Our recent performance of The Unfinished Dream was an opportunity to protest, express grief and solidarity, and turn to hope – on the night Donald Trump was confirmed as the President-elect of the US.

On Wednesday 9th November, The Fey Din plus Special Guests – Hakarl and [Sub]Atomic – put on an eclectic gig of experimental sounds, music & poetry at the Caroline of Brunswick in Brighton.  Hakarl opened the night with a medley of American protest songs and an experimental violin piece.

As [Sub]Atomic, Joe & I performed extracts from The Unfinished Dream with projected visuals.  Words of protest included these from the poem Saille : Willow

The things you do [in my name] are not on my behalf.  I add my name to thousands who stand against you – my [blind and silent] voice screams in [dead] air and [nobody] awakes.  This house does not crumble.  Dismembered voice.  Forgotten dreams.  A disembodied silence is my muted cry to [in]different ears.

Inside speech’s silent centre my [sub]atomic bomb explodes

Across my chest and abdomen, the quotation

WORD IS WOUND

BLOOD IS SILENCE

is written in menstrual blood.

The quote is taken from the poem Straif, which has just been published in the new anthology from Eyewear Publishing – #NousSommesParis – published to ‘commemorate the outpouring of support and empathy with the victims immediately after the [Paris] attacks [of November 2015] and attempt to recapture the collective, human response to the horror, prior to its use as a political tool. Ideally, these poems offer a way out of the vengeful cycle that acts of terror seek to inspire.’  A timely statement of protest.

Headlining the night, The Fey Din wove improvised and experimental sounds in ways that raised the vibrational energy through the ceiling to lift us into strength, solidarity and hope.  I listened with my whole body – eyes closed and attuned to the high vibrational energies created by the performance, resonating around and above my crown chakra.

It was the perfect form of protest: expressions of grief, words of awakening, vibrations of hope and healing.

Film & photographs of the performances were taken by Agata Urbaniak whose work photographing Brighton-based artists & performers will be exhibited at Images of Sounds and Words, 13-29 January 2017: Train of Thought Emporium, Worthing.

The Unfinished Dream is available from Sad Press for £6 and #NousSommesParis is available from Eyewear Publishing for £5.