events
Tuesday 20 June 2017 – 8:00 pm, Portsmouth Cathedral
A specially commissioned performance inspired by the works of Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and other WW1 poets, in The Cathedral on June 20th which will present the human cost of Passchendaele through words, music and images. The performance is supported by the New Theatre Royal and the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Creative Technology.
Box office: 023 9282 8282 or book online at http://www.portsmouth festivities.co.uk/events/
Dr James Thomas, reader in Local and Maritime History at the University of Portsmouth, encourages us all to come along to some of the exciting historical events forthcoming at our local branch of the Historical Association
Founded in 1906, and with headquarters at 59A Kennington Park Road, London, the Historical Association is an independent charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Styling itself as ‘The voice for history’, it exists to promote the academic discipline at all levels. A nationwide organisation with over 50 branches, from Norfolk and Norwich to Swansea, from Durham to the Isle of Wight, from Glasgow and West Scotland to Derry in Northern Ireland, it hosts a series of publications including the acclaimed journal History, and regularly produced magazines, The Historian, Primary History and Teaching History. An Annual Conference, usually held in May, provides an opportunity to meet other members, listen to notable speakers, explore and engage with the subject. For nearly eight decades tours have also been an important part of the H.A.’s activities, while a comparatively recent development has been the formation of a Dining Group in London. Branches are given a free hand in terms of how they organise their activities. In Portsmouth the branch hosts a series of monthly lectures between October and May, the last meeting of the season being combined with the requisite Annual General Meeting. Speakers are drawn from the organisation’s National Panel of Speakers and from enthusiastic local academics and researchers. The branch also supports a series of monthly seminars between October and March. These are designed to achieve three objectives:
Branch meetings and seminars are held in Room 2.07 Park Building, University of Portsmouth on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month and commence at 7pm. The next two events are a lecture by Dr James Thomas, Reader in Local and Maritime History in the University of Portsmouth and a Fellow of the H.A. , on 10 January 2017. His talk is entitled ‘The Governor, the Pirates and the Lost Treasure: A Case of Misplaced Loyalties’. The next seminar is on 24 January 2017 when Richard Watson, a final year History undergraduate, will present a paper entitled ‘American Prisoners of War 1775-1783’. Do come along, participate and proffer support.
Dr Karl Bell, Senior Lecturer in History, reports on the Portsmouth DarkFest held in October-November 2016. Karl’s research area is ‘everything spooky’; his second book was on the Victorian legend of Spring-Heeled Jack and he’s now working on a book on proto-science fiction ideas in British culture between c.1750-1900.
Long after the Halloween pumpkins had been extinguished, something of the thrills and celebration of that spooky season lingered on in Portsmouth last autumn. Beginning on 27th October with a talk by thriller writer and ex-SAS soldier Andy McNab, Portsmouth DarkFest, a new creative and cultural festival exploring all things dark, supernatural and sinister, ran throughout November. Led by Karl Bell of the University of Portsmouth History team, and taking its themes and inspiration from research arising from his Supernatural Cities project (www.port.ac.uk/supernaturalcities), DarkFest was the product of a close collaboration with the Portsmouth Writers’ Hub and artists from 1000 Plateaus. The festival brought together the city’s rich and diverse creative talents to explore ghost stories, urban legends, historical serial killers and ‘Pompey noir’.
Portsmouth has a wealth of creative and cultural communities but they usually operate in isolation from one another. Additionally, Portsmouth tends to suffer from low cultural self-esteem when it compares itself with its south coast neighbours and other historic cities in the region. As such, part of the purpose behind DarkFest was to stimulate and unite the city’s creative communities around a shared theme for an entire month. The result was an exciting demonstration of the richness and range of talent that exists within the city. Local writers, poets, artists and musicians of all kinds got involved as they creatively explored the dark side of urban life and the human psyche. At the same time it was a great opportunity for Karl to engage the public in his supernatural research interests, topics that proved once again to have broad popular appeal with audiences.
Ultimately, DarkFest evolved into a packed programme of twenty-two public events in venues across Portsmouth and Southsea. Activities included storytelling, live music, poetry performances, public lectures and panel discussions, film screenings, plays, art exhibitions and installations, and even a ghost walk in Old Portsmouth. There were many highlights, including the Day of the Dead storytelling event at the Square Tower, a lively night of eclectic art and performance at Dark or Darker Shivering at the Coastguard Studio, and the publication of Dark City, an anthology of ghost and horror stories set in Portsmouth and created by local authors (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-City-Portsmouth-Haunting-Horror/dp/099563940X). For further details see https://www.facebook.com/portsmouthdarkfest/
The festival was a great success, with estimates of nearly a thousand people turning up to events throughout the month. Better yet, it has inspired the local creative community to want to turn DarkFest into an annual festival. Karl is currently working with writers and artists to consider how this initiative can be further developed in 2017. Watch out for news of DarkFest’s return as darkness falls across the city this autumn.
Dr Brad Beaven is professor in social and cultural history at Portsmouth and leads the Port Towns and Urban cultures research project. On 29 March Professor Beaven will be giving his inaugural lecture exploring the cultural life of port towns. These were cosmopolitan places, where sailors mingled and fraternized with the towns’ inhabitants. Come along to find out more about what happened in these often exotic and dangerous locations.’ Link: http://www.port.ac.uk/events/