pit yourself as a writer and find ways of improving. You have to do it all online, with support either paid for if you can afford an editor or a literary consultant, or through online writing groups, which can be tremendously helpful but lack the "Gibraltar" context. How might an online group based in Australia, for example, wonderful though it might be for general content in English or Australian-based content, help with a piece written in Llanito?

For years, except for small, personal friendship groups for some, and except for occasional events such as workshops or the annual poetry competition organised by the local government agency, Gibraltar Cultural Services, poets have tinkered with their art alone, to a great extent isolated, if not entirely from the world of poetry, then to a degree isolated from each other.

There was another small barrier to the expansion of poetry as an art form in Gibraltar, in my view at least, and that was the elitism that surrounds art in general, and writing in particular. I am not going into the thorny argument of what constitutes literature in this post, but until recently, coinciding with the beginnings of the 'outpouring' referred to by Durante, if something wasn't 'classic' or comparable to the great poets, it was not considered literature. With the isolation and lack of support structures as part of our cultural infrastructure, Gibraltar was unlikely ever to grow its own Heaney, or Yeats, Lorca or Whitman, Plath or Oliver. Yet, our poets are in their own class, writing our Gibraltarian themes in our voices, whether those are expressed in Spanish or English or a code-switching version of both or in the more vernacular Llanito. Perhaps it is time for Gibraltar to create its own definition and understanding of what is "Gibraltarian literature" and where its poems and poets fit into it. What I can say in the context of this particular post, is that when Gibraltar's poets opened their arms to all of poetry's many and continuously evolving forms, we found a fountain of inspiration and in Patuka Press, an outlet for our work. 

Back to my original intention which was to consider what this 'outpouring' looked like in the past few months.

The poets at the Bosom Buddies' fundraiser (with yours truly dressed in funereal black and with her eyes shut). Photo courtesy of The Gibraltar Chronicle

In September, Sonia Golt organised a poetry recital at an event to raise funds for her charity 'Bosom Buddies'. She reached out to a few of us to offer our time and talent and we all jumped at the chance, to donate that time to a very worthy cause and also to take up the opportunity of showcasing our work. The event was a huge success in poetic terms: Sonia was incredibly intelligent about the mix of styles and languages that was presented and brought together a fine sample of local poetry from the serious to the saucy, from the emotional to the humorous, and some accompanied by music.

Just a few weeks later, Native Tongues was held at the Music Association of Gibraltar venue in Wellington Front. This has been organised by James Ablitt as James the Heartist, whose talent as a poet is breathtaking, and hosted by the inimitable Jonathan Teuma. Along with Patuka Press, I think this monthly gathering of spoken word artists is hugely influential. It is a small bar, a small stage, but with enormous heart and energy. Poets, singers, storytellers, rappers can take up the mic and offer up their work. It is received with interest and encouragement and I loved watching and listening and in particular, seeing young artists fish out bits of scrap paper from their back pockets, roll sleeves up over their tattoos, and read out the most tender, heartfelt words. Suddenly we (the old poets who have struggled to produce work alone in little garret rooms) felt that there was a place in this city for us, we felt part of a larger movement. It is a human impulse to belong to community and to tell stories. Native Tongues is another outlet that is instrumental in smashing open the dams and allowing that outpouring.

GBC Interview on Native Tongues

The following week, Gabriel Moreno was in town with some of his Quivering Poets promoting his new album "Nights in the Belly of Bohemia". His gigs are always a treat, always fun and always touching, because his lyrics are poems set to music and transport you from the earthy to the ethereal in a few bars. He was kind enough to ask me to recite a couple of my poems and also invited Naomi Duarte to read hers and Jonathan Bugeja added some of his own songs to the evening. I was downright honoured and loved the event, especially when unexpectedly, violinist Richard Moore, provided a backing to one of my poems "Grandmother's Hands". Amazing someone can do that without even rehearsing. I was awestruck by his talent. 

