Elsewhere No.04 - Launch Event in Berlin

We are really excited to publish Elsewhere No.04 next week and to celebrate, we have organised an event in our hometown of Berlin for Wednesday 5 October. We decided to do something a little different for Elsewhere No.04, in keeping with the loose theme of cartography and maps that can be found within the pages of the journal. One of the map-related projects we highlight in Elsewhere No.04 is the series of tours known as London Trails. These are guided walks using old maps, and inspired by the idea we decided to do a historic map walk of our own.

The walk takes place at 5pm on 5 October, is free to join and open to anyone. We will be meeting inside Berlin Friedrichstraße station outside the Edeka supermarket, and from there we will make our way through the streets of north Mitte and into Wedding using a streetplan from 1902. Along the way we will pass traces of Berlin's cultural, industrial and political history, talk about the dramatic growth of the city in the second half of the 19th century, and specifically about the political, social and economic stories of Wedding. We will end the tour at one of our favourite breweries in Berlin, Vagabund, where we will have copies of the journal on sale. So even if you won't make the walk, come down to Vagabund where there will be a gathering of Elsewhere editors, contributors and readers... it would be great to see you.

Help us spread the word by sharing this post or heading over to the event page on Facebook and sharing that as well.

And if you can't be with us in Berlin, you can still be among the first to get your hands on the journal by ordering your copy directly from us now and we will send it out on the 28 September.

Printed Matters: On the Grass When I Arrive

Read by Paul Scraton:

We were extremely pleased to recently receive a copy of the fascinating collection of new writing from Northern Ireland On the Grass When I Arrive. Edited by Leon Litvack, this new book published by Guildhall Press is an anthology of poetry and prose that deals with ideas of place, home and belonging. The introduction by Litvack is a fascinating essay on place and literature that would be worth the cover price alone, and what follows is a diverse but always interesting collection by writers both new and established.

Having discussed in his introduction a number of ideas and theoretical approaches to the literature of place, Litvack turns his attention to how they link with the works collected in the anthology and specifically the place and places about which those works are written:

“Many pieces are set in Belfast: a place which has been… difficult to characterize effectively, because it is a complex, multi-layered, multi-classed space with a burgeoning and diverse population… The range of places treated in this collection extends far beyond Northern Ireland to include the United States, the Caribbean, South Africa, the European continent, and even (albeit tangentially) outer space. We may search in vain for an all-encompassing definition of place which will suit everyone’s needs; but the fact that the writing has moved from the local towards the global is in itself significant.”

I have family living in Northern Ireland and have spent a lot of time in Belfast over the past decade. What strikes me often both before and after each trip is the extremely one-dimensional view of the place many outsiders still have. Despite the many changes in Northern Ireland over the past couple of decades, many still see the place through the prism of what went before. The power of this collection is that in a variety of voices and a variety of styles, the multi-faceted nature of the place and each individuals understanding of their own place in it shines through in the writing. On the Grass When I Arrive is not only a valuable addition to the literature of Northern Ireland but to the literature of place in general.

PRIDE
Laura Cameron

I stand firm on Royal Avenue
to witness the parade.
Meanwhile, at the City Hall gates,
two women
in Union Jack wellies
kick against the erosion
of their cultural identity.

Infectious music,
thousands of spectators
smiling,
swaying to the beat;
two grannies in the front row
jiggle toddlers in buggies.
I let rainbow waves
wash over me.

I can't believe we've got here!
Belfast, twenty-thirteen.
My mind wanders...
In years to come
when school peers ask,
'Are your parents a mixed marriage?'
will a child respond,
'Yeah. My Da's a man
and my Ma's a woman'?

On the Grass When I Arrive, edited with an introduction by Leon Litvack, is published by Guildhall Press and is available now.

Elsewhere No.04 will be published on the 28 September 2016 – Click here for more information and to order your copy.

