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  • Desert Blues

    26th Jan 2009Desert Blues

    Poets and musicians have always given voice to the deep emotional connectionn we feel for our natural environment. Desert Blues featured an evening of poetry and global sounds reflecting on the disquieting effects of humankind on the environment

  • The event was chaired by Lucy Duran, leading ethno-musicologist and presenter of BBC Radio 3's World Routes.

    Participating in the event were:

    Patience Agbabi, a poet and performer whose entertaining but hard-hitting work ranges widely over contemporary themes;

    Melanie Challenger, a young poet who spent the winter of 2007-8 in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey;

    David Constantine, a distinguished poet, writer and translator. He is co-editor of the literary journal Modern Poetry in Translation

    There were also readings of works by other poets including Bewketu Seyoum from Ethiopia, João Jesus de Paes Loureiro from Brazil and Wulf Kirsten from Germany

    The event also featured music by world-jazz ensemble the Adriano Adewale Group whose musical traditions of Nigeria, Angola and Brazil infused with contemporary European classical and jazz styles, produce a truly global fusion of influences.

    The audio page contains: 

    Interviews conducted by Pamela Mounter with David Constantine and Patience Agbabi
    "Domino" by the Adriano Adewale Group
    Patience Agbabi reading a poem by João Jesus de Paes Loureiro
    David Constantine reading poems by Bewketu Seyoum
    Melanie Challenger reading a poem by Wulf Kirsten

    The latter three are accompanied by improvised music by the Adriano Adewale Group.

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