Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad and West Side Story. Part of the World Shakespeare festival.

Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad: reset in contemporary Iraq, where sectarian strife between Sunni and Shia ignited and fuelled from the outside has left the population exhausted by a cycle of violence and revenge. This is an Iraqi Theatre Production in Arabic with English subtitles.

West Side Story: A full-scale production of Bernstein’s West Side Story with new choreography and features the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra of The Sage Gateshead, conducted by renowned conductor and musical director John Wilson.

World Shakespeare Festival - Official Website

These events will mark the opening of the multi million pound Titanic Belfast attraction and commemoration services on the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. There's a range of plays, tours, talks, films and major musical events all positioning Belfast as the 'home' of Titanic. In total there are around 120 events for everyone to enjoy.

The Titanic Belfast Festival - Official Website

One of the most exciting choreographers currently producing new work in the world today takes
2 of his most startling works on a tour of the UK after returning from South Korea and Taiwan.

Hofesh Schecter - Official Website

Witness a landmark in the history of British music, as Master of the Queen’s Music Sir Peter Maxwell Davies reaches his own Ninth Symphony. Dedicated to the Queen as a Diamond Jubilee tribute, and commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The symphony will be
inspired by the events of her long reign.

The Royal Philharmonic - Official Website

Packed with events, talks and tours as well as major world class exhibitions, some by artists
living in the city and others by leading international figures. The GI Festival offers a unique
moment in the British cultural calendar and presents Glasgow’s art scene at its liveliest and
best, it also includes significant commissions of new work.

The Glasgow International Festival - Official Website

A gathering of fans and choirs sing aboard the historic ship The Matthew and at the Trelissick Garden. The Falmouth Sea Shanty festival is the largest free festival of maritime music on the planet.

The Falmouth Shout - Official Website

Dear Tina,

The day I discovered how she survived the civil war,
how she saw her friends pass like minutes into oblivion,
how she screamed through drop zones and Morse codes
into jungle, dodging bullets, hiding and crying into rain,

The day I discovered my grandfather heard her wailing,
felt something enough to move him after her, in darkness,
through rain, how her eyes, found in the flickering bounce
of hurricane lamps, showed a place so pure, he sailed her

Away to the embrace of Paris, the kiss of Rome, the world
with its wide welcoming dome. The day I discovered this,
why she called him hero, she died. Peacefully, 90 years old.
He followed an hour after, again into darkness.

All those years, he never let go. That day, I realised we live
in different worlds; friends pass too fast for minutes, wars
come after X Factor, turtle dove romances exist in the past.

But I will send one sentence to you. One text message
screaming through wifi zones, digital codes, dodging
ones and zeros, like bullets and anti-heroes, promising

If ever you’re lost in this urban jungle,
i'll find and bring you in from the rain.

Portrait of Prometheus: As a basketball player

His layup starts from mountains
not with landslide, rumble or some gorgon clash of titans, but as shadow-fall across stream
some thief in the night black Christ
type stealth.
In the nights before this,
his name, whispered in small circles, muttered by demigods and goddesses, spread rebellious,
rough on the tongues of whores and queens,pillows pressed between thighs, moaning.
Men will call him father, son or king of the court. His stride will ripple oceans,feet whip crack quick, his back will scar, hunched over, a silent storm about him.
Both hands blurred, scorched, bleeding;you see nothing but sparks splash off his palms, hear nothing but breeze beneath his shuck ‘n’ jive towards the basket carved of darkness, net of soil and stars.
Fearing nothing of passing from legend to myth, he fakes left, crossover, dribbles down
the line, soars an eagle chained
to hang time.

To commemorate thirty years since Kraftwerk's 'The Model' went to number one in the UK chart, BBC 6 Music pays tribute to this influential, but secretive German group.

6 Music's Kraftwerk Day