Overhear is delighted to announce a partnership with Birmingham Literature Festival, running across the city from 3rd to 13th October. Newly commissioned poems and prose will be written about a dozen well-loved, independent city venues. The resulting writing will be recorded and virtually ‘pinned’ to these sites for customers to discover, download and collect in their Overhear library.
Twelve local writers are matched with twelve exciting locations in this project centred around creativity, community and the celebration of city life. Writers include Romalyn Ante whose debut poetry collection is published next year, Garrie Fletcher, a writer of poems, short stories and novels, and Dr Shahed Yousaf, a GP with an interest in the therapeutic potential of literature and a writer of short stories, plays and currently a novel. The venues providing inspiration include established city institutions like the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Ikon Gallery through to valued independent pubs like The Wellington and newer ventures such as Tiger Bites Pig and Kula Poke.
The new writing will start being released from September 26th with announcements of new work to unlock over successive days throughout the Literature Festival. But you don’t have to wait until then to get going, by downloading the Overhear app you’ll gain access to a wealth of pinned poems that were commissioned during February’s Verve Poetry Festival, so the collecting can begin immediately.
Overhear will be delivering a series of walking tours in and around the Festival, a superbly guided introduction to unlocking the writing on offer and visiting some of the venues involved. These include a walk on Tuesday 8th October ending for 8pm at the Old Joint Stock, in time to enjoy the Festival’s literary cabaret, and weekend opportunities on 19th and 20th October.
This project partnership was made possible through an Arts Council England grant. It unites writing and technology through an app-based literature map, linking to festivals to support unique talent and independent venues. Overhear founder Tom Peels says:
“Overhear is about location and creative content. It uses mobile technology to link the two, and we hope that it has potential to generate great value for independent venues and artists in the city.”
For more information about the poets, places and walking tours please visit www.overhearpoetry.com or follow on twitter @OverhearPoetry