skein weekender

Ever wondered what might happen if you immerse in a shared alchemical cloud of story, for two full days?

Find out by joining Poet-facilitators Tom Hirons and Rozi Hilton on a Somerset Weekend  - for a residential laboratory of holographic collaboration. 

A deep-dive community-connection experience, in which you'll participate-in and contribute-to an emergent selection of revelations - into a field of  juxtaposition. 

This is our most extended opportunity so far, to marinade in our 'Council of the Imagination',  and stretch it into realms beyond workshop, as we play together with the duration, inspiration, and landscapes of sharing. 

Skein is a ceremonial circle of images and associations, collectively driven - which will venture into many mysterious territories over the course of a long weekend, as we drop deeply into a semi-psychedelic crucible; like a shared dream... Expect to surrender, as synapses make deer-leaps and the crackling centre becomes something numinous…

“Half Quaker meeting, half dreamtime, and yet another half nonperformative performance. Entirely enchanting, beautiful and bizarre - like a waking sleep”.

"Skein is a fractal, fragmented dreamscape of communal storytelling away from the posture and performance of Storytelling as we have come to know it in a modern age. Tom & Rozi open a democratic and non-hierarchical field for people to know themselves and each other in new and vibrant ways. Sensitively and delicately held, skein is a tender and beautiful technology for weaving an alive sense of what’s in the room, with all contributions equally valued and witnessed.. 

It was amazing to watch as people became more and more emboldened through the process. I experienced inter-realm travel and also an absolute time warp; two hours went by in twenty minutes. As it finished I longed to go on to discover new layers of those in the room as well as of the field itself." 

“When can we do that again?! So much appreciation for the experience you created. The ripples have been powerful, subtle and transformative..  I feel stirred and moved, shaken but also stilled in some way. It was like a conversation of our hearts and imaginations, not a performance but a way to connect in how I want to be seen and bring myself more into this group, the me I know but I don't think others see. The result? .. I discovered something... We found our heart here.”

WHO IS THIS FOR?

You do not have to be a storyteller or have any experience of performing, and there is no need to have any material prepared. However, there will be an expectation to participate, which will involve some public-speaking - however fractured or imperfect it comes out!

The venue does have a twisting staircase up to the group room. Sadly there is not another more accessible route to the upstairs workshop-space, so regrettably we would recommend a level of  mobility which makes this possible.

WHAT TO EXPECT?

Skein is a practice that Tom and Rozi have been honing over the last few years - it involves a group of people responding to a seed image with a stream of resonant images or recollections. In practical terms, this means that the participants respond to prompts (perhaps story, perhaps poetry, perhaps dream fragments themselves) with short recollections or images, before yielding in turn to another offering. Through successive rounds of provocation, a field is generated.

We'll be exploring skeins with different forms and themes, playing games that encourage us to enter into imaginative flow-states, and allowing the magic of skein to encounter one another in non-ordinary ways. If that still sounds baffling - here's Tom doing his best to describe the experience.

WHERE AND WHEN?

Paddington Farm Farmhouse is based on a 43-acre organic farm at the foot of Glastonbury Tor - A larger project with aims to encourage engagement with organic food and farming, environmental awareness and responsibility, and a lifelong respect for the countryside. 

It's just 30minutes East of Bridgwater on the m5, or 1 hour South of Bristol - https://maps.app.goo.gl/V8TCn6b2ZrctBRig9 - close to Glastonbury town, but public transport is rather involved, so do let us know if you'd need a lift share and we'll see what we can do!

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Both skilled space-holders, with years of experience  - Rozi Hilton and Tom Hirons form Feral Angels Events; a venture designing and hosting workshops for writers interested in honesty, beauty, and edge; and a haven for poets who don't recognise themselves among the 'literati' and the generally-accepted canon.
We write, seek-out, and encourage intrepid eloquence, truth-telling, and authentic expression; aiming to provoke duende, calibrate souls toward the Green-Pulse, and incite action for a world on fire. We like raw words, revelation, mythopoetic image, and none of the bravado or elitism that puts a veil over resonant-transmission.

DETAILS

We have three base prices, for each participant to choose from. If you're not sure which category to select, then do take a look below - (If you find yourself sounding most like jar 4 ‘living in the ruins’ and still desperate to come then please send us an email and we'll see what we can do to make it possible for you to attend). Note: once you've selected a ticket price, you also need to select a sleeping option - at an extra cost, depending on your budget and willingness to share. If you don't stay on site with us there are plenty of accommodations in the Glastonbury area, and you can simply join from morning to evening.

FOOD

We will cater for ourselves as a group - with each person preparing food once; so we are asking each of you to bring the ingredients to prepare a dish which could constitute half a meal for a group of 15  (eg your trademark pasta salad; granny's special chilli; fallback roasted vegetables etc…).  

We will pair-up the dishes and work together in the kitchen to manifest a magical menu, supplemented by breakfast, snacks, and basic kitchen staples.

This is going to be a fun, quirky, magical, unreal, few days of connection and co-exploration. A cosy opportunity to hunker down and open-up; in a homely setting without a lot of luxury or glamour. We'll laugh a lot, and probably cry frequently, and form friendships by learning about each other - as well as touching into realms beyond our conventional reality. Do heed the call if you're someone feeling the tug… the circle assembles!