Keighley News reports that the Branwell Brontë on a Bicycle landart has won the Tour de Yorkshire competition!
The winner of the Tour de Yorkshire Land Art competition has been unveiled as an image of Branwell Brontë riding his bicycle – in the year which marks his 200th anniversary.
This iconic artwork was designed by Andrew Wood from the Fields of Vision team, and created with help from schoolchildren at Haworth Primary School, where the image was created.
The huge artwork measured 80 by 65 metres and was made using recycled materials including waste marquee carpet and an incredible 3,000 plant pots.
Branwell’s head and hands were sprayed on with grass-friendly paint, while pupils placed and pegged the plant pots into position on their school field to create the bike.
Not only does 2017 mark the anniversary of Branwell Brontë’s birth, but it also marks 200 years since the invention of the first bicycle.
This year, the Tour de Yorkshire Land Art competition drew almost 4,500 public votes – a record breaking figure.
Today (June 21), Sir Gary Verity, the race director of the Tour de Yorkshire, presented Andrew Wood, the Fields of Vision volunteers and the Haworth schoolchildren with the 2017 Land Art trophy.
Sir Gary, who is also chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “This is a fitting winner as the image of Branwell riding his bicycle is a perfect tribute to two trademarks of Yorkshire – the Brontës and cycling.”
Mr Wood, leader of Worth Valley Young Farmers Club’s Fields of Vision project, said: “Having co-organised Sue Ryder’s Brontë Sportive each July for eight years I have always wanted us to do a land art that would link Haworth and cycling.
“The fact 2017 marks both 200 years of Branwell and featured the Tour de Yorkshire coming through the village meant this was the perfect time to do it.
"We are delighted with how it turned out and want to thank everyone who voted for us.”
Helen Thompson, head teacher at Haworth Primary School, said: “The children thoroughly enjoyed using the recycled materials to bring this image of Branwell on a Bike to life to mark the Tour de Yorkshire coming through our village this year.
"We would like to thank the Fields of Vision team for all of their work and support.
"And we would also like to thank everyone who took the time to vote for Branwell in this competition. We feel honoured to have been voted as the winners this year.” (Miran Rahman)
BBC News reports it too.
Keighley News gives some details of the upcoming Poetry at the Parsonage event:
Through the day there will be talks, readings and workshops by leading poets, including Simon Armitage, Patience Agbabi, Jacob Polley, Kei Miller, Zaffar Kunial and Clare Shaw.
The visit to Haworth will be personal for Cumbria-born writer Jacob Polley thanks to a youthful misdemeanour.
He said: “When I was a teenager I accidentally-on-purpose boosted a copy of Jane Eyre from my secondary school, so I’m very much looking forward to coming to the Brontë Parsonage, in part to atone for this childhood misdemeanour.
“Though this might be called a ‘poet’s atonement’, which would be no atonement at all, because it’s going to be such fun!”
As well as taking part in an evening poetry reading with his fellow writers, Jacob Polley will lead a workshop entitled Small World.
The TS Eliot-prize winner will explore the close-in and the seldom-examined, as well as the micro-decisions that people make when they write a poem.
Jacob’s recent anthology Jackself was described by one judge as “a firework of a book; inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling”.
Patience Agbabi will lead a workshop entitled Telling Tales – Page to Stage focusing on her modern-day interpretation of Chaucer. (...)
Poetry at the Parsonage, which will be held on Saturday, July 1, is aimed at both fledgling poets and those wanting to build on their talents.
A spokesman said: “There’s the opportunity to gain inspiration and hone your skills through workshops and open mic.” (Richard Parker)
The San Diego Gay & Lesbian News reviews The Roustabouts Theatre Company's humorous take on
Wuthering Heights, Withering Heights.
Poor Emily Brontë.
She only wrote one book, and now look what’s happened to it.
Those two crazy guys, Phil Johnson and Omri Schein, have crammed one of the favorite novels of 19th-century English lit – “Wuthering Heights” – into a zany one-act play in which the two of them play all the parts.
Or at least all 14 listed in the program.
Huh? Yes, you read it right.
But wait.
The world premiere of their “Withering Heights” may lack proper respect for the book, but it sure doesn’t lack for imagination, goofiness, hilarity or (let’s just say it up front) fart jokes.
Diversionary Theatre is the host and David Ellenstein (of North Coast Repertory Theatre) the director for this wild-haired laugh fest. Johnson and Schein are two of the lights behind scrappy new startup The Roustabouts Theatre Co.
Johnson plays Nelly the maid, who tells us “that lady who wrote the book got it wrong” and offers to tell us “the real story.”
And we’re off, that poor homeless boy Heathcliff (Johnson) with the gypsy look adopted by Mr. Earnshaw (Schein) and moving into the same household with the lovely Catherine (Schein), inspiring both jealousy from the “real” Earnshaw son Hindley (Johnson) and forbidden love between the gypsy and Catherine.
There’s also illness, unexpected pregnancy, revenge, death and applesauce (did I mention that this is a 19th-century novel?)
