'A Shanty For Cornish Youth' Digital Release
A SHANTY FOR CORNISH YOUTH out now!
The award-winning exploration of Cornish emigration and identity which blends poetry, music and from the source interviews is finally available to listen and buy on bandcamp. You can listen for free, but every purchase directly supports me to create so please consider buying it for the minimum price or more if you are able.. It was released on BBC 6 Music in 2021, but this is the first time you will be able to hear it since.
thecornishwriter.bandcamp.com/
This digital album includes the full version of the award-winning 'A Shanty For Cornish Youth' as well as each poem from the piece as a separate stand alone track for easy re-listening AND a bonus poem not included anywhere else.
“My story is as old as my mother tongue;
I grew up in Cornwall, young, full of life
Left and didn't come back
My story is old but far from unique”
Through poetry, interviews and music, A Shanty For Cornish Youth explores Cornish brain drain; the emigration of young minds looking for opportunities elsewhere, and whether they can keep hold of their identity in their new environment. Is it any different now, than when our ancestors sailed to Australia and beyond? Contributions from five Cornish folk punctuate the poetry and tell the stories of why they left, where they are now and how they got there. Only one has made it back to Cornwall, thirty years later. The others live in Wales, Bristol and as far away as The Netherlands. Will they ever be able to return? Do they even want to?
Each poem is inspired by themes raised in the interviews and by my own experience of leaving home for the siren song of the city. Together we find connections in our exile; the struggle to hold a secure job, the stretching of what 'home' means to us, and the search for a community, all highlighted by a reel of traditional and contemporary Cornish music by Dalla.
A Shanty For Cornish Youth was produced as part of New Creatives which was supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts.
By Taran Spalding-Jenkin
Music by Dalla
Producer – Mair Bosworth
Executive Producer – Jeremy Routledge
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