Citrus Country: Mildura, Australia

By Nick Gadd:

Eat an orange a day. Oranges keep the blues away, reads the large painted sign on the north wall of the former Sunraysia Citrus Management Company. On the right, the signwriter added a bunch of segmented oranges, like a Dutch still life. On the south side is a matching sign for lemons, reading Lemons add to life. Be in it! There’s no doubt about it: you are in citrus country.

Mildura is a regional city on the Murray River, which marks the border between Victoria and New South Wales, and without the river the city would not be here at all. In the late 1880s, two Canadian brothers, the Chaffeys, irrigation experts, moved to Victoria from California, where they had established successful fruit-growing colonies. They persuaded the Victorian government - after much political shenanigans - to allocate them 250,000 acres for a similar colony on the Murray.

The creation of Mildura was a remarkable feat of public relations. How else to explain the fact that droves of people from Britain, Europe and elsewhere threw up everything to travel to this non-existent settlement in a remote part of Australia? They were responding to an international advertising campaign that made shameless promises about the profitability and fertility of the land. Victoria had experienced a gold rush a few decades before: this was a fruit rush. 

Many would be disappointed. The Chaffeys were not as well capitalised as they claimed; their irrigation works were incapable of delivering as much water as was needed. Settlers had to clear their blocks of huge, stubborn mallee roots. There was no railway, making it impossible to transport the fruit to markets. And then, of course, there was the river, which proved an unreliable partner. In some years the Murray shrugged its mighty shoulders, swelled and flooded over the orchards and vineyards. In other years it turned its back, shrank to almost nothing, became a dusty gutter. 

The Chaffeys went bankrupt, resulting in a sensational public inquiry at which settlers accused the brothers of conning them. In spite of all that, the settlement survived. And through the extraordinary efforts of the remaining pioneers and their descendants, along with government support, a successful city based on irrigation did indeed develop.

I’m here in citrus season, and everywhere I go people press fruit on me: oranges, lemons, mandarins from their own trees. It’s not all citrus: today, farms producing grapes and almonds swallow vast amounts from the river.  Now the debate is: How much irrigation is too much?  “We’re OK for now, but when another drought comes, we’re stuffed,” a local greenie told me. Here, as in many parts of the world, how well the water is managed is the critical question for the future. 

Nick Gadd was writer in residence at the Mildura Writers Festival in July 2016. You can read more from Nick on his website Melbourne Circle: Stories from the Suburbs and follow him on Twitter. Nick was a contributor to Elsewhere No.02 where he wrote an essay on the ghost signs of Melbourne.

Elsewhere No.04 is published on 28 September 2016 – Order your copy here.    

From the Essex and Kent shorelines: Estuary 2016

PHOTO: SIMON FOWLER / ESTUARY 2016

Here is something that is right up our street – or perhaps better, right along our coastline. Estuary 2016, which begins this coming weekend on the 17 September is a new biennial arts festival curated in response to the Thames Estuary. In Elsewhere No.03 we featured illustrations of the Maunsell Sea Forts by Dylan White, so this is certainly a place and a landscape that is interesting to us, and the festival that is hosted by venues along the Essex and Kent shorelines looks to be a brilliant mix of visual art, literature, film and music.

The programme of the festival is designed as a response to the stunning geography of the region and of the Essex and Kent communities that border the Thames Estuary itself. It will tell the stories of those who have travelled the water and the land, of the people who migrated and emigrated from the Tilbury Cruise terminal and the music borne out of South Essex. Estuary 2016 will explore the cultural significance of the Thames Estuary as a gateway to the world… it all sounds fascinating and our only regret is that we can’t be there!

Here is some more from the organisers about Estuary 2016, and some of the highlights to look out for:

The Thames Estuary is an ‘edgeland’. It is a place of transition – one of arrivals and departures – a gateway that connects the UK to the rest of the world. It has been the front line for the defence of the realm as well as the first port of welcome for migrants and visitors from around the world. Industrial heartland and logistics sit alongside wild habitats, ancient monuments and concrete commuter towns.

Echoes from the birthplace of early punk, noisy seaside fun, brent geese, fog horns and cargo ships create an unmistakable soundscape. It has long provided an endless source of fascination, inspiration and mystery for both artists and audiences.

