CULTURE WARS - OTHER VOICES IN BRITISH LITERATURE

Presented by AmeriCymru and the Portland Center for Public Humanities

Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 327/8

Fri Oct 4th 6.30-9.00 pm

Yesterday, Ceri and I got to go to the monthly Welsh Society of Portland meeting to give a presentation on the coming Portland State University event on Welsh writing in English, "Culture Wars: Other Voices in British Literature."

Ceri showed attendees where to find the event page at PSU and talked about the speakers that would be coming, the program and what we're hoping to get across to a Portland audience, introducing writers and publishers from Wales.

He also introduced the Welsh American Bookstore, talked about eto , answered questions and made recommendations for books. Members of the Portland Welsh Festival Choir were there and they'll be performing the Welsh national anthem to open the PSU event.

A pleasant meeting with tasty food!

.

A young couple in Pembrokeshire built a cob and straw bale roundhouse on family land in Pembrokeshire -

They didn't get planning permission so the Pembrokeshire County Council has issued an order that it be demolished, on the grounds that it is 'harmful to the rural character of the locality' ."

http://naturalhomes.org/save-charlies-house.htm

http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/10307996.North_Pembrokeshire_family_fight_to_keep_roundhouse_they_built_without_permission/

See pictures of their roundhouse on their facebook photo stream here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlie-and-Megs-Roundhouse/143456382471743?id=143456382471743&sk=photos_stream

On the one hand, I completely understand and support the necessity of planning and permits - sorry, there's just too many of us for everyone to do whatever they please in every way. On the other hand, I also completely understand their position, that young people and working people can't afford to buy the housing that's available but need housing and I don't think this house violates "the rural character of the locality.". So, what's the solution to this problem?

And, personally, I want to build one!

What do you think?

Cetlicos/Americymru has a two-page spread in this month's issue of "The American" magazine, a magazine for Americans in the UK.

We're in the right column on page 21, here:

http://issuu.com/michaelburland/docs/the_american_magazine_722_jun13

You can see the dragon, we're tiny but we're there! This whole two-page spread is on the Celticos/AmeriCymru tour. The Celticos site, with further details, is also linked from the artcle.

The magazine is pretty interesting, too.

We have a page of audio interviews with people connected with the tour here:

http://americymru.net/profiles/blogs/celticos-americymru-trail-tour-interviews

We'll have further developments on the NEW Celticos/AmeriCymru Farm Trail tour, coming soon!

Reprinted with permission from David Western's Lovespoon Blog , 2012 David Western, all rights reserved.

Come and meet two of the finest lovespoon carvers currently promoting the craft across Wales and beyond. Sin Llewellyn of Bridgend and David Western, originally from Cardiff and now living in Canada, are both passionate about their art and ensuring that an age-old tradition remains fresh and vibrant in modern-day life.

I'm VERY excited to be appearing with fellow carver Sin Llewellyn at the museum which is home to one of the finest collections of lovespoons in the world, and I hope that if you are in the area on May 26th, you'll stop in to say hello!!

Here's Ceri posing with the book, it was great to get to hold it in my hand after all that work. Everyone's stories look fantastic in it, all the bios and pics. It was a blast doing this and I can't wait to do more.

If you haven't read it, you can get the ebook at Smashwords.com and the paperback at createspace.com and on amazon.com - Volume 1 has stories and poems by Mike Jenkins, Paul Steffan Jones and Saul Hughes, Lloyd Jones, Chris Keil, Phil Rowlands, Jude Johnson, Jean Mead, Glyn Scott, Thomas Morris, Gaynor Madoc Leonard and John Good, a lot of whom are members of this network!

All proceeds from sales of the book go to getting Welsh authors here for exposure at Wordstock and other events.

TICKET GIVEAWAY CONTEST! FREE MOVIE TICKETS!

AmeriCymru is proud to partner with Variance Films to GIVE AWAY TWO SETS OF TICKETS to the Portland, Oregon premier run of "Hunky Dory" -

Two winners will each win a set of two tickets - win, win, WIN! and take a friend!

Showings are 7:15PM on May 6th, 8th and 9th at the Hollywood Theatre on Sandy Boulevard - The contest is open to anyone, you need not be an AmeriCymru member to win.

To be one of our TWO LUCKY WINNERS, just be the first or second person, In the Portland area or close enough to use the tickets, to answer this one, simple question correctly, by commenting on this post, below, or by emailing your answer to americymrucontest@gmail.com before May 4, 2013:

In what town in Wales does the film take place? Merthyr Tydfil? Tredegar? or Swansea?

Get the word out on AmeriCymru! Advertising space is now available on AmeriCymru - your ad could be seen here by a half million unique visitors

You can provide us with the link you want the ad to take visitors to and graphics you want to use or we'll design a graphic ad for you at a cost of $25.00

Right-Column graphic ads
A 250x250 pixel graphic ad with a live link in the right-hand column of the site will appear on all 20,000+ pages of the site for 6 months at a cost of $50.00.

Header graphic ad with link at top of home page
This space rotates ads every three days for six months, on all 20,0000 pages of the site. Your graphic ad with a live link for six months at a cost of $150.00.

I like being in the background but I have to learn to do otherwise. I suck at blowing my own horn or even acknowledging that I have one. So Ceri gets to be the front man and I just work in the back and make stuff and stuff.

I started a site for things that I make and do and I resisted putting it up here because it's either things that are already on AmeriCymru or have nothing to do with Wales but some of them are interesting and if you want to know what else I do in addition to AmeriCymru - here it is - it's in progress and not complete yet, only a few things are on it but it'lll grow as I have time to work on it:

http://randomgaab.blogspot.com