Vince Laws is a poet, artist, performer, campaigner. He writes poetry, performs poetry and makes visual poetry, paintings, collage, posters, film, installations and recordings: “As an artist, I define what art is. As a poet, I define what a poem is. If my art can be anything from a painting to a concept, so can my poetry. I am a poem.”

Vince Laws organises a candlelit vigil in support of the 'No to Hate Crime' campaign

18 October 2010

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No one should have to suffer physical or verbal abuse for being who they are, regardless of their race, sexuality, faith, disability, whatever. On Saturday 23 October there will be Candlelit Vigils organised by the No To Hate Crime Campaign in Toronto, London, Brighton, and Norwich. The Vigils began as a response to the nail bomb attacks in London some years ago, and are an opportunity for the silent majority to show their support for the vulnerable, and their opposition to the bigots.  I...

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Vince Laws takes to the streets with the Norwich Dandies for the Wellbeing Festival

15 October 2010

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Earlier this year, frustrated with the difficulties of finding gallery space, I rented a whole church and put together a group of artists whose work I like and we called ourselves The Norwich Dandies. Last weekend the Dandies took part in a Wellbeing Festival outside the Forum in Norwich, promoting the five ways to wellbeing, i.e. Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, and Give, as created by the New Economics Foundation. Eloise brought all the bits and pieces needed to make recycled...

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Vince Laws puts his pants on the line for the Pope

14 September 2010

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The Politics of Protest As explained in my previous blog I’m protesting the Pope’s visit to the UK with a visual poem, THIS POPE IS PANTS. BBC Radio Suffolk offered to interview me if I had a Suffolk connection. I rang a friend who owns a pub in Suffolk and got permission to lie and say I could hang three strings of THIS POPE IS PANTS bunting on the pub during the Pope’s four day visit. I got my interview! Immediately before the pre-recorded interview took place the presenter...

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Vince Laws wants your pants to welcome the Pope

20 August 2010

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I’m not very keen on the current Pope. I’ve been thinking how I could protest his visit to the UK (September 16-19) and satisfy my poetic and artistic needs, and here’s the solution: Ladies and gentlemen, I want your pants! If there's a pair you never wear lurking in a drawer somewhere I want 15 pairs to peg on a line. I will print a letter on each and hang them up so they spell out THIS POPE IS PANTS. The more pants I get, the more THIS POPE IS PANTS bunting I will make. If...

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Vince Laws takes up the OUT140 challenge to tell a coming-out story in 140 characters

9 August 2010

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I told my parents I was bisexual when I was 16. They said "go to your room." I’m involved in a project on Twitter called OUT140, which has collected coming-out stories from the LGBT community, their friends and families, told in 140 characters or less (i.e. a tweet on Twitter). Some participants then made their stories into 12-second films, which were shown on the giant Fusion screen in Norwich, Europe’s biggest public access screen, for 2 weeks in January 2010. Mother said i wud...

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Vince Laws considers 'audacity' and makes another version of 'i am a poem'

14 July 2010

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...and one day in the future at a university lecture a lass will lift a languid limb and ask, almost seductively if you the poet, writing this now really had the audacity all those years ago to write 'work as good as this got me here I want to make a visual representation of the poem audacity, above, to go in a gallery window. I’ve cut out postcard letters spelling audacity. I’m going to suspend audacity in front of a mirror so it looks like it’s hanging in the air....

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Vince Laws is a burning poem

10 July 2010

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I’m right in the middle of getting a window installation together and I thought I’d share part of it with you. I’m treating the whole gallery window as my canvas. On the windowsill there will be a row of old poetry books. I have cut them into letters that spell, I AM A POEM. I used Ezra Pound for the I because he said, “Make it new!” – and I try to oblige. Other poets cut up include TS Eliot, Ted Hughes, ee cummings, blah blah blah. I like the shapes the...

