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  Freedom House

  KB Brookins

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  Freedom House is a poetry collection that explores internal, interpersonal, and systemic freedom.  
  In this debut full-length collection, KB Brookins’ formally diverse, music-influenced poetry explores transness, politics of the body, gentrification, sexual violence, climate change, masculinity, and afrofuturism while chronicling their transition and walking readers through different “rooms”. The speaker isn’t afraid to call themselves out while also bending time, displaying the terror of being Black/queer/trans in Texas, and more — all while using humor and craft.  
  What does freedom look like? What can we learn from nature and our past? How do you reintroduce yourself in a world that refuses queerness? How can we use poetry as a tool in the toolbox that helps build freedom? This collection explores those questions, and manifests a world where Black, queer, and trans people get to live.

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  Gunga Din - Poems by Rudyard...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  The collection of Kipling poetry, performed by Mark Redfield, with music by Jennifer Rouse, are taken mostly from “Barrack-Room Ballads”. The poems mostly dramatize the concerns, yearnings, emotions, and thoughts of British soldiers at war, stationed in India, or at home - now forgotten by their fellow countrymen. Popular favorites in this recording eloquently and powerfully read by Mark Redfield include “Gunga Din”, “The Last of the Light Brigade”, and “If”.    Copyright Ⓒ Mark Redfield/Mark Redfield Studios. All Rights Reserved.   TRACKS:  01 - Intro/Opening Credits - 0:40 02 - Gunga Din - 4:20 03 - Evarra And His Gods - 6:16 04 - The Last Of The Light Brigade - 3:47 05 - The Broken Men - 3:02 06 - Tommy - 4:11 07 - Danny Deever - 2:53 08 - Tomlinson - 11:39 09 - The Widow At Windsor - 2:37 10 - The Explorer - 6:09 11 - The Ballad Of East and West - 9:20 12 - The Vampire - 2:27 13 - A Charm - 1:47 14 - When Earth’s Last Picture Is Painted - 1:41 15 - If - 2:25 16 - End Credits - 0:28

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  To My Most Dearly Beloved Friend...

  Michael Drayton

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  Michael Drayton was born in 1563 at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. The facts of his early life remain unknown.  Drayton first published, in 1590, a volume of spiritual poems; The Harmony of the Church.  Ironically the Archbishop of Canterbury seized almost the entire edition and had it destroyed.  In 1593 he published Idea: The Shepherd's Garland, 9 pastorals celebrating his own love-sorrows under the poetic name of Rowland. This was later expanded to a 64 sonnet cycle.  With the publication of The Legend of Piers Gaveston, Matilda and Mortimeriados, later enlarged and re-published, in 1603, under the title of The Barons' Wars. His career began to gather interest and attention.  In 1596, The Legend of Robert, Duke of Normandy, another historical poem was published, followed in 1597 by England's Heroical Epistles, a series of historical studies, in imitation of those of Ovid. Written in the heroic couplet, they contain some of his finest writing.  Like other poets of his era, Drayton wrote for the theatre; but unlike Shakespeare, Jonson, or Samuel Daniel, he invested little of his art in the genre. Between 1597 and 1602, Drayton was a member of the stable of playwrights who worked for Philip Henslowe. Henslowe's Diary links Drayton's name with 23 plays from that period, and, for all but one unfinished work, in collaboration with others such as Thomas Dekker, Anthony Munday, and Henry Chettle. Only one play has survived; Part 1 of Sir John Oldcastle, which Drayton wrote with Munday, Robert Wilson, and Richard Hathwaye but little of Drayton can be seen in its pages.  By this time, as a poet, Drayton was well received and admired at the Court of Elizabeth 1st. If he hoped to continue that admiration with the accession of James 1st he thought wrong.  In 1603, he addressed a poem of compliment to James I, but it was ridiculed, and his services rudely rejected.  In 1605 Drayton reprinted his most important works; the historical poems and the Idea. Also published was a fantastic satire called The Man in the Moon and, for the for the first time the famous Ballad of Agincourt.  Since 1598 he had worked on Poly-Olbion, a work to celebrate all the points of topographical or antiquarian interest in Great Britain. Eighteen books in total, the first were published in 1614 and the last in 1622.  In 1627 he published another of his miscellaneous volumes.  In it Drayton printed The Battle of Agincourt (an historical poem but not to be confused with his ballad on the same subject), The Miseries of Queen Margaret, and the acclaimed Nimphidia, the Court of Faery, as well as several other important pieces.  Drayton last published in 1630 with The Muses' Elizium.  Michael Drayton died in London on December 23rd, 1631.  He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets' Corner.  A monument was placed there with memorial lines attributed to Ben Jonson.

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  Shakespeare's Greatest...

  William Shakespeare

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  William Shakespeare, long hailed as the history's greatest dramatic writer, has been lauded for his mastery of poetic expression, his insight into the human condition and his deep exploration into the psyche and motivations of his characters. These skills are perhaps best exemplified in the monologues he gives his various protagonists, villains and bit players.   From King Henry V's inspiring speech to his soldiers on the field of Agincourt to the villainous Merchant of Venice Shylock defending his own cruelty, to the shepherdess Phebe from "As You Like It" grappling with her sudden attraction to a young courtier, to Nick Bottom from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," awaking from the strangest dream in history, Shakespeare's monologues are short distillations of his larger themes - love and loss, fairness and inequity, power and envy, lust and purity.   Fort Raphael Publishing is proud to present - in this complete volume - the best of Shakespeare's greatest monologues, each of which captures a shining, brilliant moment from his plays that gives us a deeper understanding of each character, whether flattering, damning or inspiring.   Enjoy this collection of monologues from the greatest theatrical writer in the English language - William Shakespeare - performed by some of the finest classical actors in the business.

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  Bleak Expectations - (West End...

  Mark Evans

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  The story Charles Dickens might have written after drinking too much gin…
  Follow half-orphan Pip's extraordinary exploits with sisters Pippa and Poppy and best friend Harry Biscuit, as they attempt to escape the calculating clutches of the dastardly Mr Gently Benevolent, defeat the hideous Hardthrasher siblings, and deflect disaster at every turn! Will evil be vanquished by virtue? Can love triumph over hate?
  Mark Evans' stage play Bleak Expectations is a hilarious, chaotic caper, featuring dastardly villains, preposterous names, pulse-quickening romances, heart-rending death scenes, and definitely, probably, hopefully a happy ending.
  Based on the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, the play opened at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in 2022, directed by Caroline Leslie. It transferred to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in 2023, where it featured a medley of many well-known actors and comedians.
  It offers rich opportunities to amateur theatre companies looking for a gloriously daft Dickensian romp which will have their audiences joyfully transported and begging for more.

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  The Real Ones

  Waleed Akhtar

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  Best friends Zaid and Neelam shared a dream: get away, make it as writers, build a future where they're free to be themselves. Together, always.
  Years later, things are far from what they expected. Zaid's life has kinda stalled – he's half out the closet, living at home and still chasing the dream. While Neelam's has taken a completely different path as she chooses to prioritise her own happiness. As their lives pull further apart, leaving a mess of unsaid things between them, it's going to take something real to bring them back together.
  Waleed Akhtar's play The Real Ones is a funny and honest love letter to platonic soulmates. It was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike, and starring Nathaniel Curtis and Mariam Haque.

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