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Irish Cultural Centre, Blacks Road W6 9DT
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The Irish Cultural Centre is delighted to present an evening with the Northern Irish Poet and Playwright Damian Gorman, who’s been described as “Ireland’s best-kept secret”.
Damian rarely publishes his work, but he is noted for his wonderful readings, which have been described as powerful, inspirational, moving, healing and profound, but also always ‘full of warmth and the craic’.At this very special event Damian will read from some of his plays and poems and he will also read extracts from his new memoir ‘AS IF I CARED’, which was officially launched in The Seamus Heaney Home-place at the end of October 2021.
When Damian read from this memoir at The Four Corners Festival in Northern Ireland, the Spiritual Writer, Podcaster and Presbyterian Minister Steve Stockman wrote…‘As If I Cared’ is much more than a poetry book. Damian’s imagination takes you on a deeply touching memoir journey. He begins by talking about his father, a harsh and violent man who left more marks on Damian than we would ever dare to think, .. but it ends with Damian sending words of love to him. In between we get all kinds of poems, short bursts of memoir about his upbringing, his children, the Troubles and other country’s Troubles. Some of these words are endearing and some are hard hitting of the soul, the head and the heart”.
ABOUT DAMIAN GORMAN
Having grown up on in Northern Ireland during the height of “The Troubles” Damian Gorman experienced, at first hand, the impact of violence, trauma and living in a war zone. However today as a Writer and as a Community Peace Activist, Damian now helps others deal with the impact of violence and war. He has worked in cross-conflict dialogue in the Middle East, in Bosnia and in Northern Ireland.
In 2019 and 2020 Damian was International Resident Artist at the Theatre Peace-building Academy, a project which uses words and storytelling as a vessel to allow individuals, whose lives have been deeply affected by conflict, ‘The Troubles’ and ‘War’ to share their stories.
Damian is currently a Fellow of the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights.Damian has worked for many years as an encourager of writing in other people and communities, especially in areas of war and conflict. AWARDS Damian’s work has garnered many awards over the past 25 years, from a ‘Better Ireland Award’ to an MBE; ‘a Golden Harp Award’ to a BAFTA. His verse documentary for BBC 2 – Devices of Detachment – was hailed in the international press as “a television masterpiece”, and Considerations, his recent series of online poems, was described by the writer and founder of “Blood Axe Books’, Neil Astley, as “powerful, humane, moving – everything that video poetry should be”.
WHAT DAMIAN IS CURRENTLY DOING?
Currently Damian Gorman is writing a major musical production, which is Gorman’s personal Tribute to the late Northern Ireland Politician, Pacemaker and Nobel Laureate JOHN HUME. Entitled “The Life and Mission of John Hume”. The production will be performed in the prestigious Derry Playhouse in March 2023, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
This Evening with Damian promises to be memorable and very special.