The Common Rooms

Come along and join in painting, dance and music All “Inspired by India”. See you there! www.katehoggmusic.co.uk/inspired-by-india

The last Common Room(s) this year will take place this Sunday 12 November covering the topic ‘A Way Of Natural Being’. 🍀🌝
• Speakers: Alistair Duncan and Andrey Rumsey
• Music: Mark Edwards, David Perry, Ben Sarfas, Rhys Lovell
• Interviews by Martin Poole
📍 Brighton Unitarian Church

OF HOPE AND ENDURANCE featuring and full live band 🎹🎻
Join us for this year’s last The Common Room(s) show next Sunday. Tickets in bio 😌

The Common Rooms moments 🎺🎹🖌️
Join us tonight and on 12 November for two last Common Room(s) sessions this year 🎹🤍
Feed your soul to stay warm this winter 😌🎺

#2024

Tonight! 5PM at The Birley Centre, Eastbourne 🎻🥁🎹🖌️ Sharing thoughts, music and arts together with

Join us for the DRUM CIRCLE curated by Bruce Pont during The Weekend Special in Eastbourne 🥁
Feel the rhythm of The Common Room(s) on 4-5 November at the Birley Centre 🤍

The weekend Special in Eastbourne is the balanced mix of performing arts, music, visual arts and meaningful conversations. 😌💫🤍

✨Join us on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 November at The Birley Centre. ✨

The Common Room(s)’s Faces here:
Collette Guitart, Cole Moreton, David Perry, Mark Edwards, Rachel Grimes, Jill Mercer Pont and Tracy Edwards.

✨The Common Room(s) is about people and genuine connections ✨We are looking forward to seeing you on our Weekend Special on the 4th and 5th of November at The Birley Centre, Eastbourne. Let’s give this autumn a big smile and a drum 🥁kick 😉

The Common Room(s) faces here: Lou Beckerman, Rachel Grimes, James Osler, Mark Edwards and Bruce Pont.

In a first for our event series, we are so looking forward to welcoming incredible guest artists Jill Mercer-Pont and Tamara Jackson who will be creating live art in response to the music being performed. Join us this Sunday for ‘The Common Rooms: Creativity for Good’.

We will be looking at how creativity and being involved in creative projects can help wellbeing, recovery and rehabilitation.

‘Creativity for Good’
🗓️ Sunday 15th October - 7pm (doors 6:45pm)
📍Brighton Unitarian Church
🎟️ https://linktr.ee/thecommonrooms_

The theme for The Common Rooms this Sunday (15th) is 'Creativity for Good' and we are delighted to have guests incl:

Esther Baker:

“We believe that theatre can be transformative, change perceptions and open up new possibilities towards a more positive future. We live in a world where some of the most disadvantaged are over represented in the criminal justice system and our vision is to work through theatre towards a fairer world where those within or at risk of entering the criminal justice system can discover alternative pathways and become an integral and meaningful part of society”.

Esther is Artistic Director of Synergy Theatre Project, which she established over 20 years ago. Her ground breaking work across theatre and the criminal justice system began after winning a Butler Trust Award for innovative work with prisoners.

More details and booking links: https://www.thecommonrooms.org

An integral part of our s events is the music, which is curated, composed and performed specifically for each event.

Next Sunday we are fortunate to be joined by three very special musical guests to perform.

Alan Barnes, one of the UK’s most highly respected and popular musicians. Extraordinary bass player Conor Chaplin, who has shared the stage with the likes of Jacob Collier, Brad Mehldau and Stan Sulzmann and we’ll also be welcoming back the wonderful classical/jazz vocal star Heather Cairncross Singer.

As usual Mark Edwards will be at the piano and we are delighted to be joined by the The repertoire will mainly draw on the American songbook, with a few classical items - beautifully arranged and performed acoustically in the round in this atmospheric space.​​ You are welcome to bring your yoga mat, lie down, and relax during the music section of the event.

‘Creativity for Good’
🗓️ Sunday 15th October - 7pm (doors 6:45pm)
📍Brighton Unitarian Church
🎟️ https://linktr.ee/thecommonrooms_

We are so happy with how The Common Rooms are developing and with the community we are creating. We would love to share our evenings with more people so for this, our fourth event, if you buy a ticket, we invite you to bring a friend with you completely FREE.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-common-rooms-creativity-for-good-tickets-720358580907?aff=oddtdtcreator

The theme for our this evening will be ‘Creativity for Good’. We’ll be looking at how creativity and being involved in creative projects can help wellbeing, recovery and rehabilitation.

We will be exploring questions like:

• What is creativity to you?

• How has being creative helped you?

• How has it helped others?

• Why should people be creative?

The evening will be hosted by Martin Poole, and we have some amazing guests outlined below.

Our special music guests will be Alan Barnes - one of the UK’s most highly respected and popular musicians, and we’ll also being welcoming back the wonderful classical/jazz vocal star Heather Cairncross Singer. As usual Mark Edwards will be at the piano. The repertoire will mainly draw on the American songbook, with a few classical items - beautifully arranged and performed acoustically in the round in this atmospheric space.​​ You are welcome to bring your yoga mat, lie down, and relax during the music section of the event.

We are especially thrilled to welcome to the band, a familiar name to jazz followers, bassist Conor Chaplin.

"A space where people can practice listening, coming together for an evening where to be like-hearted is valued above being like-minded."

The Common Room(s): Everything Is Extraordinary An evening of conversation and ambient relaxing music in a beautiful and welcoming space

Thank you so much to everyone who attended our last event.
‘The Colour of Chalk’.