Article on the Poetry Panel courtesy of The Gibraltar Chronicle

Moving into November, the Poetry Panel was one of the later billings at the Literary Festival but provided an engaging discussion and well-attended event that caught the interest of local readers and perhaps an international audience with the presence of Trino Cruz, whose work around the Iberian peninsula and Morocco is key to Gibraltar's writers finding audiences outside not just Gibraltar, but the English-speaking world. Greek poet and organiser of Patras Word Poetry Festival, Tassos Pagliaslis, was also on the panel and he gave interesting insights from an outsider's perspective and  spoke at length about AI and the creative process. Also on the panel was Tessa Rosado Standen who went on a few days later to give a recital and discussion of her beautiful and sensitive poems. Tessa hasn't published yet but I rather hope she will, even if, like the rest of us, she has to resort to online self publishing - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. Self published literature is still literature. Self published poetry is still poetry and a feat to be proud of.

That same evening, a group of us held the Al Margen event at the Rock Hotel. A group of poets, energised and inspired by the 'outpouring' of poetry that is beginning to make its mark in Gibraltar, and wanting to encourage and facilitate the showcasing of poetry and storytelling from the edges of the mainstream, set up a 'cabaret' of poets. What a great night it was. The event was sold out (or it would have been if we'd sold tickets but we wanted poetry to be free, on tap as it were, to be enjoyed by those with means and those without). We had poems, llanito haikus, raps and songs and serious moments and so much laughter. There was wine and food and clapping and cheers. What a great night! What a night to keep those pens scribbling with ever more intensity and passion! Al Margen was what literary festivals are all about - bringing writers and audiences closer together, the human connection without which so-called literature is dry and soulless. Here is a small taster of what it was like, with the delightful moment when Kailash Noguera stepped up to the mic after many years away from reciting his poetry (we want many more moments like that, where hitherto unfêted yet talented poets are properly heard):

Kailash Noguera's performing his poetry at Al Margen

Added to this mix there have been publications of poetry books, such as those by Joe Adamberry and Leyla Costa Gomez, and rap events at local venues - rap is in my view a form of poetry, the rhythms and rhyming skills of some rappers are banging (is that too much of a Gen Z expression for this old girl?!)

Just as I was going to publish this post, I found out that Sonia Golt, Jonathan Teuma and Patuka Press have all won cultural awards this year!

Durante's 'outpouring' of local poetry is not an exaggeration. Now the dam has been broken, the outpouring will hopefully become a flow and even a flood. Perhaps it will spawn new venues, new collaborations, more local support, from government or otherwise, more courage to publish and lay on independent fringe events, and perhaps even another literary journal or...is this too ambitious?...a publishing house of our own, a non-profit, community-based collective that works to publish locally. Long may this outpouring last.

A few images from Al Margen taken by DJD Photography:

Rebecca Calderon and her hilariously irreverent song about the principle auditor scandal

Jonathan Teuma preparando el cochinillo at Al Margen

Adrian Pisarello

James the Heartist and his drum   

Oh yes, and yours truly sans hair brush:

Lost in my own words "To Speak Your Tongue" a poem for Al Margen

A Platform for Writing

 

Gibraltar Writers in the spotlight

I'm going to start this post by writing about Gibraltar's Literature Week. Organised in the place of the annual International Literary Festival which was cancelled this year because of the Covid19 pandemic (and just as well, I guess, given the second spike the autumn is seeing grow alarmingly throughout the world), Literature Week gave a voice, albeit small, to some of Gibraltar's writing community. 

There's nothing wrong with small, I hasten to add, and given that it was only a week long, Gibraltar Cultural Services, the government agency that organised the Week and all the events that it involved, there was plenty of ground covered. There were talks and readings for school children, Gibraltar's two most prominent playwrights shared their tips and passion for writing plays also with school children, there was story telling for kids in the park, the announcement of the poetry competition winner (well done, Rebecca Faller) and there were three 'meet the author events' per day throughout the week. These were filmed within the constraints of Covid19 regulations, which meant we couldn't actually meet the authors. Instead the sessions were live streamed on Facebook, which means that those who could not physically attend, for whatever reason, could either tune in live and listen to local authors talk about their work and chat about all sorts of other issues mostly pertinent to Gibraltar, its people and its culture, or could catch up on the recorded version later. 

