Sunday 6th June 2021 to
Saturday 12th June 2021
A series of online and live events from the Estuary including radio broadcast, film screenings and live music performances. Including an interim online show of the ACE funded project With Me Be Us sponsored by Medway Council and Medway Child Mental Health services. Each event will narrate tales inspired by the Thames Estuary telling stories crossing the borders and connecting and bridging cultures from land and seas, in collaboration with the writer Barry Fentiman-Hall and various artists from Italy, England and Northern Ireland.
Programme
Monday 7 June – 20:00
DUALITY - Online live event of poetry reading and live music
Tuesday 8 June
16:00 - WITH ME BE US, an interim online show, featuring music video and exhibition of a work-in-progress graphic novel
20:00 - Online film screening premiering Flying Lessons and With Me Be Us
Friday 11 June
17:00 - Live video broadcast of Estuary poetry readings and a music performance
20:00 - Online film screening premiere of SUBSTRATA
Saturday 12 June – 16:00
Tales of Lands and Seas
Live streamed and at Nucleus Art Centre, Chatham, ME4 4BP (Follow HERE for booking link)
> Film screening of The Mermaid of the Estuary and poetry reading by Barry Fentiman-Hall
> Premiere of 2A-LTY's musical poems from the album Calliope
> Music performance by Ruairi O'Hare Nucleus Art Centre
Sunday 13 June – 15:00
2A-LTY Chilling near the Estuary
An online event to chat and discuss music, lands and seas. Presented by: Extended Circle Music Lab
All online and streamed events can be accessed here
About the artists
2A-LTY is a creative collaboration between Nadia Perrotta and Ruairi O’Hare Nadia Perrotta is a Kent based visual artist with a socially engaged practice, working across performance, illustration, moving image and creative writing. She has extensive experience of working participatively and at depth with people, including commissions in the public realm. Nadia has 15 years experience of working in close collaboration on art projects internationally and with local communities in London, North Kent, with young people in Dartford, Gravesham and Medway, with secondary schools and colleges, and with a range of commissioners, local authorities and community partners.
Ruairi O’Hare is a songwriter, musician and visual artist. He writes songs with a focus on young people addressing topics such as anxiety, depression and addiction using social media platforms to reach out and create solace for people suffering with mental health issues through his music. Ruairi O’Hare has been working as an independent multimedia artist including song writing illustrations and design for the past 20 years. Ruairi public presence due to the pandemic is mostly on line, although in the past he has often performed also in front of public audiences and local communities. His strength is in the way he uses social media platforms to reach out and create solace for people suffering with mental health issues through his music. In the Summer 2020 they started collaborating in various projects, including films, music videos, animation, online performances.
What makes 2A-LTY, unique is the story behind their collaboration. They met through social media just after the first pandemic lockdown. They first met during one of Ruairi's Facebook’s online events for a group of people suffering with mental health issues. They were both struggling with mental health and personal issues. Nadia after surviving Covid19 was still suffering with post-covid PTSD and fatigue, for months unable to talk or breath properly. Ruairi was fighting against depression and alcohol addiction, almost wanting to give up on his music. When he learned about Nadia’s struggles he wrote songs for her as breathing exercises. Practicing those songs helped Nadia to improve her breathing, regaining emotional and physical strength. When Ruairi saw the effects of his music on Nadia’s well-being, he decided to turn his life around, began his own battle determined to win his addiction and started writing music again. They continued their collaboration supporting each other creating musical storytelling of friendship and hope through a four-dimensional system of duality mirror symmetry.
Image: Still from the film Substrata
Photo: Enzo Masullo
