29/01/2010

Merthyr Express column

4th February 10
Battle of The Bands
The Gathering is a valleys wide battle of the bands event for under 18s, with the final to be held in Bridgend. Bands who would like to enter the compertition and take part in the Merthyr Tydfil Heat can enter free of charge. The majority of members of the band need to be in comprehensive school or further education to qualify. Bands should contact their music teacher or Lee Davies at lee.davies@3gs.org.uk to enter. Audience tickets for the night will be £5 and for under 18s only.

Welsh Literature Day
On 27th February Siop Y Ganolfan at the Canolfan Gymraeg (Welsh Language Centre) will be holding a Diwrnod Llen (Literature Day) with authors Mihangel Morgan and Gwyn Morgan. The event is a free entry Welsh language event, starting at 10am with a children's workshop with Gwyn Morgan. Then at lunch time from 12pm there’s an opportunity to have a chat with with the authors, finishing with a multi-generational session, primarily for adults at 12.45 with Mihangel Morgan. For further information contact arts@merthyr.gov.uk or 01685 725382.

Open Mike Night
Guest authors Richard Marggraf Turley and Damien Walford Davies, both visit the Imperial Hotel, Pontmorlais on Thursday, 11th February, for a free entry Open Mike Night starting at approximatley 7.30pm. Richard Marggraf Turley is a lecturer in the English faculty at Aberystwyth. His main research interests are in Romantic and early Victorian literature, and contemporary poetry. Recent work explores aspects of Romantic literary and political culture, and addresses ideas of language, masculinity and immaturity in the period. Other areas of interest include the work of Bob Dylan and Philip K. Dick. He is co–founder and Co-Director of the Centre for Romantic Studies – the first of its kind in Wales – based in the English Department at Aberystwyth. Richard won first prize of £1000 in the prestigious Keats-Shelley Prize for poetry in 2007.
Damien Walford Davies is a poet, literary critic and editor. He is Senior Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Damian’s fields of expertise include Romanticism, nineteenth and twentieth century poetry, and the two literatures of Wales. He has written extensively on R. S. Thomas. His study, Presences that Disturb: Models of Romantic Identity in the Literature and Culture of the 1790s (University of Wales Press, 2002), was co-recipient of the 2003 Foster–Watson Prize, and his edition of the prose works of Waldo Williams won the Ellis Griffith and L. W. Davies Prizes in 2002/3. He is General Editor of The Oxford Literary History of Wales, and was one of the three judges of the 2008 Wales Book of the Year.
Open Mike Nights are supported by MTCBC and Academi. For further information please contact: (01685) 725382 arts@merthyr.gov.uk.

Criminal Ancestors
Next Tuesday, 9th February, the Dic Penderyn Society present a talk on Criminal Ancestors, Transportation After 1831, by Mrs Carolyn Jacob, at Merthyr Tydfil Library. For further information on this and other Dic Penderyn Society talks and events please contact Viv Pugh on 01685 377883.

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