Merthyr Express column

2nd April 09
Easter Workshops in The Castle
Weave a friendship bracelet at drop in family workshops at Cyfarthfa Castle, over the Easter holidays, this week and next on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th and 16th April 2009). Sessions run 10.30am - 12pm and 1 – 3pm. The Family workshops are free of charge. You can also learn the traditional craft of rag rug weaving next Thursday, 9th Apr 2009, at Cyfarthfa Castle. This session is designed for adults, runs from 6 - 9pm and costs £3. For more information on any of the sessions, please contact Cyfarthfa Castle Museum on: 01685 723112

Chartist Performance
Saturday, 18th April 2009 sees the 170th Anniversary Year of the South Wales Rising 1839. with the Merthyr Tudful Chartist Festival town centre celebrations in and around Market Square Church, begining with Street Theatre from Chance Encounters Theatre in Lower High Street 9.30am – 4.30pm; Inside the Hall will be a lecture by Joe England Merthyr Chartism, 'Characters from the Chartist era' answering your questions, historians debating the ‘Chartist Story’ and a multi-media show by UAct2 Theatre Company in 2 parts: “Sounds like Chartism” – music, poetry, dance, story telling “The Legacy – and into the future” - film, vox pop, workshop - a Charter for today etc. Fo more information please contact Huw on 07968256864, Viv on 01685 377883 or les.james@newport.ac.uk. All sessions are free but please book your place today.

Open Mike
The next Open Mike Night welcomes poets, short story writers, singers and acoustic musicians on 23rd April, at the Imperial hotel. Guest author for the evening will be David Hughes. The event is free entry. Please contact 01685 725382 or arts@merthyr.gov.uk for more details.

Poetry Competition
The 3rd Welsh Poetry Competition (2009) was recently launched in Pontypridd. The aim of the competition remains to encourage and reward the abundance of creative writing talent that exists in Wales but struggles for recognition. Dave Lewis, competition organizer, said: “We are still a truly independent competition and all entries are judged anonymously. We want to recognize new voices with raw passion rather than the current trends within the literary establishment where it seems the same old faces crop up time and time again...We are not looking for a purely academic approach to poetry but would rather see pure passion burst onto the creative writing scene”. Prizes are: 1st Prize - £300, 2nd Prize - £150 and 3rd Prize - £75. This year’s judge is award-winning poet and author from Merthyr Tydfil, Mike Jenkins. Mike is widely published and much in demand for his lively performances and writing workshops. Mike frequently appears on radio and television, has won Wales Book of the Year and the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry. He is also co-editor of the Red Poets, an annual magazine of left-wing poetry from Wales and beyond. To enter you just need to compose a poem, in English, of less than 50 lines and send to the competition organizers. Entry forms are available by post, can be downloaded from the website or picked up from RCT libraries. It is still only £3 to enter and the closing date is Sunday 21st June 2009. Competition Website - www.welshpoetry.co.uk. Competition Judge - www.mikejenkins.net. Contact Tel: Dave Lewis - 07890 888585.