It's Been A Long Time, Baby.

But we're still here. And we've been working.

In fact, things are smoking.

After spending 2009 experimenting, we started workshopping the Ghosts Project in November last year. Today, we had our second-to-last writing workshop before we move into the next phase of the project - workshopping performance. Now is the time when we get to know our music with the familiarity of our own pulses.

Today was epic - the newest member of the project, Anna Kaye Forsyth, joined the workshopping process for the first time - and the five of us co-wrote a finale piece for the show. I think it is bloody brilliant, and have the task now of turning it into a script that speaks with the music - track 18 on NIN's Ghosts II. Yes, that's right, so much material flew out of the project that we just had to branch into the second Ghosts album - also released onto the creative commons. There are only three tracks that still need poetry.

So the body is almost complete.

Now we just need to make it dance.

The Cast Assembles

We recently announced that we are creating a performance poetry show set to and inspired by the album released by Nine Inch Nails onto the Creative Commons in 2008, Ghosts I. We called the madness the Ghosts Project and invited expressions of interest from people who wanted to write to the music as well as the Ghosts theme, with guest musicians being invited to further riff off the poetry and album.

We started off the month by meeting with all interested parties. Together we got clear on the concept, brainstormed ideas and chose NIN tracks to write to.

The Ghosts Project cast of contributing poets is: Miriam Barr, Christian Jensen, Daniel Larsen, David Ingram, Sabrina Muck and Shane Hollands. We are excited to be working with some people for the first time and to be reunited with both past and new Literartists once more. I think we proved with Growl that we don't do anything by halves in The Literatti. And our collaboration on the Ghosts Project with Shane Hollands, the founder of The Literatti and frontman for Freaky Meat, and David Ingram, a harmonica-playing, retired sailor with a long-time presence on the open mic circuit, promises to deliver nothing short of inspiring. Collaborating musicians are still to be announced - but the shortlist is very exciting.

The Ghosts Project reincarnates a series of characters who have influenced the shape of the era in which we live. After listening to the album together and choosing a track to start working with, we are now each researching characters ranging from Leonardo Da Vinci and Hans Christian Anderson through to Kate Sheppard and Tawhiao. These characters will be plunged into the modern age, placed in interactions with each other, introduced to their successors and given an opportunity to reflect on their own lingering effects. With a cast that spans three generations, the Ghosts Project is shaping up to be an unprecedented experience.

In other news, the Word of Mouth CDs have almost all sold out and as such, you can now download an MP3 version of the album on our website for free - they're not as good quality as the CD, but it at least makes them available. We hope to release downloadable MP3s of selected live Growl recordings shortly as well.

Our newest Literartist, Daniel Larsen, and I have been collaborating together with our old friend and DJ Steve Riley on a 30-minute show for a guest performance at Poetry Live on December 1st. This show is doubley exciting for me, because this is the first time Dan and I, who are also engaged, have worked together on such a substantial series of pieces. A few of you might have seen us perform 'eight ways of looking at it' with The Literatti at October Gig or Rhythm & Verse recently. Our Poetry Live show builds on that, but with the addition of new pieces, all set to music mixed and sampled live by Steve Riley.

On November 24th you can catch Christian Jensen and Murray Lee doing a shared Poetry Live guest spot. It's a good chance to catch Murray Lee in performance for those who have been missing him (my fingers are crossed for a big enough crowd to warrant him performing Train Gang). And I must say, Christian has been delivering some stellar work recently. The Global Eyes/Feet/Voice performances he did were fantastic.

Poetry Live is at Thirsty Dog on Karangahape Rd, it starts at 8 pm.

Dan, Christian, Sabrina and I were all part of the Global Eyes/Feet/Voice project and the poetry and art work we produced for it is all included in the Global Eyes book and multimedia CD. You can purchase copies for $30 by contacting Christian via ideasimbedcreative AT gmail DOT com

We'll keep posting updates about the Ghosts Project and what's happening with The Literatti Pool as things go down. Check in on the website regularly - we try to update it as often as possible. There are new photos of our last big shows up now.

You can catch Sabrina in performance on Sunday November 15th at the PEN Courage Day event alongside Stephanie Johnson, John Pule, Tim Heath and others. A great line up, and a great event.

Ghosts begins - expressions of interest sought

We have a new project. It is killer. It is open for other people to get their fingers in the pie as well.

Nine Inch Nails released their instrumental album Ghosts onto the creative commons last year, complete with a series of images. The Literatti are writing a show to this album and series of images and invite members of the recently developed Literatti Pool and others to be involved. The show will be about the influence of our ancestors and idols, a homage to the ghosts of the modern age so to speak. Contributing performers will write to both the piece of music selected and this theme. In this way we hope to create a performance poetry show that also tells a story.

There are limited places to be filled, so interested parties will need to get in quick. We invite contributing performers to make expressions of interest. We will select contributing performers based on three things:

(1) they write excellent poetry, suitable for performance

(2) they can perform. well.

(3) they are willing to rehearse regularly and collaborate.

We will also need to ensure that you are available for the workshop and rehearsal schedule, once it has been set. But please allow for a first workshop in late October/early November (a Sunday afternoon) and one in late January, and then fortnightly thereafter.

Expressions of interest should include a brief bio and a sample of some of your best poetry. Because of the nature of the event, we cannot promise a set fee to each contributor, instead contributing performers will paid a proportional split of the proceeds made from ticket sales. Due to the regulations of creative commons licensing agreements, this is a not-for-profit event. All proceeds will be distributed between contributors.

The show will be jointly directed by Miriam Barr and Christian Jensen as part of the official hand-over of the role of creative director. Christian will be in his homeland of Norway from November 2009 - March 2010, and much of the writing of the show will take place then, with technology again making Literatti collaboration across great distances possible. Miriam will workshop with the other contributing performers during this time, and there will be a month of intense in person rehearsals when Christian returns. The aim is to open the show in late April or May.

If you are interested in being involved as a contributing performer please email an expression of interest to theliteratti@gmail.com. If you have footage of yourself performing or audio which could help us to get a feel for what you do, please include links. Please be aware that we may ask to meet up with you and check out what you do in person before we make a final decision.