Autumn performances 2023 › Ipswich

Past event

Kate Wakeling and Elīna Brasliņa performance

How did it go?

In spite of high winds, road closures and floods we spent a joyful morning in the company of the energetic wordsmith and poet, Kate Wakeling, and the brilliant Latvian illustrator Elina Braslina at the New Wolsey theatre in Ipswich. Children were treated to performance poetry at its best, with Kate reciting poems such as ‘Spy Cafe’, ‘Bad Moods’ and ‘Weird Cake’ while Elina drew live alongside - it was so special to watch the images unfurl on the screen. We created a group poem together and every child went home clutching their own copy of Cloud Soup - what a fitting title for such a wet day!

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Every child attending this performance will receive a **FREE** copy of _Cloud Soup_ to take home and keep! cover

Every child attending this performance will receive a FREE copy of Cloud Soup to take home and keep!

Venue:
New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, IP1 2AS
Date:
Thursday 2nd November
Time:
11:00 am
Duration:
Approx. 1 hour
Age range:
Years 4, 5 and 6

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Elīna Brasliņa

Elīna Brasliņa is an illustrator and artist from Latvia. She studied printmaking at the Art Academy of Latvia, and discovered her love of book illustration there. She has worked on close to 30 titles, most of them children’s books by Latvian authors. She made her international debut by illustrating Kate Wakeling's collection of poems, Moon Juice (published by The Emma Press). Elīna enjoys playing around with styles and techniques, and even when she works digitally, she almost always incorporates scanned textures to give her work a more hand-drawn feeling. She lives in Riga with her husband, her daughter and their dog Bonnie.

Praise for Moon Juice

Moon Juice, from the Emma Press, illustrated with spiky charm by Elīna Brasliņa, won the 2017 CLiPPA, ranges from dreamy celestial meditation to comet-streaking speed

The Times Literary Supplement


Kate Wakeling

Kate Wakeling is a poet who writes for both children and adults. Her debut collection of children’s poetry, Moon Juice (The Emma Press) is illustrated by Elīna Brasliņa, won the 2017 CLiPPA and was nominated for the 2018 CILIP Carnegie Medal. Kate’s second collection for children, Cloud Soup, came out in 2021. Kate studied music at university and often collaborates with musicians, including as writer-in-residence for Aurora Orchestra. She loves writing scripts for musical performances, and her work has featured at the Southbank Centre, the Barbican, Kings Place and on BBC Radio 3.

Praise for Cloud Soup

Both limpidly welcoming and profoundly meaningful, some of these poems, on subjects from weird cakes to good ideas, bodies, dust and Antarctica, will surely stay with their enthralled readers for ever.

The Guardian


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