And those 14 characters, all portrayed by Johnson and Schein with minimal scenic and costume design changes.
A rear projection tells us we’re on the Moors, or in one of the two houses. Lighting by Curtis Mueller clues us in on time and James Olmstead’s music gives emotional cues.
Costume changes take place behind an enormous, curtained fake gold picture frame. So Johnson is Nelly with a white flowered apron-like cloth around his waist, and young Catherine with that same cloth used as a shawl.
Watch for other additions, like Johnson’s sock-puppet dog (a hoot) and Schein’s thick-as-London-fog accent as pipe-smoking servant Joseph. And for those hilariously awful wigs by Peter Herman.
Oh my.
But mainly, don’t miss the wild and crazy show. (Jean Lowerison)
The San Diego Union-Tribune recommends it as well.
On the
BookBub Blog, author Markus Zusak recommends 10 classic books including
Wuthering Heights:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Considered lurid and shocking by mid-19th-century standards, Wuthering Heights was initially thought to be such a publishing risk that its author, Emily Brontë, was asked to pay some of the publication costs. A somber tale of consuming passions and vengeance played out against the lonely moors of northern England, the book proved to be one of the most enduring classics of English literature.
The turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff spans two generations — from the time Heathcliff, a strange, coarse young boy, is brought to live on the Earnshaws’ windswept estate, through Cathy’s marriage to Edgar Linton and Heathcliff’s plans for revenge, to Cathy’s death years later and the eventual union of the surviving Earnshaw and Linton heirs.
A masterpiece of imaginative fiction, Wuthering Heights (the author’s only novel) remains as poignant and compelling today as it was when first published in 1847.
Zusak’s recommendation: “Again, it gets better over time, and I can’t help but love the ferocity of the writing — Heathcliff and Catherine love almost viciously, and we can love them without necessarily liking them.”
BookBub Blog also recommends '18 Classic Books to Read If You Love
‘Downton Abbey’', including
Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Bronte’s enduring classic — the story of a young woman’s quest for love and acceptance in Victorian England.
The young orphan Jane Eyre inhabits a fragile position. Born to a good family but with no wealth of her own, Jane is sent to live with her uncle’s family — an arrangement that turns sour when he dies – -and then to Lowood, a punitive and tyrannically run boarding school for girls. As she matures into adulthood, Jane’s fiery spirit and independence grow more acute, as does her sensitivity to the world around her. Now governess of the secluded Thornfield Hall, the first place she has ever really felt at home, Jane falls in love with the passionate and impulsive Edward Rochester, master of the house. Just when it seems her luck has finally changed, Jane discovers the secret of the attic — a terrible revelation that threatens to destroy her dreams of happiness forever.
Narrated in the unforgettable voice of its remarkable heroine, Jane Eyre is a timeless tale of heartbreak, mystery, and romance that shines a brilliant light into the dark corners of Victorian society. (Shayna Murphy)
Dallas News reviews the book
The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times by Christopher de Bellaigue.
Part of the problem was that, from a Muslim perspective, much of Enlightenment culture was, in fact, debased. As de Bellaigue notes early on, a novel like Jane Eyre would make no sense to many Muslim readers of the time. It wasn't just that they'd see an unmarried woman taking charge as an aberration, or ask why Rochester didn't simply take Jane as his second wife. Elements of the story British readers would accept as givens, such as newspapers and regular postal delivery, were far from commonplace in the Middle East, where even the printing press was viewed by domineering religious elites with skepticism, a potential agent of disruption. (Ron Hogan)
Cracked lists '5 Movies That Taught A Lesson Its Characters Totally Ignored', including
Mr. Keating From Dead Poets Society Wants His Students To Think Outside The Box, But Teaches Them The Box [...]
Where was Maya Angelou? Claude McKay? Elizabeth Browning? Emily Dickinson? Frederick Douglass? Any of the Brontë sisters? There were like half a dozen Brontë sisters! [erm?] These people were all prominent poets and writers by 1959, when the movie takes place. And if you ask Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, who's kind of a real-life Mr. Keating, he'll tell you: "If you don't want to deal and relate and think about what it means to be a woman in this planet -- you're going to have serious problems. The same with dealing with the question of ethnicity and race."
Ironically, by teaching an all-white, all-male syllabus, Mr. Keating is reinforcing the same cultural homogeneity that he's trying to beat out of his students. It's almost as if this movie was made for and by upper-class white males. But that can't be right ... (James Kinneen)
Coincidentally, the Australian edition of
The Huffington Post is of the opinion that 'Blokes Should Read More Books If They Want To Have Sense And Sensibilities'.
Further, we can learn about courage and conviction and the respect of women in 'Jane Eyre', resilience and perseverance in the job market in 'The Grapes of Wrath', compassion and forgiveness in 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' or the perils of chasing fortune and fame in 'The Great Gatsby'. (James Bitmead)
A Thousand Lives of Frankie Lovely posts about
Wuthering Heights.
Finally, the
Jane Eyre UK Tour Twitter account shared a video about the music that plays during the show.
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