We started off with a focus on Africa and invited poet Afeif Ismael as a guest artist to perform his poetry and I read from Cafe d'Afrique. The next edition had Aboriginal voices with Aboriginal artist and historian Toogarr Morisson and poet Alf Taylor. The third Small Room focused on science and art with UWA Cultural Precinct guru Ted Snell and SymbioticA chief Oron Catts, and Vivienne Glance's poetry from 'The softness of water'.

 

This year's program starts on Wednesday 24 August at 7pm in Fremantle with guest speaker Karen Kotze and poetry/writing. Cost is $25, includes French delicacies (BYO wine). For bookings and further information email tineke@tinekecreations.com.

 

 

 

Knowing that many people on various continents have purchased my jewellery before, and may like to buy again, I have been thinking of a way to sell jewellery online and ship deliveries. What has held me back was that most of my work consists of one-off pieces, and that they are not particularly cheap and therefore not the usual 'online shopping cart' stuff. My solution is to offer pieces that work well and come in small series to people who are familiar with my work via this newsletter.

 

This is how it works: you email me your order with your size if it is a ring, or any particular requirements such as the desired length for a choker or necklace. I send you the invoice via email which you can pay safely through Paypal. You don't need a paypal account;  you can pay with credit card too. I will send you the piece in a great looking box, with the story behind the piece and materials used enclosed. If you like you can have it sent as a gift to someone special. The piece should arrive no later than three weeks after the order was placed. And of course: money back guarantee if you're not happy.

 

I have selected a few pieces to launch this new system. Please do send me feedback, because I am just dipping my toes in this new rock pool of commercial art. 

 

 

 

 

Janet Jackson, a Perth based poet known for her 'words with attitude and soul' has just written a poem about rock pools, to go with an artwork painted with feet. 'I guess it might be a bit deep for a rock pool,' she says, 'more like the corner of a reef.' If you would like to find out more, go to Creative Connections Art and Poetry Exhibition to be launched at Citifarm on Sunday 7 August 2011.

 

Annamaria Weldon is a Perth based creative writer who won the Nature Writing Prize with 'Treshold Country'. In 2009-2010 Annamaria Weldon was an Adaptation Artist-in-Residence based at Lake Clifton. Sharing the Edge is the research project on wetlands and thrombolites she undertook there in collaboration with naturalist Laurie Smith at SymbioticA - Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts. It has been the catalyst for her nature poems, landscape memoir, work in community education and photography. Annamaria will read from her poetry during the Rock Pools exhibition on 17 September 2011 in the afternoon.

 

 

I will be featuring my own poetry, some of which was published for the first time in Creatrix 11. My most recent work uses a good Belgian tradition of bilinguism and brings the Jacques Prévert and Jacques Brel to an English-speaking audience. If you would like to hear/see this, come to Perth Poetry Club on Saturday afternoon 24 September. That day will be part of 'a 100,000 poets for change' worldwide event. More information: contact Janet Jackson.

 

 

"Cafe d'Afrique by Tineke Van der Eecken is a traditional bildungsroman; a structural and stylistic choice that represents both a strength and a weakness. We get to know the author so well we become engrossed in the minutiae of her life, but such a detailed approach definitely risks becoming monotonous. There is no other voice, no outside perspective into her world. While this book may have a tendency to 'tell' rather than 'show', what it does tell is a fascinating story of one woman's sojourn in Africa, and her foray into small business. One of its pleasures is the way it seems to reveal more about the author than she may have intended -- in fact, this is probably one of the best things about it. The way you end up liking Tineke, sympathising with her, and really wishing her -- and her future ventures -- well. I found myself wanting to know so much more than appears on these pages: more about her mother and, indeed, the rest of her family; more about relationships with men, and friends. What is doing now, and what has been the effect of reflecting on her time in Africa and who she was then? How does she feel about what she did and who she was? (I'd also love to know how she's found Australia so far, indigenous platitudes aside.) The attempt to maintain an objective voice, as though the truth is inevitably told through the marshalling  of chronological facts, detracts from the passion and possible insight at the heart of this story. It's about the trials and tribulations Tineke undergoes as she sets up a unique 'cultural restaurant' where locals and tourists alike can sample authentic Zambian cuisine, music and dance -- while still working at her official job. I found myself longing for more interiority. Then again, this book doesn't claim to be a comprehensive autobiography, more a slice of life -- or perhaps I should say a slice out of a life. While other readers may side with me in wanting more psychological revelations or philosophical reflections, they would be out of character for this author/narrator, which is as good an example as any, of the kind of unconscious disclosure this book seems to offer about Tineke's true character. But, after all, it doesn't claim to be about Tineke, but about Africa (as seen through the story of Cafe d'Afrique). And as such it is an absolute education. It's an honest, informative account of both a particular country and the more general experience of living overseas. The heat and the smells of the continent seem almost to rise from the pages. It is, in the end, perhaps recognised as a mud map; a rough sketch drawn by one traveller for another, an outline of the terrain by someone who has been there for someone who may go."

 

What do you think of the book? Have you read it? Would you recommend it?

Send me your review and I will publish it on my website www.tinekevandereecken.com.

 

Cafe d'Afrique is available from First Edition Bookshop, a site book clubs and book lovers will enjoy discovering.

If you have switched to Kindle, you will be able to download a copy of the book on Amazon at a democratic price of $2.99.