Free Thinking
Ian McMillan presents an edition from Free Thinking 2015, with poet Sean O'Brien, editorial director Debbie Taylor, performance artist Chanje Kunda and musician Camille O'Sullivan.
Ian's guests at Free Thinking include the poet Sean O'Brien celebrating the life and work of Julia Darling, and Debbie Taylor the writer and editorial director of Mslexia magazine on writing and publishing in dialect. Performance artist Chanje Kunda, one of 2015's Verb New Voices will be performing new work, and the multi-talented Camille O'Sullivan will discuss the importance of storytelling to her - as both musician and singer.
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
Last on
![]()
Provocative debate, new ideas, music and performance
Camille O'Sullivan
Singer Camille O鈥橲ullivan explains how she approaches interpreting song lyrics by writers as diverse as Jacques Brel and Nick Cave. She discusses how she comes to fully inhabit a song, and the importance of remembering that the 鈥榣yric is king鈥�. Camille鈥檚 latest album is 鈥楥hangeling鈥� (Little Cat) and she is performing at the Roundhouse on January 31st. More information is
Debbie Taylor
Debbie Taylor is the founding editor of 鈥楳slexia鈥� magazine and the author of the novel 鈥楬erring Girl鈥� (Oneworld), set in a small fishing community in North Shields in 1898 and 2007. When she was writing 鈥楬erring Girl鈥�, Debbie came across the publishing industry鈥檚 unofficial rules for writing in dialect. Especially for The Verb, Debbie has taken inspiration from the Tyne and shares the rules the river taught her about writing.
听
Sean O'Brien
Poet Sean O鈥橞rien celebrates the craft of the writer, performer and teacher Julia Darling, an inspirational figure on the North East writing scene who died in 2005. Sean explains how they collaborated on the Radio 3 play 鈥楾he Black Path鈥�, and shares a poem written in her memory. Sean鈥檚 latest collection, nominated for the T.S. Eliot prize, is 鈥楾he Beautiful Librarians鈥� (Picador), and Julia Darling鈥檚 poetry collections are available from Arc.
听
Chanje Kunda
Chanje Kunda is one of our 2015 鈥榁erb New Voices鈥� 鈥� a scheme to develop new writing and performing talent from across the North of England (in conjunction with Arts Council England. New Writing North, Arvon Foundation, Freedom Studios and The Writing Squad). 听Chanje performs her piece 鈥楪old-Plated Cathedrals of Thought鈥�, which is inspired by her research into the world of Quantum Mechanics.
听
Jo Bell - Podcast Extra
Jo Bell is our 'Podcast Poet' this week. Contiuing the theme of writing from the river, Jo reads her poem 'Severn, from Purton' and explains how the canal informs her writing.
听
听
Broadcast
- Fri 20 Nov 2015 22:00麻豆社 Radio 3
Featured in...
Tearing Up The Rulebook—Free Thinking
Programmes and clips from the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival of ideas, 6-8 November, 2015
麻豆社 Arts
Explore the 麻豆社 Arts website and discover the best of British art and culture.
The Dylan Thomas Collection
Listen to programmes, poetry readings and commentary from Radio 3's Dylan Thomas Day.
Podcast
-
The Verb
Radio 4's cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance.


