Friday night was a revelation. Firstly, I met Imtiaz Dharker. The Universe opened a door to a place I did not know existed, and in she walked. The sonnet she wrote about her husband, after his passing, is possibly one of the most perfect pieces of poetry I have ever heard.
It was also the night when I got to see Joelle Taylor perform for the first time. Nobody has ever used Zoom in quite that way before for me ever, and it was enough to reduce me to tears.
There will be those who might try and malign the hybridity of this, but the visuals worked perfectly. The microphone is being performed behind. That’s the key. This is the space where magic is created, and it was just that. This was the perfect balance of female experience too, from different spaces and into an incredibly willing mind. Even now, I’m still not totally sure it all took place at all. It had the intensity of a fever dream and the impact of a full-blown storm.
By the end of the evening, I knew I’d made the right choice to travel in person, though. It would have been magnificent at home, but being there was transcendent.
That T-shirt is now one of the most important things I own. It was properly earned too…
laughing-geek.com 