Christodoulos Makris

'Paul Scholes' foot' And Other Poems - three from a new cycle of poems I began writing in recent months around themes of digital identities and branding - occupied Disclaimer Magazine 's 'Weekend Poetry' slot last weekend 14/15 April 2018. Disclaimer  is a magazine on politics, economics and the arts published in London. Edited by "a group of writers, journalists, artists and others who want to create something that looks and feels different to most of what’s out there," Disclaimer describes itself as "socially very liberal, economically less so" and wishes "to see markets working for the benefit of society, not to suit the interests of the few". I was very happy to contribute to Disclaimer Magazine  and join the list of exciting poets and artists it has sought to publish - especially in the context of this particular space that blends the arts with social, political and economic commentary.

I'll be taking part in three events - two in London and one in Manchester - as part of the UK's first ever European Poetry Festival (5-14 April 2018). Curated by SJ Fowler, the European Poetry Festival is a pioneering showcase of live literature including collaboration and performance, and aims at beginning a tradition of showcasing the best of 21st century avant-garde and literary European poetry across the UK. This year the festival encompasses ten events in three cities in under two weeks, with the participation of over 50 poets from 23 countries and support from a host of European and UK institutes. My reading dates and venues are as follows: Thursday 5 April, 7pm Opening Night at Writers Centre, Kingston (The Rose Theatre) : Solo reading in an event also featuring Jen Calleja, Frédéric Forte, Alessandro Burbank and Erik Lindner. Plus readings from European poets local to the Kingston area or currently studying at Kingston University: Astra Papachristodoulou, ...

Phonica: Eight Monday 26 March 2018 Boys School, Smock Alley Theatre 7.30pm Admission: €8.00 / €6.00 with: Alex Bonney SJ Fowler Diamanda LaBerge Dramm Alice Lyons & Justyn Hunia Benjamin Dwyer w/ Jonathan Creasy & Nick Roth Joanna Walsh + community performers Phonica  is a series of events rooted in Word and Sound with an emphasis on multiformity and the experimental. Conceived, directed, programmed and hosted by  Christodoulos Makris  and  Olesya Zdorovetska ,  Phonica  aims to explore compositional and performative ideas and to encourage a melting pot of audiences and artists from across artforms. Phonica: Eight will feature performances from a range of award-winning writers, musicians and artists based in Ireland and internationally, including a polyphonic stage adaptation of a digital novella (an Irish premiere), a poetic collaboration set in rural Poland, a three-way musical collaboration based on Samuel Beckett's 'Neither...

My poetry object Browsing History , a 16-postcard set in snug cellophane, is out today on zimZalla avant objects. zimZalla is a Manchester-based publishing project releasing literary objects. It is administered by Tom Jenks . Browsing History  documents my output as Digital Poet in Residence at the 2017 edition of StAnza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival taking place in St Andrews. Released on the first anniversary of the start of my residency, it represents object 046 on the zimZalla list. For more on my residency project and the publication of Browsing History , read my article on the StAnza Festival website , also published today. To view a free sample, and to order a copy, go to the object page on the zimZalla website.

My mass collaboration Twitter widget poem 'Chances Are'  which has been running continuously since 8 August 2014 on 3:AM Magazine , and its translation into page poetry published in The Architecture of Chance , comprise one of the choices in the 'Listen and Surprise' competition project run by Fingal Libraries as part of Poetry Day Ireland 2018 . Conceived by Máighréad Medbh , 'Listen and Surprise' invites responses to one of eleven poems  in any of four formats: image, video, sound, or text. The deadline for entries is 31 March 2018, and contributions will go live on a dedicated tumblr page on 26 April 2018. Full project details.

My essay 'Shedding Poetry's National Baggage' was published in the European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture (Versopolis) last week. The European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture is an online literary journal funded by the European Union, aiming to create an anglophone publication platform with a focus on continental Europe and the world beyond. Commissioned by SJ Fowler, new Executive Editor of the Review, my essay takes the form of eight fragments cumulatively examining relationships between poetry and nation(alism) on various levels, and with references to personal experiences and to writers, poets & artists, current and historical, with an internationalist outlook. The essay was originally conceived in late 2014 in response to an invitation towards a Europe-wide anthology, now seemingly abandoned, of pieces on trans-local writing. I began re-editing it in early 2017, and presented a version of it at the Language & Migration symposium in NUI Galway...

I have  two new poems  made of fragments from unauthored commentary on media articles relating to 1/ terrorism and 2/ refugees in the latest issue of SAH Journal . Studies in Arts and Humanities (SAH) is an open-access magazine published both in print and online, based in the library at Dublin Business School. It is an interdisciplinary academic collaboration whose concern is with social, political and cultural practices in the context of mapping transformations in contemporary society. SAH ’s contributors oppose forging disciplinary limits in an attempt to establish experimental spaces for critical dialogue. Vol 3 No 2 of SAH Journal focuses on the theme of 'Minorities'. It also includes poetry from Nithy Kasa, Jennifer Matthews and Nita Mishra, as well as articles on endangered languages, Māori rights in New Zealand, the Roma and Irish Travelling communities, and more. My thanks to Patrick Chapman for the invitation to contribute to the issue.

‘Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers…’ gorse  No. 9 is now out. Themed around 'colour', it includes essays from Clare Archibald, Niamh Campbell, Zoe Comyns, Shoshana Kessler, Darragh McCausland, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Imogen Reid and Sydney Weinberg; fiction from Arnold Thomas Fanning, Uschi Gatward, David Hayden, Colm McDermott, Paula McGrath and Gavin Murphy; and work in Irish from Eilean Ni Chullieanain and Alan Titley. In this issue I'm very pleased to be publishing poetry from Amanda Bell in the form of two haibun pieces comprising a mixture of 'new nature' writing, local history and memoir; four poems by Mike Saunders  from a larger sequence considering the language of money; ‘Pass’, a new poem by Maurice Scully ; Zoe Skoulding 's ‘Prairial (from A Revolutionary Calendar)’ taken from her ongoing work on the French Republican Calendar; and two visual 'word terrain' poems by Nathan Walker . Susan Tomaselli's editorial revolves ...

On Thursday 30 November I'll be taking part in  'You were also there'  at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. Part of the  Book Week Scotland  programme, and held in the context of  Jacqueline Donachie's exhibition 'Right Here Among Them' , this is an event with a pronounced social-political dimension, and also features  Julie Morrissy  as well as Scots author and NHS campaigner Rab Wilson and Edinburgh charity Upward Mobility’s band The UpMo Experience. The event is free but ticketed ( book via Eventbrite ) and runs from 5.30pm till 8.00pm. With thanks to Iain Morrison for the invitation.

In July,  Nathan O'Donnell ,   Suzanne Walsh  and I operating as a collaborative unit received one of three project commissions from the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) to create new work in response to the ROSC 50 exhibition. After a four-month research and composition period, our resulting collaborative text and performance 'Inflammatory Speech' will be presented on  Saturday 11 November at 2pm in The Johnston Suite at IMMA  as part of  an event showcasing the ROSC 50 artist research commissions. Admission is free, but  booking is required  as places are limited : "Audiences are invited to attend a seminar comprising of artists’ performance, lecture presentations, screening and a panel discussion. This includes research projects in response to the Rosc exhibitions: 'Prologue' by artist Amanda Coogan , 'Poverty of Vision' by Emma Haugh and a collaborative project titled ‘Inflammatory Speech’ by Christodoulos Makris, Nathan O’Donnell and...