Two poets, one musician, three landscapes, three journeys through memory, roots and spirit of place

Please join poets Chris Fogg & Chris Waters and saxophonist & composer Rob Yockney for a summer's evening

Cash bar from 7:00

£14 – book at www.creativebeings.uk

Confluence is the second collaboration between poets Chris Fogg & Chris Waters and saxophonist Rob Yockney. Their first, Que Pasa?, was a whirlwind trip around the world asking: 'What's up? What's happening? What's going out there?' and was performed at various venues both pre- and post-pandemic, including for Amnesty International Totnes, Taunton Brewhouse and Burnham Literary Festival.

'The mix of words and music brought home that strange mixture of dynamic movement and introspective analysis that makes travel such an intoxicating activity.' Amnesty International

Chris Fogg is an independent creative producer supporting choreographers working in contemporary dance, as well as a poet, and he has also written and directed plays for companies such as Farnham Maltings, New Perspectives and Flax 303. In 2016 his play Posting to Iraq was performed at the inaugural Women & War Festival in London, while the following year his play Tree House successfully toured to 20 venues across southern England and London. In 2018 he presented All the Ghosts Walk with Us – a collaboration with choreographer & dancer Laila Diallo and musician & composer Phil King at Bristol Old Vic. He has had four books of poems and stories published by Mudlark Press – Special Relationships, Northern Songs, Painting by Numbers and Dawn Chorus, which features woodcut illustrations by Chris Waters, and in 2021 he completed his sequence of 12 novels set in Manchester – Ornaments of Grace – published by Flax Books.

Chris Waters is a poet/tutor/storyteller who has worked extensively across the south-west with young and adult groups and audiences. His poetry has won several national awards, including the prestigious Plough and Bridport prizes, and he was Writer-in-Residence for the Appledore Book Festival in 2010. His collections, Arisaig, Through a Glass, Lately, Dancing Satyr and On London Clay are all published by Mudlark Press. He is a member of Moor Poets, Five Live and a co-founder of Visible Ink, who create performance events featuring poetry and music to raise awareness around a range of global themes. Chris is also a drummer and percussionist, as well as an accomplished woodcut artist and maker.

Rob Yockney is a saxophonist and composer now based in Devon. Classically trained on viola, Rob spent his early years playing in orchestras, before taking up the saxophone, with which he has played in a variety of contexts, including rock, blues, funk and big band, as well as contemporary jazz. A prodigious composer, Rob has travelled extensively and the impressions of the places he has visited provide a constant source of inspiration for his music. He currently plays with The Big Noise Street Band, as well as being a long-standing core member of the Bristol Jazz Workshop and has acquired a loyal following on YouTube.

"Stirring, brain-whirring and playful – chock full of delights…" Quentin Cooper, broadcaster and journalist, former presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Material World on Chris Fogg

"Chris Fogg takes us on a magical, whirlwind tour of his world, with eyes and ears open and heart at full throttle…" Irene Willis, Pushcart Poetry Prize-nominee and Winner of the Violet Haas Award

"A genuinely engaging performer of the spoken word." Melissa Brooks, Co-ordinator of ChagWord Literary Festival on Chris Waters

"Chris Waters is a poet with a lyrical sense of mood and place." Pat Milner, Co-Chair of Appledore Book Festival

"Rob's 'evocative' and 'very atmospheric' piece Machu Picchu brought back some 'fantastic' memories…" YouTube listeners