INSPIREDBYBLAKE
Events
Whatever your area of interest, there's an Inspired By Blake event for you... From poetry readings to printmaking workshops, from rapping to religion, Blackwell's celebration of Blake has something for everyone. For tickets to any event, please phone 01865 333623, or visit the customer service desk in the bookshop. For enquiries, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.
Our main events listing can be found on our website.
Inspired By Blake
Launch Event, with Philip Pullman, Caspar Henderson, and Iain Sinclair
When / Where:
Sunday 18th January, 3pm
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
£10
This panel discussion opens the festival and examines the many different aspects of William Blake, his influence on thought and culture, and his relevance today. The panel features Philip Pullman (who is President of the Blake Society), Iain Sinclair (author and pschogeographer, whose book ‘Blake’s London’ examines Blake’s relationship with our capital) and Caspar Henderson, whose new book will be ‘A New Map of Wonders’, a book about wonder and things that make the world astonishing.
Schola Cantorum of Oxford, the university's premiere chamber choir, will begin the evening with a performance of settings of Blake's poems by Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Tavener, and Emil Råberg.
Printing Workshops with Michael Phillips
When / Where:
Friday 16th, 10am-12pm and
1-2:30pm.
Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th, 10am-12:pm and 2-4pm
Tuesday 20th-Friday 23rd, 10am-12pm and 2-4pm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
FREE
Join Professor Michael Phillips, guest curator of the exhibition, as he prints on a 19th-century printing press, demonstrating the different stages of the print process. Originally trained as a printmaker, Professor Phillips has a unique insight into William Blake's printing techniques and has been researching and recreating Blake's method of relief-etched copper plates.
The workshop is running on both days at 10.30-12 and 2-4, and is free with the price of a ticket to the exhibition. Please inquire at the Ashmolean for further details.
NEXT EVENT
Blake and His Visions
When / Where:
Thursday 29th January, 7pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
Blake's visions have long been a topic of debate by scholars, artists and poets; and now, in this age of neuroscientific advancement, they are being considered by psychologists too. AXNS invites four panelists - Buddhist poet Maitreyabandhu, Professor Christopher Rowland, graduate student Lucy Kellett and Professor Glyn Humphreys, Head of Department for Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford to consider the questions: How useful is it to look at Blake's visions through Psychology? Does it detract from his artistic intent? And were Blake's visions purely visual?.
For tickets, please phone 01865 333623, or visit the Customer Service desk in Blackwell's Bookshop, or for enquiries, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk
Ruth Rosen: William Blake – Man Without A Mask
When / Where:
Tuesday 20th January 2015, 7pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
Blake and His Contemporaries Balloon Debate
When / Where:
Thursday 22nd January, 7pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
Saree Makdisi: Reading in the Spirit of Blake
When / Where:
Friday 23rd January, 4.30pm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
£5/£3
Take an incredible journey through the mind of this great visionary genius as Ruth Rosen performs extracts from every one of Blake’s works from his poetry to his prose to his letters (no ifs, buts, howevers and no interlinking narrative). This event is sure to be hugely inspiring and deeply moving.
William Blake and three of his contemporaries are in a balloon that is plummeting perilously towards Earth. Excess weight will have to be jettisoned. Which figure can justify that they merit their place in the balloon? The panel will include Lyndall Gordon (championing Mary Wollstonecraft), Jonathan Bate (representing Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and Diane Purkiss (speaking as Lord Byron), while Philip Pullman will be taking on the role of Blake himself. An evening that is both educational and highly entertaining is guaranteed!
Grounded in an exploration of the relationship between words and images and the material nature of Blake's illustrated books, this lecture will use the material and formal openness of Blake's work as the basis for learning to read in the spirit of Blake. Saree Makdisi is the professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA.
