Born in Cardiff, 1969, Lloyd Robson's career has covered almost every aspect of the written word: from newspaper journalist to magazine features editor, copywriter to researcher, performer to workshop tutor & - of course - poet. While living in Plymouth, Lloyd was instrumental in establishing 'scene magazine', regarded as the finest & most reliable arts listing magazines in the Southwest of England. Following his return to Cardiff in 1991 to study newspaper journalism, Lloyd co-wrote the highly successful yet underground magazine 'the bizz' (circ. 12,000) for Cardiff's Community Drug Team. In 1994 he began the blackhat small press & since then journalism has taken a backseat to poetry. As a poet-performer, Lloyd has read throughout Wales (the 'dysfluency tour', Swansea Year of Literature, Cardiff Baylit Festival, etc.), England (Glastonbury Festival, Wessex Poetry Festival, Liverpool's Everyman Theatre, etc.), & Germany (the 'türringer tour' with English pop band 'reach'). He has become known as a prominent Welsh performer & has been described as "brilliantly succinct", "powerful, disturbing & thought-provoking", & "Cardiff's best". Lloyd's workshop activities include 'the newport central (teenage writing) group' - based at Newport Central Library, South Wales, & limited to the young people who go to school in the area; the 'youth access initiative', where Lloyd is employed by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council (South Wales) to lead three-day self-expression, motivation, confidence building & life skills workshops with local school pupils; 'stonebreakers', where Lloyd will be poet in residence for Torfaen Borough Council (South Wales) during a 6 month project (2000-2001) to mark the social & cultural history of the region; similarly, Lloyd is a frequent visitor to schools in North Wales & has read at a number of venues & events, including the Llandudno October Festival. Since 1995, Lloyd has been involved in organising readings for other poets throughout the whole of Wales. To date, Lloyd has 3 small press publications published by blackhat: 'city & poems' -- a gritty collection of poetry & prose (no longer available); 'edge territory'-- a collection of stroppy urban poems & abstract photography; &, 'letter from sissi' -- a "delicious" prose-poem based upon a week's package holiday on the island of Crete. These works have gained praise from the literary press & added to Lloyd's reputation as "one to watch". Currently, Lloyd is working on his new book 'crash poems' - a series of poems, prose-poems & photographs focusing on shared motifs of movement & crash landings; 'cardiff cut'- a prose-poem come story of a Friday night in the capital city; his 'sense of city road' - a 50 + frame photo-poetry montage based on City Road, Cardiff, (part-funded by the Arts Council of Wales), will be displayed for the first time this year, having taken 5 years longer to complete than originally planned. Lloyd explains:
"i started the montage seven years ago while living just off city road in glenroy street. i felt the area was taking a lot of flak for its appearance, cultural mix & opening hours, & deserved to be defended. it's not the prettiest street in the world but it does have a lot going for it, as i hope this montage shows.
"city road is diverse. it's a long & winding road servicing a whole myriad of business, service, culture & people yet it rarely gets money spent on it & people seem happy to run it down. it's a shame so much money gets thrown at areas where no one lives rather than on areas like city road where people reside, work, shop, socialise & mix.
"it's important cardiff raises its public profile but we seem to be caught in a pattern of public spending & urban regeneration more concerned with what the outside world may think of our city rather than improving the city of those of us who are already here.
"i've spent the last seven years walking up & down city road taking photographs of the area & the people. i've taken photos of road signs, shop signs, posters, vehicle livery & graffiti so i could recreate the words of the poem from the words found on city road. i combined these words with photographs of city road to make up the complete poem, together with alternative views of city road; reflections, abstracts & found texts.
"the project could have continued forever as a lot of what i've photographed has already changed, but that's city road for you: turn your back & it's different."
for further information concerning the 'sense of city road' exhibition,
& where lloyd robson is reading his poetry next, please contact:
- a further example of lloyd robson's poetry can be found here -
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