Annexe and EKO present… Et Al.

The time has come once more for us to throw one of our celebrated literary evenings! This event sees us teaming up with the brilliant EKO to bring you some of the finest live literature talent the city has to offer.

National Flash Fiction Day is Here!

Last year, National Poetry Day came and poets were delighted. One person who wasn’t so happy was Calum Kerr, a writer, editor and self-confessed advocate of the flash fiction form. He sought to change that and thus National Flash Fiction Day was born.

Review: May Day Mayhem

Anya Pearson reviews YARN’s latest literary event, May Mayhem.

The best darn storytelling outfit around, YARN festival’s latest show on May 1st did not disappoint. The event is called ‘The Special Relationship’, but austerity is certainly not the policy of this particular coalition. Overseen by curator-in-chief Gemma Mitchell, generous portions of poetry, miniature plays, film and prose are expertly woven together throughout the night.

Review: Mapping Poetry at The Jolly Cricketers

Melanie Gow reviews Mapping Poetry, the latest poetry event from Fast Culture and Claire Trévien.

I spent a gorgeous, gentle evening indulging in a dissimilitude of rhythmical words that wandered a room touching the oddments with a recognition odd things share.

Mapping Poetry

Tomorrow evening sees the launch of Mapping Poetry, an evening of performed poetry devised by Claire Trévien. As the title suggests, the themes of the evening are maps, location and place.

When Claire invited us to put together a printed piece for the event our creative ears pricked up and we set to work designing exactly what the event called for; a map.

A Pigeon, A Kitchen & An Annexe: Sites of Alternative Publishing – Opening Night

Our exhibition with Pigeon, Very Small Kitchen and Ladies of the Press* opened last Friday to a massive crowd. We couldn’t have hoped for a better turn-out.
A huge thanks to everyone who came along, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you’ve still got until March 4th. We’re also having an evening of talks on the nature of alternative and independent publishing on the 3rd at X Marks the Bökship.

And now, a few snaps from opening night:

Pigeon: Don’t Shoot the Messenger

Over the last few weeks I have had the privilege of working with the fantastic Pigeon Magazine, and for the next couple of weeks, will be displaying work alongside them at our show at Five Years Gallery.

Pigeon is the publishing body formed by Rebecca Field, Tamsin Devereux and Jake Evans. As practising artists in their own right, they crafted Pigeon as a curatorial platform, existing both in print and pixel, to cast a critical eye over the issues within the contemporary art world.

As part of their work for the Sites of Alternative Publishing exhibition, they are showing this delightful short video, which gives a snapshot of their collective practice.

In Pictures – Cass & Penguin: Design Your Own Book Cover

The blank ‘Design Your Own Cover’ editions from Penguin are certainly not new. (They brought out the first six titles in 2006.) However, it seems like the partnership with Cass Art is much newer indeed and they certainly missed a trick by not making this connection back then!
Cass, in partnership with Penguin, are running weekend workshops (for kids and adults alike) in which you can take and design a book cover in-store absolutely free. We went along to flex our arty muscles.

Volumes of Text: a teaser

Here’s a little glimpse at some of the stuff we’re throwing together for the Sites of Alternative Publishing exhibition.

The exhibition opens on Friday 17th of February with a preview evening, to which you a cordially invited. Come along, have a gander at our work and say hello.

A Pigeon, A Kitchen and An Annexe: Sites of Alternative Publishing
17/02 > 04/03
Five Years Gallery
8 Andrews Road
E8 4QN

Read the full press release.

Our First Show of the Year!

Hurray! The cover is off and we can unveil to you our first event of the year. Annexe has been invited to be part of an exhibition exploring the various practices of independent and alternative publishers.

The exhibition is being curated by the magnificent Ladies of the Press* and, alongside ourselves, will include work from Very Small Kitchen and Pigeon Magazine.

Over the last month of so, we have been meeting to discuss our practices, create some collaborative texts and generally unravel just what it is that we’re all doing. Working with the Ladies of the Press* is always a dynamic experience and this has been no different. Our text-based norms have been taken to performative and art-based avenues that they weren’t so familiar with. But as with any journey, they have come out with a wealth of knowledge from the other side.

Over this week we shall be letting slip more about the show, but for now you can have a read of the press release for the show.