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Administer the Laughing Gas - Hayley Frances

Administer the Laughing Gas - Hayley Frances

Guest Artists

Date and time
06 Oct 2024 (7:00pm - 8:30pm)
Location

Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR

Price

Standard + Signed Copy of Book £18
Standard £10
Students and Unwaged £8

Booking Information

Wheelchair users are entitled to concessionary priced tickets with a complimentary companion seat.

Assistance dogs are welcome at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire venues. If you wish to bring an assistance dog or wheelchair, please let the Events Office know by calling 0121 331 5909.

Poet Hayley Frances

Administer the Laughing Gas Poetry / Spoken Word / Ceremonial Sound

An evening of Poetry and Sound as Hayley Frances launches her debut collection, Administer the Laughing Gas (VERVE Poetry Press).

In this experimental live performance, French Multi-Instrumentalist Yoav Yo, Sound Therapist Chris Richardson, and chorus of female poets weave a ceremonial soundscape to accompany the hallucinogenic and meditative poems from Hayley's collection.

Administer the Laughing Gas is an example of grief in translation; a memoir of birth and (m)otherhood; a documentation of how poetry contains and translates emotion.

This performance is brought to you by the Birmingham Literature Festival, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and VERVE Poetry Press.

Hayley Frances poet
Yoav Yo multi-instrumentalist
Chris Richardson sound journeying
Helen Calcutt, Memory Bhuntu, Ayan Adan poet chorus

The Artists

Hayley Frances is a poet whose work explores the psychology of creative writing and its use as a therapeutic medium. She's a poet in Residence for Birmingham Children's and Women's Hospital, the co-founder of THE COLLECTIVE, a writer's development programme for rising poets and an assistant producer for the VERVE Poetry Festival.

Yoav Yo works with a wide range of instruments from around the world, skillfully threading a tapestry of harmonious vibrations, ceremonial sound, and medicinal music.

Chris Richardson has delivered music and sound healing workshops across Europe. For the past 16 years, Chris has studied, developed, and honed varied practices and techniques in composition and holistic aural healing as a way of channelling mindfulness and inner peace through inclusive, accessible, community-led work.

"Inventive, vivid, dreamlike yet unflinching and full to burst with startling images and achingly beautiful language. This is a book that invites new ways of seeing grief, loss, trauma, motherhood and the body with candour, vulnerability, personality and hope. An important and compelling work on the complex journey of survival."
Cecilia Knapp

"This is how grief becomes a stained glass window: beautiful, reflective, imagistic and somehow holy. Gorgeous and terrifying. Read it."
Joelle Taylor

Administer the Laughing Gas aims to support, validate, and raise awareness of child loss and its effects on society. It also intends to acknowledge poetry as a therapeutic medium.

Running time approx. one hour and 30 minutes

Forthcoming events in Guest Artists

Forthcoming dates include: