Outlet 10

 first issue in 1986. Apart from things that Outlet and later Write Around stimulated, developments were being planned for the arts locally as part of a wider economic plan to attract businesses and executives from the south to relocate here. The Evening Gazette ran a series of articles on it at the time. Some of the things mention in our editorial are now well established. The Teasdale area of Stockton for instance. Here is the special editorial from Outlet 10 which was part of aseries of Devil’s Advocate columns in Outlet. This issue of Outlet was used in the making of the BBC 2 Open Space programme about Outlet and Write Around in 1990.

Beauty

Visionaries

Culture

Tees Barrage – Stockton on Tees

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 recording  studios springing up surprisingly along the roadsides of our minds (you mean you never saw the Gazette?). The promise of real culture imported from the lower regions- you know -that stuff from the South..poetry…dance, drama and ‘scope’. (Ok what’s Scope?). A new twenty-first-century art form just coined in need of an activity! Let us know if you come up with anything! Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Teesside in the vanguard of progress! (Issue 11 of Outlet pictured here show the Teasdale area of Stockton as it was then -a derelict industrial area – the photos show it as it is today)

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poetry, dialogue etc. can be seen and shared by other writers. It will enable us to know the forms and content of the work produced in Cleveland. We can learn and improve from seeing each others’ writing ability, styles and the individual angle from which we all approach the subject.

Yes, here we are again with issue 2 of Outlet, packed full of YOUR writing. And what an encouraging response to issue 1! It’s true – as we believed – Cleveland has a wealth of untapped writing talent out there from Hartlepool to Brotton. Our message is – Keep writing, and keep your contributions coming in.

HERE WE ARELET (Written by Viv Harland – in consultation with the Editors)

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Our February /March postbag was crammed with lively writing, including several poems from elderly, housebound people. We’ve picked out some for printing. Mrs Hodgson’s “Praise the Lord” -we’ve shortened slightly, (hope Mrs H wil forgive the editors)…to highlight her experience with Hartlepool’s Torch Prayer meetings.

Outlet No 4

You may have been wondering why this issue has taken longer to reach the printers. Cleveland County and Northern

Outlet No 6

The magazine is one year old and developing in many varied ways towards its purpose: to encourage,enable and reflect the talent for writing present in Cleveland. From work sent in over the last year it has become evident that this talent exists and needs nurturing.There have been many new approaches to the craft and with every new edition the magazine itself has changed and developed.

The editorial for this essay consisted of the aims already published above in this post.

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The editorial for No 8 consisted of a re-statement of the aims but with a few paraphrases. It acknowledge the help of Community Arts Middlesbrough and The Workers Educational Association under the Tutor/Organiser -ship of Maude Warwick and Cleveland County Library Service.

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Just when you thought Outlet had bitten the dust, out comes another issue to startle letter boxes and library counters, packed full of people’s poems n prose. Outlet was always more than a magazine and despite its none appearance of late, we’ve been out and about with our watering cans bringing a little fertility to Cleveland’s ‘cultural desert’, and, we’re pleased to say, new shoots are arising everywhere. Hang on for the low-down but first an explanation. Wintertide was grant renewal time for Outlet and our two year-old relationship with Northern Arts ended with a ‘Dear John‘ letter (Well Dear Outlet) anyway! Our thanks to them for their assistance in getting Outlet established and enabling us to achieve its initial objectives….With any luck we can count on continued Cleveland County support, if we can achieve a second funding source. Irons are  in the fire grant-wise! Meanwhile we are saying to the readership Help! we need some money! The developmental mission of Outlet necessitates that we keep it free and widely available to encourage new and developing writers and spread the seeds of creativity through this wide and wonderful county. So we are asking those who can afford it and want to help keep Outlet going to send us £2 subscription which will guarantee you 6 issues (or a years supply) of Outlet direct by post. Any additional donations would not be frowned upon…

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Outlet is growing! We’re now 12 pages long and 2000 copies wide. 56 poems by 36 local authors etched upon these pages. You’ll find the winning Write Around poems on the Write Around page and a profile of a local published writer on the workshop page. We’ve given over the centre pages to a local writers group. As as we ‘grasp..like a man of mettle’ the nettle of time, money and organisation, more will appear in the form of articles, reviews and assorterie, We are also installing a metaphoric clocking-in machine to ensure the punctuality of this would-be bi-monthly Fist-of-Cleveland-Culture magazine. The Fist welcomes Bill Sinclair – New Arts officer for Langbaugh and thanks to Jackie Franks and Cleveland County Leisure and libraries for financial and moral support. Fisticuffs begin in the autumn with the possible formation of a federation of local writers groups. Some groups are already interacting.A letter will go out to groups soon. Write Around was overall a great success and promises to be even greater next year. Volunteers are needed, especially with publicity, fund-raising and admin. If you can help then don’t hesitate in contacting Alyson Perry ate Berwick Hills Library, Middlesbrough. Do it NOW – Write Around Needs You! Cleveland county Libraries have ensured that Cleveland will have a sizeable section in the NORTHERN ECHO’S bi-monthly literary pull-out called THE PAGE. Show them their’s some life in Cleveland by sending plenty of poems and short stories to The Page, c/o Frank Jenkins, Redcar Central Library. There will be an issue out early September and December this year. (In actual fact there wasn’t another until April 1990 and another (final one in March 1991) owing to funding difficulties.).

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Welcome to OUTLET 11. Apologies for the delay. (In addition to funding problems) the grand order of PRATT  has been bestowed on yours truly for grievous bodily loss of the Outlet layouts –  lock, stock and wheel-barrow! The newly-neatly lazer printed layouts were left one wind-bashed evening at a bus-stop in Guisborough shortly after Christmas. They obviously fell into unpoetic hands as we never got them back. Art-work,scripts, computer disc went. Despondency jumped up and down on us while we re-gathered materials, scripts and the spirit to go on! The setting up of a less flashy home-computer system (Amstrad) followed to help make things simpler. So we’re back in business. Some of these articles have matured a little therefore. Sadly Mary Williams (Poetry 20+) passed away shortly after Margaret Weir interviewed her for Outlet. The article now forms a tribute.Outlet and Write Around have also been involved in producing a short film about our work for BBC 2’s OPEN SPACE programme. More on that inside (on on this site)!.

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It is good to see so many young people writing in Cleveland today.Some of their poems appear in this issue in among the general work and in addition we’ve printed a special double page of work by children from Bydale’s School in Marske. Outlet is however open to writers new and old and even if you wrote your first poem at the age of 96 we want to hear from you. Continue to send us your poems and stories and we’ll endeavour to provide an outlet for your work. Outlet is Cleveland’s original community-based creative writing magazine and is available free from libraries throughout Cleveland and from the Outlet address.

Rukhsana Ahmad was born in Karachi and spent her formative years shuttling between major cities in Pakistan. She studied English Literature, then Linguistics at Karachi University, where she also taught briefly. After settling in Britain she resumed her study of English Literature at Reading University. She has freelanced as a writer since 1985 working across several genres but campaigning consistently for Asian writers specially women in her role as Artistic Director of Kali Theatre Company (1994 to 2002).

Inspired by Kenny Foxton getting press coverage for his book in the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette, Saltburn poet Mark Beevers also sent his books to the Gazette and some of the press cuttings are on here.

Marks short, unusual and witty poems were easily accommodated under larger poems where none other would fit but we soon discovered his witty poems were gaining attention with our readers. Mark won the first Outlet poetry competition and a noticed was placed in Cleveland Scene in 1987 (Cleveland Scene was the free whatz on guide that went out free through the libraries like Outlet). As time went on the Outlet editors thought we should co-opt Mark on to the editorial board of Outlet and in 1988 we did so, giving mark his own column. 

Before that however I moved from Middlesbrough to Saltburn in 1988 and got to know Mark personally. At the time Mark Mark put out regular booklets of his poetry which he hand made and sold for ’50p or half a pint of beer in the pub!”. Obviously they were very limited editions.  Mark had some redundancy money, having worked at British Steel and down Boulby mines and I persuaded him to get his books printed. This he did, giving him a much wider distribution. Mark used to place some in very odd places in the hope that some unsuspecting person might pick up and read and hopefully enjoy his work. Mark, being a character, might have included sliding them surreptitiously on to literature shelves in local book stores, dentist waiting room tables, and all sorts of other colourful places!!

We also introduced him to national and international small poetry press network and Mark began to get reviews of his books and poems published in many of these magazines as can be seen from the reviews on the back of his.

finished Mark had a greater insight into publishing from the printing side and while he was already writing a column for Outlet, reviewing small presses, he was befriended by the newest local poetry magazine Exile, whose editors, Ann Elliot and John Herbert Marr now also lived in Saltburn. Ann and John were fans of Marks poems and also included some of them in their magazine and when Mark’s job finished in Loftus, he went to work with Ann on another Community programme in  Middlesbrough, using his new learned skills to produce the magazine ET (Extra Tenner) which was a stripped down version of the former Community Programme. Mark was commended by Prince Charles for this work and there’s press cutting to go with that.

Between 1988 and 1991 therefore Mark’s isolation as a local poet had been transformed in so many ways, now with his own publishing imprint, co-editor of two magazines, having worked on two related Community programme schemes and having learnt valuable skills and well published by the small presses, and taken a couple of steps towards performance poetry with music.In 1990 Mark appeared in the audience on a BBC2 Open Space Programme we made about the work of Outlet and Write Around. Unfortunately, despite hours of filming, the programme had to be edited down to a 10 min slot on a half hour programme about Community

 Arts Projects in the North East of England so we weren’t able to include all the local poets we would have liked to, including Mark but does at lest appear in it and was invited to join in a follow up  – which unfortunately never saw light of day.

 Evening Gazette and between 1990 and 2000,Mark had many of his popular poems published in the Gazette. In 1992, Mark joined another employment scheme working on a Dormanstown Community Newspaper and created one for Saltburn called Saltburn Scene. Satlburn scene consisted of adverts, local information, a double page of local history or new age or rock music snippets and a Pen Pages mostly of his own poems but also some from contributors. Saltburn Scene went door to door in Saltburn on a monthly basis until around 2000.

In between time Mark had written lyrics for local bands and (while on yet another employment scheme – this time acting) began writing short humorous sketches – some of which were performed as part of the Stockton International Riverside Festival and later The Writers Cafe at ARC also in Stockton. He began attending a WEA drama writing course and developing his writing skills in various ways.

Around the mid to late 90’s Mark showed me a flyer from, I think Peace and Freedom magazine advertising for ‘poems that could be made into song lyrics for a band that are going to be bigger than the Stones” or to that effect. Although we thought that all new bands like to think they are going to be ‘bigger than the Stones’ Mark began sending loads of poems off like he had done with Outlet and talking about poet / lyricists like Jim Morrison etc. In early 2000’s Mark claims to have recognised many of his lines and verses in the work of the Libertines and some Babyshambles songs, although with no credit. This includes the song Albion, which Mark claimed was based on his poem Albion with additional lines from other of his poems and lines that weren’t his. Mark was narked but could consider at least that his work had made a contribution to something much bigger.

Towards the end of the 90’s, Mark was becoming restless in his home town and was looking to expand his horizons. I’d suggested to Mark (who, despite little or no qualifications was well read in literature, rock, ancient and local history and new age) that he consider doing a degree. At the time he wasn’t ready but in the late 90’s he came to me as said he was beginning to consider that option. Mark joined my Creative Writing class in Saltburn and Stiletto Pigeonetto, a performance poet who I’d helped to get on a Technical Writing degree course, and who was also in the writing group, helped to guide Mark towards the right course.I gave Mark a reference based on his involvement with Outlet, the course and the Cleveland writing movement and Mark began a three year degree course in Literature at Teesside University, writing a dissertation on the work of William Blake.

After completing his degree Mark moved to York and again I helped him get on the FE Teaching Course and Mark began teaching Creative Writing himself in York for WEA, and was a writer in residence WH Smith’s for National Poetry day and began a number of broadsheet publications in York, mostly containing his poetry and snippets of local hist of other pieces. Slatburn Scene came to an end and was replaced by the broadsheets like The Good Ship Albion.The Ship’s Log (Saltburn), York Shambles, Yarn Ship, Fulford Flyer, Fishergate Frigate, Scarcroft Flyer, Hesleton Harbinger, Knavesmire Navigator,Wilton Wayfarer, Micklegate Magic Ship, Hobgate Bohemian, Bootham Broadside, Holgate Flagship, (in Yorks) Port-Pattaya Transporter (Thailand).

Kenny Foxton was a Cleveland poet who, although he suffered from a mental illness, managed to make people laugh through his poetry and his bizarre performances. Despite all of the traumas he and his wife went through, he was always there with a bit of wisdom and a twinkle in his eye.

He always claimed his poem Mouldy Old Haddock ( found at the foot of this post) wasn’t a metaphor for the way people sometimes treat those with mental illness, it could have been but was funny for itself.

Kenny, a former bookbinder, had funded his book himself and dedicated it to Richard Holt,  who had helped him and his wife (who had been enabled to live independently in the community) various ways. All proceeds went to Cleveland charities – including the Mental Support Group.

“I enjoy poetry that much, I didn’t want to make any profit from the book.” Said 46 year old Kenny, “who decided to publish after inheriting a small amount of money.”

Kenny Foxton in Outlet 1987

After the WEA class Kenny went on to join Margaret Weir’s Phoenix Poetry Group, taking part in some of the spoken word performances but his big moment came during the second Write Around festival, by which time he’d developed an hilarious stage act called The Shy Viking Poet. There was nothing shy about Kenny who wore a viking helmet and had a risqué act to accompany his poetry. (see photo). Kenny also appeared on Radio Cleveland with the Phoenix Poets with a poem called Rastus the Gnome! Kenny was also published in Outlet and the Evening Gazette’s Noticeboard page and the Write Around Anthologies. Sadly Kenny passed away in the 1990’s, owing, we believe to his illness but his poems always had a wisdom or solace about them and still raise a smile. Here are a few and the book will be on here as a Pdf fi