Sexy poetry, Yoshitomo Nara, & Medical Aid for Palestinians
Poetry slams! Gallery trips!! Saoirse don Phalaistín!!!
At the time of writing, we are a mere week into August, and I feel like a hundred million things have happened. I’m tired, lads. But I’m always tired. It’s the anaemia.
I didn’t manage to make it to the Cork Pride parade this year :( but I did read a sexy poem at the SHC’s slam poetry event in Nudes!!!!
(If you don’t want to read about sexy poetry, skip to the Yoshitomo Nara heading!!)
SHC Poetry Slam 2k25!!
I had never written a sexy poem before. I didn’t even really know where to begin. But the theme was sex positivity and banishing shame, and the whole thing was organised by the Sexual Health Centre, so…it would have been weird, I think, to then go up and perform a poem about, like, my washi tape collection. But I guess anything can be sexy in the right lighting????
It was a cool challenge to write about sex in such an upfront way. It was confronting, I think! I was ultimately pleased with how the poem turned out, and I liked how I performed it (thank you, theatre background). I didn’t end up winning any prizes but I’m taking the whole experience as a W anyway.
Plus, at a time when puritanicalism is becoming chic again, it’s important to talk about sex. It’s normal, it’s natural, it’s important for people to know about consent and intimacy and to connect with their bodies!!!! It’s just a part of life, guys!! Looking at you, Mastercard.
“But it’s just sex, why are you defending it, that’s so creepy” blah blah people think that being queer or trans is also a sexually inappropriate thing. Keep your Christo-fascist spew away from me, thanks.
We also had immense fun writing a collaborative poem at the end – every table in Nudes was encouraged to write a poem together, and then somehow SHC stitched all of THOSE poems together, and the end result was incredible. Sexy queer collaborative poetry – doesn’t get gayer than that.
Yoshitomo Nara, Southbank Centre
In a move I can only describe as financially irresponsible, I made the last minute decision to pop across the pond to London to see the Yoshitomo Nara exhibit in the Southbank Centre!!
I found his art somewhere on the internet about a year ago, and loved the way some of his characters reminded me of Where The Wild Things Are.
His art is a gorgeous mix of meditations on childhood and nature and protest and punk – dissonant in some ways, harmonious in others, and something about it makes me feel…seen? Like somehow this Japanese man in his sixties and I have something in common. We have felt the same things, have had the same thoughts, though oceans and mountains and more divide us.
I also feel like a small child! I feel like a small child with feelings too big for their body! I am that child, turning into a tree or a mountain! I am that child, smashing a mirror! Lighting a fire! Painting a placard!
Seeing a piece of art in person is so different from seeing it online or in print. I don’t know what it is, exactly. The artist leaves little pieces of themselves behind, like a ghost, in the making of something, and adds to it like invisible brushstrokes. It was a marvel, seeing how large some of the pieces were, or how little – or that so many of the pieces were done on the backs of envelopes, on pieces of corrugated cardboard!! Taking the mundane and the every day, the functional but not beautiful, and making them into something visually pleasing!!! That’s magic, you guys!! We’re looking at magic!!
If you get the chance to go, I would highly recommend it. I was also really impressed with the accessibility measures in place at the Southbank Centre! It put my little autistic heart at ease to have an idea of what to expect. Also, the gender neutral bathrooms on the ground floor meant I wouldn’t get arrested for pissing :) :) :) Anyway.
Medical Aid for Palestinians 🍉
The legends Ruth Ennis and Sinéad O’Hart have organised a fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians!
A bunch of writers and illustrators and organisations have donated books, original art, manuscript feedback sessions, query letter critiques, even masterclasses on publishing – and they’re all available to bid on right now.
They’ve already raised (at the time of writing) €4,000!!!
The fundraiser ends on August 17th, so if you’re a reader, aspiring writer/illustrator, or know someone who would love these, the time to act is now!!!!