For me, and many others I have spoken to this week, that was an instant hit. It meant that Literature Week succeeded where the International Literary Festival does not - it brought Gibraltarian books and authors to a wider public, including an international public (a friend of mine in US tuned in to some of the talks, for example, as well as family in UK). It meant that those who struggle to leave home, and did so even in the halcyon pre-pandemic days, could watch and listen and join in to an extent through the chat functions. Those of us who could not take time off work could catch up with recorded versions, and those who might not normally engage with events that perhaps have a touch of elitism about them, were able to watch from the quiet anonymity of their homes. I'm not going to rant on about literary festivals and elitism - but it is a feature of festivals and something that has been openly discussed across the world for years, and it is something that was happening here too. Not this year though. I have no idea what the viewing figures have been, but I hope they were good, because this was a very accessible and worthwhile format for introducing Gibraltarian writers to Gibraltar and beyond. In other words, whether they realised it or not, Gibraltar Cultural Services created a platform for writers.

A platform for writers

Why is a platform necessary? And in particular, why is it important for a small city, a self-governing territory still tripping over the remains of its colonial past, to create a 'national' platform for its writers?

I'm not going to go into an academic essay - I am not an academic and there are those professors out there who are expert in Gibraltar and Gibraltarian literature who would do much better justice to the subject. But I will say that, just like we talk about a platform for businesses, or a digital platform for marketing, we should be talking about creating a platform for Gibraltar's writers so that our literature, our stories, can gain better exposure at home, and more importantly, across the rest of the world. Heck, we might even sell some books!

In turn, that is important if we are going to develop our writing as individual writers and as an independent, identifiable, unique community. It's a lonely pastime, writing. We don't all have the chance to take writing degrees, or gain any objective or external perspective on our work. Unless our writers try to publish abroad, they usually have to self-publish to have their work read, and self-published work usually benefits from close scrutiny and revision before publishing. We have to head online and out of Gib and try to fund our own critiques, editing and so on. We have to help each other by being each other's beta readers, which is jolly tough if you're also trying to earn a living and raise a family. Because, of course, like many other art forms, such as music, in its early stages (most of its stages, if truth be told) writing simply doesn't pay that much.

A platform for writers in Gibraltar could involve creating regular events such as Literature Week, but perhaps hold them more regularly. They could be themed e.g. young writers' week, writing from the Gibraltarian diaspora, Gibraltar and writers of the Maghreb, Gibraltarian and Iberian writing, writing and mental health, writing and your family history, Gibraltarian literature and our varied languages and so on ad-infinitum. While this first literature week (because I do hope it is only the first of many) took what was clearly a very broad view of literature to include memoirs, history books, photobooks and art books, and perhaps was less literary than some might have wished, it did succeed in showcasing some of our writers and it did so in two of our cultural languages. I have to say only two, because with strong Hindu, Moroccan and Jewish communities to name just three, we are a multi-lingual society and writers can and should write in whichever language they feel comfortable doing so. A body of literature can celebrate that linguistic diversity as it can celebrate its own patois (for want of a better term to try to define llanito).

A platform for writers could also bring about a development of local skills through workshops. It could foster a sense of community for writers, an inclusive community that doesn't start with a red ID card or end when you pop over to the other side of the border for a few years. It could help grow book sales, and foster reading and literacy. It could, above all, become the launch pad for international careers as writers, to grow an international audience for Gibraltar.