Tyger, Tyger Saturday Children's Events
When / Where:
Saturday 24th January, 2-5pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
FREE
Children - join us for an afternoon of "Tyger" activities inspired by William Blake's poem "The Tyger." At 2pm, there will be Tyger potato printing for under 7s. At 3.30pm you can enjoy a reading of "The Tiger Who Came To Tea". Then at 4pm, over 7s can take part in our Tyger Tyger poetry workshop where we'll be learning the first verse of the poem off by heart. There will also be prizes for any children who come along dressed as tigers! These are all free activities, just turn up and enjoy!
Testament - Blake and Hip-Hop
When / Where:
Friday 23rd January, 7pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
Shared readings from Songs of Innocence and Experience, and Auguries of Innocence
When / Where:
Sunday 25th January, 10.30am
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
FREE
“Hear the Voice of
the Bard”: Poetry Recitation Workshop
When / Where:
Monday 26th January, 7pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
A special performance from acclaimed rapper and Guinness World Record holding beatboxer Testament ahead of his summer 2015 ‘Blake Remixed’ show. Testament will be performing a mix of spoken word, rap and human beatbox drawing on Blake-influenced material from previous work 'No Freedom Without Sacrifice ’and some of the music from the forthcoming show. Testament’s work shows the continuing line from Blake to contemporary British Hip-Hop and the relevance of William Blake to new forms of creativity.
A Sunday morning of shared readings aloud of Blake’s songs which, though conventional in form, have an extraordinary vitality and unusual depth of meaning. This unusual event allows you to participate in the absolute pleasure and joy of reading aloud with others from the works of William Blake. Guided by Barbara Vellacott, you will experience Blake's wonderful words from a new perspective, using your own voice to discover the unique essence of Blake's poetry.
For William Blake, the human voice and the spoken word were means of divine inspiration, and much of his work is concerned with the relationship between oral and written forms of expression. This workshop will explore some ways of preparing a poetry recitation, using selected Blake poems. Price includes tea/coffee and cake.
Blake and His Visions
When / Where:
Thursday 29th January, 7pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
Blake's visions have long been a topic of debate by scholars, artists and poets; and now, in this age of neuroscientific advancement, they are being considered by psychologists too. AXNS invites four panelists - Buddhist poet Maitreyabandhu, Professor Christopher Rowland, graduate student Lucy Kellett and Professor Glyn Humphreys, Head of Department for Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford to consider the questions: How useful is it to look at Blake's visions through Psychology? Does it detract from his artistic intent? And were Blake's visions purely visual?
LiveFriday: Heaven and Hell
When / Where:
Friday 30th January, 7-10.30pm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
FREE
Enjoy a special Blake-themed edition of LiveFriday, with a programme of live music, performances, workshops and tours throughout the Ashmolean’s galleries. Take a thrilling trip through the museum after dark, and find out how Blake has inspired writers, artists, musicians, and scholars through the ages.
In Blackwell's Book Heaven, you can discover literary paradises and nightmares with Blackwell's: our expert bibliotherapists will help you find book heaven, you tell us your best and worst reading experiences, and then make a choice - will our booksellers read from their idea of book heaven, or book hell? SF Said, author of Varjak Paw, Phoenix, and forthcoming Tyger, will be speaking about his work and Blake's, at 7.20, and leading a workshop on making your own mythology at 7.50; he will be signing before and after his talks.
Contact the Ashmolean for more details.
Waiting for Robert
by Luke Welch
When / Where:
Saturday 31st January, 7-8pm
Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
£5
London, 1827. Poet and engraver William Blake is supposed to be working on an urgent commission for his friend and patron John Hayley. But William is being stalked by the spectre of a terrifying Flea and he knows that only his dead brother, Robert, can save him. As his marriage is put to the test, and his friendship with John sinks into bitter recriminations, William is forced to question both his sanity and the merit of the artistic work that has sustained him throughout the years.
Luke Welch’s Waiting for Robert is a powerful exploration of human creativity and a love that abides all things.