Some highlights of Estuary 2016:

Points of Departure: 
17 - 30 September
28 contemporary artists present new and existing works in the astonishing Grade II* listed Tilbury Cruise Terminal and venues in Gravesend

Shorelines Literature Festival: 
17 & 18 September
Writers, artists film-makers and performers explore the Estuary and related themes, alongside tours of Tilbury Port, Family Activities and Riverside Walks.

Sound of Thames Delta: 
1 & 2 October
Musicians, writers, artists, film-makers and broadcasters examine the relationship between place and music, at the end of the world's longest pier in Southend-on-Sea.

Infinity (1980-2015): 
17 September - 2 October
Iain McKell's extraordinary photographs of the music and street culture of Southend in the 1970's and 80's punctuates the mile long walk into the heart of the Estuary on Southend Pier

Wish You Were Here: 
17 September - 2 October
Ten artist-designed Beach Huts on Southend Pier take you on an artist-led, nostalgic journey through the heyday of the classic British Seaside experience to the present day.

This is of course just a selection of all the amazing events, exhibitions, performances and more that are taking place at Estuary 2016 from the 17 September to the 2 October. Head over to the Estuary festival website to get the full information and we wish the organisers all success for this inaugural event.

Postcard(s) from... Lime Street, Liverpool

By Chris Hughes:

Lime Street is one of the best known street names in Liverpool, as it gives its name to the city’s main railway station, and recent developments to both the station and its surroundings have brought great changes to the street. The huge station hotel, built in French chateau style, is now student accommodation and retains the grandeur it shares with the St George’s Hall across the Lime Street plateau, with its art deco war memorial and massive stone lions. This all suggests a Lime Street both grand and beautiful, and yet walk on and the street changes in nature.

On one corner the Crown pub stands with its decorated exterior hiding its ornate plaster ceiling inside. Opposite, the beautiful art deco cinema is closed and abandoned, its own fantastic interior shut away in the dark. At the far end of the street stands another of the city’s great pubs, complete with fabulous tower and the best etched and originally cut windows in Liverpool. The Vines dates back to 1907, and along with the Crown stands in contrast with the dour and struggling parade of shops that separates them.

So this is the scene. And then suddenly almost everything is closed and borders up. Builders signs erected and pavements closed. There is no information, but surely the old picture house is not to be demolished. Surely it’s listed? The next time I walk by, it is gone, part of a masterplan of redevelopment for this stretch of one of Liverpool’s main streets:

City’s change and some places have their time. I hope the plans work, and that the full length of Lime Street can stand as proud as the station that bears its name. In the meantime I’ll keep walking and watching, documenting the progress as it goes...

New Town Utopia, a film by Christopher Ian Smith

Sometimes a project comes along that really captures our attention, and the news of a kickstarter campaign for Christopher Ian Smith's documentary New Town Utopia is exactly one of those moments. The film explores the utopian dreams and concrete realities of Britain's new towns, with a focus on Basildon in Essex where Smith grew up, reflecting on its ambitious and aspirational beginnings and its subsequent fall from grace.

New Town Utopia is, therefore, a journey into art, architecture and memory, and the stories of those people who call Basildon home. The idea is to discuss the question of whether it is people who make a place, or if a place makes the people... have a watch of the film they have put together for the kickstarter campaign to learn more about it and it hear Smith talk about his motivations for making the film:

New Town Utopia has been four years in the making, but as Smith has said, there is a certain urgency to its message right at this moment: “It is more relevant than ever - as the housing crisis exposes the long term impact of ‘right to buy’, globalisation continues to decimate the traditional high streets, and the Brexit vote revealed the depth of dissatisfaction of the Basildon people with their lot. This film is a chance to explore the complexities of a place so often derided on local and national level. In doing so it reflects on the issues impacting all our towns and communities” 

You can follow New Town Utopia and find out more about the film on twitter, facebook or via their website. The kickstarter campaign which will run until September 26th can be found here.