You and Me
Local writers mark International Day of Friendship
Wednesday 30 July, Zoom, 7.00pm
Tickets: £3/£2*
(Writers selected to read admitted free)
Friendship is one of the foundations of human experience. Young or old, male or female, single or married, straight or otherwise, our friends are a source of joy, comfort, support and understanding.
Friends come in infinite variety. Best friends, old - and even oldest - friends, or newest. True friends or false ones. Friends in need who are friends indeed... or bloody nuisances. There are fairweather friends, and sturdier ones who weather life's storms. And friends often come with adjectives: work friends, school friends, church or synagogue friends, an indication of a shared hobby or skill (music friends or football friends), even a location. London friends, European friends, Canadian or Australian...
Some of us have friends with benefits (the line between friendship and other abstract nouns can often be quite blurred); some have friends on benefits - or friends who bring no benefit at all. Our acquaintances and loved ones can bring out the best in us, or inspire one of the most anguished of all cries: 'I thought you were my friend!' Friends are something we have learn to make, to live with and make allowances for - and something that we need to learn to be.
July 30 marks Internationahlp Day of Friendship, designated by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2011, although the initiative began in Paraguay. On July 20, 1958, Dr. Ramón Artemio Bracho was out to dinner with friends in Puerto Pinasco, and proposed the idea of a World Friendship Day. Clearly amiably inspired, World Crusade of Friendship - La Cruzada Mundial de la Amistad - was founded, as an activist organization that would promote the idea of celebrating worldwide friendship on July 30.
We're inviting local writers to submit a story (fictional or factual) or a poem on any of these themes to share with us all. Beyond being topical (and broadcastable, of course), there are no rules: you may write in any genre and any aspect, form or experience of friendship is equally valid.
Entries will close on 30 June, with shortlisted writers notified by 15 July.