Heather Phillipson & Philip Gross on Radio 3
The Verb: The Common or Vulgar Verb, BBC Radio 3, Friday 5 July 2019, 10pm
Bloodaxe poets Philip Gross and Heather Phillipson were guests on Radio 3’s The Verb on 5 July.
'What kind of writing and behaviour gets called 'vulgar' and how does 'vulgar' relate to the word 'common'? The Verb explores the power of both words: their power to hurt and shame, the way they help, hinder and enlighten us - and asks whether we can do without them. Poets Philip Gross, Jacqueline Saphra, Heather Phillipson (the next artist to be curating the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square) and writer Cathy Rentzenbrink join Ian McMillan.'
Heather read extracts from her long poems ‘some things’ and ‘more flinching’ from her recently-published second collection Whip-hot & Grippy.
Philip read ‘Railway Weeds’ from his latest Bloodaxe collection A Bright Acoustic, plus his poem ‘Same-Psalm’ from his Cinnamon Press collection I Spy Pinhole Eye. The programme ended with Philip reading his poem ‘Blue Dot’ from his 2015 Bloodaxe collection Love Songs of Carbon. As the podcast extra, he read extracts from a poem from A Fold In The River, his collaboration with artist Valerie Coffin Price, published by Seren in 2015. Philip’s next collection Between the Islands will be published by Bloodaxe in March 2020.
Click here to listen. Both Heather and Philip joined the opening discussion about vulgarity, Heather features at 7.50. Philip is interviewed at 29.54, and reads again at 42.31 and in the podcast extra.
Heather Phillipson's sculpture THE END on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, mentioned in the programme, was due to launch in March 2020 - more here. The planned unveiling has been postponed until later in the year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
[09 July 2019]