This is not a task for one government agency to do alone. There are all sorts of issues that hamper government bodies from achieving such things, not least budgetary and time constraints or the policy priorities imposed by whatever political leadership is in place at any one time. But the initiative, and often facilitation, encouragement and empowerment for growing a platform for literature, does move faster with real support from government. And if the fostering, nurturing role by government is carried out properly, objectively, then the community of writers is likely to be able to take it forward further. Provided, of course, that independence is kept at the fore of the platform. Otherwise, its direction is too easily influenced, its strength diluted. 

What else for Gibraltar's writers?

Gibraltar's writers have a little bit of support. Literature Week was one event, only a small number of Gibraltar's writers got the chance to showcase their work. Some, I am aware, felt a little neglected to say the least. The Youth Arts Jamboree usually includes poetry and writing workshops and at least writing is included. There is an annual government run poetry competition and similarly an annual short story competition.

So far so good. But Gibraltar is missing so much. There are no bookshops. There are no creative writing classes. There is no real recognition. There is one publisher only. The support for publishing is in the form of a loan. There are no incentives to take a break from working and dedicated time to your art. This year is the first year that the prize for the poetry competition has finally begun to reflect the work and effort and sheer talent that goes into writing a good poem worthy to be showcased as the best in Gibraltar at that point in time. Oh, and there are no bookshops - have I said that already?

The space in which support for literature and the literary arts could grow is...exactly that. Spacious. Support is small, intermittent, dependent on what or who happens to be in flavour at any one time, which itself depends on what is written and how. I'd like to see open public discussions about the  nature of some of Felice's plays for example: maybe Utrecht, and Flavius, which touch on some significant Gibraltarian issues and events. Yes, plays, and yes, writing. Durante's poems, along with Hernandez, Cruz, Faller, Moreno could easily fill hours of teaching time to support English lessons, as could the novels of Sanchez, with their gritty realism redolent with the familiarity of the Gibraltar that we all know and many would like to prefer stays tucked away behind a veneer of glitz aimed at appealing to Cat 2 economic migrants. Sorry, my bad, high net worth individuals. I have no problem with anyone who wants to live in Gib, whatever their socioeconomic status, but I do have a problem with pretending our reality does not exist.

But I digress. The Literature Week was a good alternative to the Literary Festival, and even when the Festival returns, the Literature Week should remain. And it should grow and be enhanced. And writers should really think hard about committing a bit of time and energy to creating a platform to help Gibraltar's writing emerge into the spotlight, to stand up and be read and heard not just on the Rock but across the world. As Humbert might have been going to say in his Literature Week talk before he was outrageously cut short - no government has ever really committed to literature. We've had tourism led events, we've  had a little offering. Writers need so much more if the stories and the art that they can produce are to take up their rightful place on the bookshelves and stages and radios and screens of the world.

If you are a writer, and you feel you would benefit from a local platform for your work, both physical and digital, comment below or email me: jackiegirl@hotmail.co.uk. Maybe if we press hard enough together, it will happen.

When the muse strikes

Most writers will tell you that if you want to write, then write.  There is  no such thing as waiting for the Muse to strike.  There is no substitute for practising your craft as often as you can.  The same is as true for writers as it is for a piano player or a potter - practise, practise, practise makes perfect.

The message came over loud and clear during the 2016 Gibraltar International Literary Festival.  I was fortunate enough to attend a number of talks given by visiting writers, and also by local writers - more about the distinction in another blog.

The first emphasis on the value of writing as much and as often as possible came from Giselle Green. An award winning novelist, Giselle Green was born in England, grew up in Gibraltar and now lives in Kent, not far from where I, born in Gibraltar, grew up.  She has been a busy Mum, raising six sons.  I'm raising a brood of six myself, some boys some girls.  What differentiates us, besides Giselle's obvious talent, is that she writes, and wrote for years, a lot.

