ululations, photography by Polly Thomas
ululations
ululations is a bilingual publication, in print and sound, of commissioned writing by Fin Jordão, Nia Morais and Kandace Siobhan Walker, with creative translations by Elan Grug Muse, produced by Peak Cymru with Freya Dooley and Mark El-khatib. An audio version was broadcast on 9/7/21 from Platfform 2, listen back here. Printed copies of ululations will be available at Peak’s new Reading Room on Platfform 2 from mid October 2021.
The publication was a polyphonic response to Alberta Whittle’s Creating dangerously (we-I insist!): a trilogy of films screened at Platfform 2 during Summer 2021 in collaboration with Art Night. This assembly of new writing spans poetry, fiction and essay – each text communing with Whittle’s trilogy and staying faithful to its multi-vocal drive.
New poems by Kandace Siobhan Walker, a writer and filmmaker raised in the Brecon Beacons, spoke with great sensitivity and candor to the films’ themes of protest, joy and fury – always in ‘Solidarity with the dreamers shut out of the dreaming places’.
The Cardiff-based writer Nia Morais, who has previously written for theatre and fiction, responded with a Welsh-language prose poem, filled with delicately haunting imagery of loss and longing, identity and survival.
Fin Jordão, a writer, creative biologist and educator on ecology, produced a far-reaching essay situated in the swirling currents of the Dyfi Valley Estuary – channelling the watery narratives of Whittle’s films in generative, unexpected directions.
Elan Grug Muse provided creative translations of all the texts in ululations, working in collaboration with the editors and writers and bringing her distinctive poetic voice and expertise as a writer and editor to her fellow contributors’ writing.
About the Contributors
Fin Jordāo is a writer, creative biologist and educator on ecology at the Centre for Alternative Technology, a repurposed quarry near Machynlleth. In 2021, the produced an essay for Cynfas, the National Museum of Wales' online magazine, as part of an issue on queer looking. - Photo credit: Ming De Nasty
Nia Morais is a Welsh-Cape Verdean writer whose work across Welsh and English centres themes of identity and survival. Since graduating in 2020 with a Masters in Creative Writing from Cardiff University, she has released an audio drama, Crafangau, with the Sherman Theatre, and the poetry-dance film Gweddi am Frws Gwallt with NDCWales.
Elan Grug Muse is a writer from Dyffryn Nantlle. She works across many forms, including essays, poetry and translation, and is a founding co-editor of Y Stamp. Her first collection, Ar Ddisberod, was published in 2017.
Kandace Siobhan Walker is a writer and filmmaker. Her writing has appeared in The White Review, the Guardian and The Good Journal. Her short film Last Days of the Girl’s Kingdom was produced in collaboration with DAZED and ICA, and aired on Channel 4’s Random Acts in 2019. She is a 2021 Eric Gregory Award winner. Her debut poetry pamphlet will be published with Bad Betty Press in 2022.
Mark El-khatib is a London-based designer running his collaborative studio developing publications, printed matter, websites, visual identities, exhibition and environmental graphics. He received his MA from the Royal College of Art in 2010 and was previously a partner at Sara De Bondt studio. Alongside his own practice, Mark was art director of Tate Etc. magazine (2011–16).
Freya Dooley is an artist based in Cardiff. She works across media encompassing writing, sound, moving-image and performance in her practice. Recent projects include Temporary Commons, Jerwood Solo Presentations at Jerwood Arts, London (2021) and Scenes from Between the Mountains and the Sea, Beppu Project, Japan (2020).