A Whole New Way of Seeing Annexe – Site Change

The time has finally come. We’re officially going to stop using the WordPress site as of today. We’ve set up a new subscribing/newsletter button over on the new site so you don’t have to miss out on getting our writing straight to your inbox. Head over to our flashy new Annexe site and on every page under the magazine tab, there’s a little form on the right for you to put in your email.

We’ve upgraded our output too, so instead of getting all the articles as and when they are posted, we’ll be sending out a properly drafted newsletter every fortnight with the latest articles linked and a few extra bits that we think you’d like to hear about.

A massive thank you to everyone who has been reading since the beginning, you’ve helped make Annexe what it is. Now come with us to the next step and enjoy our site in all it’s swanky glory.

 

– Nick & the Annexe Team

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Event – Words on Cities – Iain Sinclair, Tom Chivers, Katy Darby and Clare Fisher

We’re proud to announce that our next event will be at the end of this month. A night all about the city. Read all about it further down, and then come along, why don’t you!

The cityscape has long been an influence on modern writing. As a setting, a starting point or even a medium, the urban landscape draws a particular kind of creation from writers.

Annexe has brought together four of the finest writers working with the urban condition for an evening of talks and performances that display their hugely varied takes on the city.

Words on Cities – Iain Sinclair, Tom Chivers, Katy Darby, Clare Fisher
Thursday 25th April || 7.30pm
£7 (buy tickets here)
Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial St
E1 6AB

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On the bill we have:

With a long-standing history of poetry and prose, Iain Sinclair is sits at the leading-edge for writing that deciphers the hidden aspects and connections of London. His work has reinvigorated the call for psychogeographical exploration across the globe. For Words on Cities, Sinclair will present a talk based around his forthcoming book American Smoke: Journeys to the End of the Night. When Iain Sinclair was first setting out, it was mainly American writers that influenced him, but he never visited the USA. Locked down in Hackney, the transatlantic mass was as unreal as Kafka’s ‘Amerika’.

Tom Chivers is a poet and editor residing in London. His recent work, with the Cape Farewell project, has led Tom to investigate the changing landscape of London and unearth an urban geography that has been covered by the constant growth and renewal of the capital city. His talk will focus on his practice of ‘psychogeology’ and his migration through the lost rivers of London.

Katy Darby is a writer, an editor, a teacher and the founder of the incredible storytelling night Liars League. Katy will be reading a selection of her prose work based around London.

Clare Fisher’s current project The City in my Head is an exploration of London through fiction. Each story shows a snapshot of a particular area, constructed from human experience. Claire will be reading a selection of works from the collection.

Ta Da! Our new site is unveiled!

Today we finally pulled the cover of our brand new site! All singing, all dancing. New and improved. Better than ever.

 

WordPress has been a wonderful home to us for over a year and a half now. It’s straightforward layout has been a joy to work with, but now we’ve decided we want to cut the .wordpress. from our name and exist on our own two feet at http://www.annexemagazine.com. Like a bird flying from the nest (actually more like a teenager leaving home, because we’re still utilising the WordPress CMS in true semi-independent fashion) we will be posting primarily to our dedicated domain. It all looks quite fancy over there too! The layout is updated, though not too distanced from the look you’re used to. Head on over and have a look. If you spot anything that needs changing, drop us a line and we’ll thank you for your vigilance.

If you’re subscribed to us via WordPress, not to worry. We’ll post duplicate articles here until we’ve found a suitable replacement for the subscription system.

Without further ado, I declare the new Annexe Magazine site OPEN! 

An Arms-Open Leap into the New Year!

2013 is just around the corner! We’ve survived torrential rain, at least a couple of near-apocalyptic instances, overzealous family members around the Christmas dinner table and a slew of events that will shake their fists as we sail past into the new year. Well done!

Now here at Annexe HQ we are really quite excited about the next year. We’ve got a multitude of projects, events and books to give you that we are so proud to be working on. To celebrate what promises to be a whirlwind year, we’re kicking of with a bit of a spoken word party! On Friday 18th January we will fill the space that formerly held the BBC London offices with performances from some incredible poets, writers and musicians. Expect poetry with live soundtrack, animated stories that are illustrated as they are performed, short films, the whole nine yards.

The Interrobang Line-up is here!

The full line-up for Interrobang Festival is online! Have a gander at the plethora of stunning acts we’ve got for you and then head over to the Interrobang website and buy a ticket! It’s only £6 after all.

 

Two Tales: Will Conway

Adding a bit more prose to the proceedings, we are joined by Will Conway. As part of Two Tales (the much loved sister of Two Poems) Will is reading his short story Transport, and a story by Ted Hughes called How the Cat Became.

We chatted to Will a little bit about the two stories and you can read all about it after the jump. 

Two Poems: Gabriel Moreno

We are joined by Gibraltarian poet Gabriel Moreno for this installment of Two Poems. Gabriel’s recent work has been concerned with the myth of Orpheus, a story that he has recrafted into a modern day poetry series about searching, loss and renewal. 

For this performance, Gabriel has read Ballad of the Moon by Federico Garcia Lorca, and to remain faithful to the original poem, he has read it in both Spanish and English. But to start, Gabriel has performed his own poem, Orpheus and the Maenads.

Invisible Picture Palace at The Wapping Project

On the Invisible Picture Palace website, they call the space a record store and listening space, though if it reminds you of either of these it is only in passing. What In The Dark Radio, the group behind the project, has created is something really quite unique. Housed in a greenhouse on the front lawn of The Wapping Project (a converted hydraulic power station), the Invisible Picture Palace is at first glance a shrine to the history of recorded sound. Old vinyl records hang from the walls and there’s a large container of cassette tapes on the floor. After sifting through the various shelves of audio ephemera you start to realise something else is going on here. This is quickly proved by the various talks and workshops taking place within the space. Instead of just being an homage to the past, the Invisible Picture Palace is also a wellspring of creativity for the future of innovative and experimental audio.

Snippets of Et Al. – 7th June

 Two weeks ago, we had a little spoken word night. If you came along, you’ll remember just how arresting our performers were. If not, we’ve decided to let you in on a little of what went on. After the jump you can hear one snippet from each of the spoken word performers from Annexe Presents… Et Al. (7th June). Enjoy!

Two Poems: Gloria Sanders

We’ve got an Annexe favourite for Two Poems today. Poetic stalwart, Gloria Sanders reads her piece, The Contortionist, and a work by Felix Dennis.