Culture comes to Greenwich this week in all forms, with a packed diary of music, poetry and arts events all over town and plenty of opportunities for everyone to get involved.
For music geeks like me, The Greenwich International Early Music Festival and Exhibition at the Old Royal Naval College is undoubtedly the highlight of the week. As well as providing an opportunity to see and touch ye olde musical instruments such as hurdy-gurdies, sackbutts and crumhorns, the festival is also bringing them back to life with a series of concerts and master classes.
Catering for the thoroughly modern end of the musical spectrum is Greenwich Theatre’s Showstopper. This musical is 100% improvised on the night based on audience suggestions, so I can’t tell you what it’s about yet, but it’s been a huge success to date and will no doubt be just as well received this time. If that whets your appetite for participation, you can to get creative at the Cockpit Arts Studio in Deptford, who are holding hat-making classes from Tuesday. There’s also a Kickstart Photography Workshop on Sunday afternoon at the Viewfinder Gallery, where participants pick a theme together, then go off and take photographs before reconvening to compare results.
The spoken word is the order of the day at the Albany, with Beyond Worlds Remixed on Tuesday evening. Four South African poets, including Poet Laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile, will be showcasing their talent and sharing the stage with young British rappers and emcees (MCs) from the group SLAMbassadors. Tuesday’s obviously a day for poetry in Greenwich, as the Observatory are holding a Poems of Space evening, looking at the relationship between verse and science.
Finally, if your son or daughter is keen to follow in the footsteps of Greenwich’s own Rachel Adedeji (OK, so I know she’s out of the X Factor now but she’s still done pretty well), then Greenwich Community College are holding an open evening on Tuesday. Rachel’s course, Musical Theatre, is a specialty of theirs but they run courses for school leavers in a wide range of practical disciplines from Mechanics to Fashion.