Giselle Green's website

Photo borrowed from Giselle Green's website

"It's all grist to the mill," she said, "writing around a large family or other commitments is very hard, but the more you do, the better your writing will become until one day it will be good enough to publish."  I can't do justice in words to the sense of encouragement that gave me.  Keep going was the message, so back to the keyboard it is, even if the best I can do sometimes is a couple of posts on Facebook and some entries on this blog.  I passed the message on to the Gibraltar Writers' group and I think it hit home with them too.

I listened to Gabriel Moreno talk about his constant exploration of language, from listening to the lyrics of rock songs as a young man to the voracious reading and analysis of English and Hispanic poets.  Without that constant playing with words, his writing, the lyrics of his songs, the beautiful music of his poems would never have taken shape.  He inspired during his talk, which interestingly also linked language to culture, identity and the expression of these, and he inspired during a wonderful evening of poetry, music (and, in my case, large gins and tonic) with poet Rebecca Faller adding her sharp, witty and often amusing poems to the event.

Gabriel Moreno

Photo by angels from www.gabrielmoreno.co.uk

Tom Mogford, who writes fast-paced "whodunnits" set in Gibraltar, or in nearby Mediterranean countries and following the adventures of a fictional Gibraltarian detective, also told of his many attempts at approaching potential publishers and dealing with rejection letters - one he read out took four years to reach him!  He kept going and going strong, his fifth book in the series recently being published.  Another inspiration.

Thomas Mogford

Shadow of the Rock

Louis de Bernieres was another author who spoke at the Literary Festival and he talked, among many things, about how he is a voracious reader.  Writing and reading go hand in hand - whether you read to understand your genre, your market, for pleasure, for research, this is the way a writer learns best how to handle the chosen medium: words.

Louis de Bernieres

The Dust that falls from Dreams

Back to the local authors, Carmen Gomez' gave an interesting exposition of her book with all its many observations of Gibraltar and the Gibraltarians during a time of cultural and economic upheaval, a time which was key in developing a post-colonnial identity.  Unfortunately I could not attend David Bentata's talk on his poetry which was a shame because I am utterly fascinated by what is being written by such a large number of talented and creative people, in a tiny city, where only a few years ago it was rare to find local published poetry and fiction among the mainly non-fiction historical works which focused on Gibraltar as a military base.

I did, however, attend the talk by Christian Hook, an award winning artist.  Hook is incredibly talented and already feted by Gibraltar and internationally.  He has produced a book hence his link to this year's literary festival, but what I found particularly interesting and ultimately inspiring, was his view on creativity and how he achieved his success.  Like the other creatives whose talks I attended, Christian spoke of the sheer level of work and dedication that eventually led to his success: hours and hours and hours of drawing the same object over and again until he was finally good enough to start work as an illustrator.  He combined self-belief, a sense that his gut instincts will lead him to the right places and sheer effort and talent and summed up that overall, without work, talent goes nowhere.

Christian Hook

I daresay there are many motivations behind holding a literary festival: there is the promotion of a town to encourage visitors, boost the local economy, engage international attention, maybe even to give a bit of a leg-up to a growing cultural movement towards the written word.  The Gibraltar Literary Festival seems to have a mix of purposes, although the salient one seems to my eyes to be more about the tourism product and providing an opportunity for the middle class literati to indulge themselves.  Still,in so doing, some of the underlying reasons for  having a festival in the first place are addressed: to bring Gibraltar closer to the rest of the world in cultural terms, to  give at least moral support to a growing body of literature based in, around and about Gibraltar, to somehow give some kind of international validity to Gibraltar's ever-evolving cultural identity.  

This latter deserves far more pointed and constructive attention than is provided for by just holding an annual International Literary Festival in the current format, and I will mull over this point in future posts.  But for now, as a writer and a reader, I enjoy the festival to the max.  Tomorrow, I will keep writing.  And the next day and the day after that regardless of whether the Muse comes to pay me a visit.