We’re so lucky to host our events in the beautiful surroundings of and be joined by such throughtful and generous guests who share their time and thoughts with us! We were delighted to be joined by
Subhadassi & our host Cole Moreton.

We enjoyed beautiful music from our house trio of & Rhys Lovell who were joined by special guest Kate Hogg.

Thank you to everyone who plays a part in making these events so special!

We looks forward to welcoming you on Sunday 15th October to our next event ‘Of Hope and Endurance’ (The Diaries of Etty Hillesum). Details and tickets coming soon 🎟️

Some words from about our next event this evening!

Tonight!
One of the joys of being part of The Common Rooms is the opportunity to invite some amazing humans beings to come and speak - and getting to know them and hear their stories as we prepare for the evenings.

This week the Artist and writer Alinah Azadeh will be sharing some of her beautiful writing and fascinating life experience, and Buddhist teacher and poet Subhadassi will be speaking about how we keep our serenity in a complicated and fast changing world - avoiding despair and responding with compassion.
Both of these extraordinary people have a great love of our local landscape, and it's been wonderful to hear them finding common ground in connection to nature, and it's power to heal, provide refuge and deal with loss and impermanence.

The chat will be lead by Cole Moreton (recent radio 2's "thought for the day' contributor) who also has a strong connection to the south downs, having written and broadcasted about it extensively.

The Music will have a North Indian influence - I've been working with wonderful bansuri player Kate Hogg over the last year, arranging traditional ragas with western jazz harmony. It's been an education, and we're excited to play some of these for the first time with James Osler (Gtr) Rhys Lovell (bass) and Joe Edwards (drums).

Once again the evening will be candlelit and 'in the round' and a chance to relax, listen, learn, contribute and soak in the beautiful ambience and acoustic of Brighton Unitarian church.
Forgive the long post - It's interesting promoting these special events, because unusually it's not about numbers or 'bums on seats' - (these are by nature intimate events) but I'm trying to convey what they are about for those who feel drawn to this kind of thing. If it sounds appealing please come and join our little community - we're already half way through the Brighton series, and it's a privilege, and so much fun for me to be a part of it. Tonight - doors at 6.45 x

We are delighted to welcome Subhadassi to our event tomorrow evening at

Subhadassi was born in Huddersfield in 1967. After completing a degree in Chemistry at Nottingham University, he studied Humanities at Leeds University.

He was ordained into the Western Buddhist order in Spain in 1992 and in 1993 moved to the north-east of England where he lectured in Chemistry and established Newcastle Buddhist Centre.

His chapbook Sublunary Voodoo was published by MUDFOG in 1998, and since then he has worked primarily as a freelance writer, undertaking various commissions, residencies and creative writing teaching work.

Subhadassi spent several years in the role of chair of trustees at Brighton Buddhist Centre, where he was involved in running and developing the centre, teaching and all the myriad other tasks involved in keeping a small yet ambitious charity going.

He has a deep love of poetry and gardening, and has worked freelance as a writer, artist, and facilitator for over two decades.

🗓️Sunday 3rd September 8pm
📍Brighton Unitarian Church
🎟️ via the link in our bio / linktr.ee/thecommonrooms_

What a beautiful night we had at our last event at featuring special guests Lou Beckerman and Winston Clifford.

Join us this Sunday for our next event ‘The Colour of Chalk’. Tickets available via the link in our bio or at https://www.thecommonrooms.org

This Sunday’s event will begin with two very special guests: Artist, writer, performer and cultural activist of British Iranian heritage - Alina Azadeh, plus writer, poet and Buddhist teacher - Subhadassiböth being interviewed by award winning journalist, duthor and broadcaster; Cole Moreton.

There will, as usual be an opporfunity for Q and A, followed by beautiful
meditative music with a north Indian influence from our regular trio of Mark Edwards (piano), James Osler (guitar) and Rhys Lovell (bass) who will be joined by the wonderful Kate Hogg on Bansuri (Indian Flute).

These informal evenings are conducted 'in the round' in a beautiful candlelit setting. You are welcome to bring your yoga mat, lie down and relax during the music section of the event.

Repost from : This weekend in Brighton! Really looking forward to being interviewed this Sunday Sept 3rd by , award-winning writer, journalist, broadcaster & fellow lover of the Sussex Heritage Coast at our event . I first heard Cole's voice on his & brilliant podcast Edge of England, set on the Sussex Coast just after recording the first episodes of my own Colour of Chalk podcast. We've both written about the extraordinary Belle Tout Lighthouse, pictured above..
We are also joined by Buddhist teacher & poet, Subhadassi, with whom I also share some fertile common ground...
through the isolation of the lockdowns I was deeply inspired by listening to the Buddhist teachings of .
The way she speaks - with humour & wisdom - about impermanence, embracing uncertainty, cultivating compassion, groundlessness & staying with 'what is' in the face of suffering & sudden change helped me write about & link the simultaneous loss of the chalk coast through climate change & my own personal losses & changes - & to find a way into a more embodied way of writing & drawing listeners in to feel - rather than think - about loss, change, climate, renewal, hope..
Not only this, but also on Sunday we both get to read our poetry, accompanied by group of musicians led by host, musician & featuring Kate Hogg bansuri player..
You can listen to The Colour of Chalk podcast set across , hosted by - click link in bio, where you can also book for this Sunday.. it's going to be a beautiful evening & I cannot wait, hope you can join us. The event will also be recorded for podcast.

Tout
Colour of Chalk