Bando’r Wythnos Gwyrdd

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“Come to Pontypridd for the Pontypridd Green Week – you can be our artist in residence – I can’t guarantee money – but that would be amazing right?”

 

I’m late meeting Natasha – had been on the road all day – from Lampeter the pervious night at the International Dylan Thomas Summer School – woke to find a message from Angela Karadog, the original founder of PGW, saying she had solved all my social media negligence & her & Becky Davies had been at it hard  – then straight to Pontardulais the next morning after saying my goodbyes to the cohort of beautiful professors of the future, brushing my teeth in the car park before meeting multi dimensional storyteller Ceri Phillips to run a session at the Hollies Residential Home with their residents & a local high school.

 

The fans help the full room – I watch & listen to Ceri’s story, make pictures & catch key words – one of them being WIZARD/DEWIN – and when Ceri finishes I ask the group what they’d magic up if they were one…

 

Peace

Poverty 

Southern Comfort 

Bore ‘ma, es i i Bontarddulais gyda Ceri, i rannu straeon a chaneuon – bore hollol hudolus 🪄 llawer o ganeuon Cymraeg, yn troelli eto fel DNA cysglyd, yn ffres ar gyfer y gwanwyn, iaith yn dod allan am ddawns, atgofion o’r ysgol Sul, dathliadau chwaraeon, o’r ysgol, syrthio mewn cariad, hedfan trwy amser… a thu mewn i bawb – yr iaith Gymraeg – un fenyw heb iddi gallu symud o gwbl – yn canu gyda ni!

 

Yn siarad gyda menyw arall , 84, yn sôn am ei chefndir (cousin Kenny) ac wedi treulio’i bywyd hi yn chwilio amdano, pob gwlad yn gwario oriau mewn mynwentydd. Wnes i gasglu’r holl fanylion am Kenny, mewn gobaith, fel gweddi.

 

Dyma ychydig o fy ‘Llais y Lle’

 

 

 

Then sharings of more stories – pack up – back in the van to Pontypridd – dog check – sudden sound curveball situation for tonight’s Bando’r Beirdd at Clwb y Bont – keep calm – dig deep – another realisation of the magical eco system that surrounds me – phew – meet Natasha in town outside Superdrug & am so excited I don’t know where to start. 

 

 

Bando’r Beirdd – Clwb y Bont

 

BB is going in to its third year with Landed Festival. An award winning independent festival, BB has its own stage at the Festival site & we focus on hip hop, spoken work, artist wellbeing & social activism, & re-shaping the understanding of contemporary language & literature.

 

With my other research I am also trying to unite the North & South of Wales, make sustainable collaborative links, connect us a country & embed indigenous languages that are alive in our collective contemporary Wales.

 

I have been running the project & the stage without any funding. That does not mean that we won’t get funding in the future.

 

This June, BB ran an event, supporting Pontypridd Green Week. I am grateful to YMa for recognising the importance of this work & of how it informs my research with embedding access & inclusion in our community, & linking us to wider Wales & welcoming wider Wales to us. 

 

Natasha Borton is an activist, poet & singer Songwriter from Wrexham & is the founder of Voicebox, that supports spoken word poetry & is now in its 10th year. This important platform nurtures the community & has never received any funding. Spoken word is massively underfunded by the sectors while implementing Groundbreaking positive changes. I have been supporting Natasha for some time & I’m so proud that she stars her EP tour here in Pontypridd, and is Pontypridd’s Green Week poet in residence. She receives the warmest welcome from us all & fell in love with YMa, where we recorded her poem in response to her time here, on this year’s PGW’s theme of COMMONS.

You can find a recording of this along with other content from the artists at the links below.

Pontypridd Green Week Artists…

See Natasha’s Green Week Reflections and work here

Find Yasmin’s PGW blog here

JamieB sings

And finally
It is chance encounters & Hop-Up’s that are the driving forces of my practices, never waiting for the money to make things happen, recognising that there is more value in networks & trying to create ecosystems that are invitations to all.

Rufus x