A fest of literature

I have had a hugely busy weekend, happy as a pig in muck, wallowing in books and writing and listening to a multitude of writers talking about their lives, work, interests, and, of course, their books.  The third Gibraltar Literary Festival took place this weekend just gone (12th to 15th November 2015) and now that the dust is settling and I have started to get some sleep again, I wanted to reflect on the event overall.

That as a literary festival it was a success cannot be denied.  Gibraltar was full to bursting with the literati, and with those who either enjoy this type of event or were particularly interested in the well-known speakers.  There were dinners, demos by cookery writers, serious talks, light-hearted talks, interviews with local writers, a multi-denominational service and a posh, I daresay, affair at the Governor's Palace involving fine dining.

Asked by Mum on the Rock, the website to which I contribute regular features, to attend some of the events on a press pass, I eagerly set out, notebook in hand.  There were quite a number of events, some running concurrently and I know I missed out on some I would have liked to have seen.  But I guess that is always the secret of a successful event: to leave people wanting it not to end.

Click below to visit and browse, a variety of features and information, it is well worth a visit, whether you're a mum, dad, uncle, aunt, granny, grandad.........on Gibraltar or anywhere in the world:

Mum on the Rock


I would be hard put to identify my favourite event or my favourite speaker.  Dame Esther Rantzen, a consummate professional, a wonderful raconteuse with a ready wit did not disappoint and the hour I spent listening to her speaking of her days at the BBC, her work with Childline and more recently with Silverline, sped past leaving me in greater admiration of her than I already was - and she has always been a favourite celeb of mine.

Photograph courtesy of Government of Gibraltar via www.mumontherock.com

On a more serious note, my festival opened with Dan Jones' talk on the Magna Carta and its legacy, touching on his other works and of particular interest to me, because I like the more grimy realism of social history, his latest book on a year in the life of Plantagenet England.  Discussing one of my favourite periods in English history, Jones sat in a wooden chair in the King's Chapel facing the congregation and under the watchful eye of some glorious king frowning down on him from his stained glass grandeur daring him to talk dark things of his predecessor, bad King John, or even talk of the revolt of the people, or rather, the barons - the only people powerful enough to stand up to the king.  Dry though medieval history can appear to some, with Paul Blezard's skilled steering, Jones took a candle to the dark pages of history and illuminated them in such an entertaining way I bought two of his books and asked him to sign them before I hurried on to the next event and venue.  A charming writer, Jones let me in on the fact that his inspiration for this period in history were his wonderful tutors at Cambridge.  In contrast, I think my fascination started in the vaulted aisles of Canterbury Cathedral on many a school trip; I went to school in Kent and Canterbury must have been an easy reach for history teachers.

Dan Jones' Magna Carta

That same afternoon, I returned to the King's Chapel twice more.  It is a beautiful, historic little building, and a rather nice venue, were it not for the poor acoustics.  Organisers please note:  even those of us that are not hard of hearing struggled from time to time to understand the wonderful words of John Carlin about Nelson Mandela and of James Harkin about niche products in the corporate worlds and the breakdown of the mainstream in the world of politics.

John Carlin gave an entertaining, and entirely inspiring talk about Nelson Mandela the man.  I had expected a dry recounting of what, when, where, with possibly a few who's and a why or two thrown in.  But instead I was entertained with a number of anecdotes and a general recounting of Carlin's meetings with Mandela and what he made of this great leader.  A quiet, respectful man of integrity, vision, focus and ultimate humanity is the impression I came away with, and I think perhaps some of that might have rubbed off on Carlin because his talk was touched sublimely with a degree of humility, which is how I imagine I would feel were I ever to have had the privilege of meeting Mandela.