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Vince Laws shares a piece of visual artwork about what 'they' did to his head

25 June 2010

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Last year I got called in to the Job Centre during a long period of illness. “I see you are a magazine editor,” the person behind the counter said. “I was,” I explained, “but I don’t want to do that any more. It’s too stressful.” “What do you want to do?” “I want to be a poet and an artist.” I fully expected to be told to stack shelves. “We can help you with that...” And they did. First I saw a Shaw Trust...

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Vince Laws recalls one fine Father's Day

21 June 2010

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I was living in Brighton, when Father’s Day came around, and in my house I’m the Daddy! Neither my boyfriend nor my dog sent me a card or said a word all day, so I went for a walk in a huff. Badger was just a 3-month-old pup then, and this is what happened… My Father’s Day Gift I took the dog for a walk feeling a touch sorry for myself, Father’s Day sun was touching the Downs and no one had said a word that much mattered. But then Badger saw rabbits today, for the...

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Vince Laws joins the Human Library

19 June 2010

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I’d never heard of the Human Library until I was asked to be a ‘book’ in February as part of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans) History Month. As it happens, that event was cancelled, but I liked the concept so much I went on the training course and held a Human Library within a 2-week art exhibition I curated in May/June. Instead of borrowing a book, visitors borrow a Human, and sit down with them and chat for 30 minutes. Titles at my event included Wiccan Priestess,...

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Vince Laws redefines poetry with a performance of his Silent Poem

17 June 2010

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The silver lining to a prolonged period of depression and inactivity last year was the time to think. I came out from under the duvet of darkness determined to pursue a career as a poet and artist. More specifically I wanted to perform my poetry in front of live audiences because that’s when it’s at its most powerful. And I wanted to continue exploring visual poetry, taking poetry off the page in every sense. I became increasingly dissatisfied with the definition of poetry –...

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Vince Laws on the importance of Disability Pride

14 June 2010

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I was telling a disabled woman I know, let’s call her Tina, that I was about to perform at Disability Pride. “I don’t get it,” she said, with a frown. “What have we got to be proud of?” I was a bit taken aback. Maybe it’s easier for me to understand as a gay man because I’ve grown up with Gay Pride events. These events have given the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community visibility, strength in numbers, a chance to educate the wider...

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Vince Laws goes in search of his missing Poster Poem

14 June 2010

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I got tired of hearing that to suggest the troops come home is unpatriotic. The logical conclusion of that argument must be: Support the Troops – Start Another War. I first hung this poster poem on the railings of a church in Norwich, stepped back, and listened in. Some people laughed, some frowned and shook their heads, a man of the cloth tutted and hurried past. Three schoolgirls were outraged, “Why would anyone want to start another war?” they wailed at each other. Why...

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Vince Laws gets out of a spot of bother with the BBC

13 June 2010

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No Complaints So Far… I do like firsts, don’t you? Last week was Refugee Week and the giant Fusion screen at The Forum in Norwich screened a whole series of short films made by the participants around the theme of ‘Identity’. In some ways it’s easier for a poet. I turned up at the BBC Open Studio with my script - the poem Human, something I’d already worked on for a considerable time, honing and crafting - and two volunteers filmed me on the streets of...

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Vince Laws talks about the commission of his radio play Small Frayed Knot

7 June 2010

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Late last year, Future Radio, Norwich, commissioned a 15-minute radio play from me. Soon after that, I spent a week in Yorkshire on an Arvon residential poetry course in Ted Hughes’s old house, specifically aimed at taking poetry from page to stage. I was encouraged to fill in the back-stories to some of my more confessional poems. All this together resulted in The Small Frayed Knot. The title is a line from my poem Diagnosed, which I made into a visual piece by painting the left side of...

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DAO is pleased to welcome a new blog from visual poet Vince Laws

4 June 2010

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Disability Pride Tonight, June 4, I’m performing at the Norwich Arts Centre, at a Disability Pride benefit gig. Tomorrow, June 5, I’m showing visual poetry in the Disability Pride art show at the Forum in Norwich. One of the pieces is called Human. I wrote it for World Aids Day 2009 and then wondered how to make it visual. I decided to write it out letter-by-letter on my empty HIV and Hep C and side-effects empty medication boxes and bottles. A week before I was due to show it, I...

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