John Carlin's Knowing Mandela

James Harkin I have to say I knew nothing about (sorry James), but I was on  press pass for Mum on the Rock, so I sat quietly with the intention of giving the talk my full attention.  Actually, the hour or so flew by and I was fascinated.  So much so that although I couldn't hang around to buy the books, I absolutely will buy them.  While I was interested in the whole idea of niche markets and specialisms beating the giant corporates, I found myself far more fascinated in the idea of the breakdown of the mainstream in terms of politics and what this might mean to society.  He also spoke about how this might colour the world's response to acts of violence from extremists, also fascinating.  Hours later, Paris exploded with horrifying casualties.  I must read Harkin thoroughly.  I understand he spoke on Saturday morning about the Arab Spring.  I wish I could have gone, but I am glad to have learnt about his work and will track this down.

James Harkin's "Niche"

Of the local authors, I attended Alice Mascarenhas' interview with Humbert Hernandez.  Poet, dramatist, author and social activist, this former teacher talked in part about his writing and his inspiration, reciting two very powerful poems.  The first was a reaction to what the press terms the migrant crisis, and what I can only call the crisis for migrants.  It painted a picture of the floating body of a drowned child and reminded listeners that those innocent deaths must surely be on all our consciences as we (read Europe) try to avoid taking a stance.  The second was so moving; it told of a woman stoned for the apparent sin of being raped, the final stone of a savage sentence thrown by her own father.  It was a harsh and angry poem, not sparing any sensitivities.  Cruelty and needless death cannot be painted over in watercolours, but can only be stained by blood.  A preface to the horrors on my TV screen later that night.

Of course, the largely local audience wanted to talk about Humbert's role in the abolition of conscription in 1971 Gibraltar, an issue of human rights as well as of having to take to civil disobedience in order to claim that right.  His book goes into the story, his talk went into the human aspect of this, into his thoughts and feelings at the time, his fears and the legacy of the event.

On a much-needed lighter note for Saturday, the day and in fact my part in the event was wrapped up for me in a gloriously hilarious hour with the utterly irreverent Marcus Brigstocke talking about his life, his career and about god, or gods, or religion and non-religion.  Again, I bought the book and he very charmingly held a signing session, agreed to photos with members of the audience (these youngsters are good with the whole selfie phenomenon, aren't they?).

Marcus Brigstocke's website:

http://www.marcusbrigstocke.com

Marcus Brighstocke's God Collar

There were more events on Sunday, although I could not attend these and I have to assume that the holding of "Just a Minute" by Nicolas Parsons with Esther Rantzen, Miles Jupp, Marcus Brigstocke and Maureen Lipman must have been brilliant (I shall put feelers out this week and find out).

With several events for school children, such as the Magna Carta being presented by the absolutely brilliant Christopher Lloyd, the Gibraltar Literary Festival has been yet another success.  Are there things they can do to improve?  Well, of course there are, and if anyone in the Department of Culture or the even organisers are reading, here, for what they are worth are my thoughts:

• Better audio helps.  
• There could be more work with the local bookshops - ah, ok, there's only one bookshop and there's hardly floor space to browse and breathe at the same time, so one to work on.  Perhaps "pop up bookshops" around the town over the four days would help.  Yes, I know they were selling books at various events, but don't wait for people to come to you, go to the people.  Random appearances and signings would have gone down well with the public - us Gibraltarians are a naturally nosy bunch and I'm sure  they would have been well-attended.
• Think about the level - is it pitched at a largely middle class English audience?  Yes, I know there were some "overseas" authors, and a couple of local authors, but I'm not convinced the local literary scene was fully represented, and I'm not sure that people who have not attended UK universities and might not feel totally comfortable in grand or intellectual surroundings would have felt this was something they could take part in readily.  But then, I'm not entirely sure the Literary Festival is about communities engaging with literature in its broadest sense.  Time to start a Fringe Festival of Words, methinks!
• More workshops.  Where would readers be without writers.  There were two workshops this year which I think is great - more please!

What did you think of the Gibraltar Literary Festival?  Answers in the comment box please, or let me have your thoughts via my Facebook page or Twitter accounts: I really am interested, especially if you too want to have a Fringe Festival of Words!

And on a final point, for those of you wanting to support a threadbare local writer:

Jackie Anderson's The Dark Closes In