SOUTH Devon Singers Community Choir is delighted to be sharing a free winter evening in Chudleigh with the nationally renowned performance poet Matt Harvey.

The choir’s Claire Harding says: ‘The audience will experience a heady mix of thought-provoking yet hilarious – and sometimes deeply moving – poems from Matt.

‘There will also be a sequence of choral songs exploring Devon: from a setting of Matt’s devastatingly sad When That Tree Went, to an impressionistic setting of Kerry Sherwin’s poem Red Rocks, evoking aeons of sedimentation forming the wind-and-water-sculpting breccia cliffs near Dawlish.

‘One could not imagine a greater contrast than between the sung version of Charles Causley’s Plymouth – a musically stark take on the poet’s feverish vision of an inebriated sailor’s rain-soaked search for the comfort of a stranger – and the’ rhythmically lopsided interpretation of Matt’s poem celebrating the best of humanity under lockdown, A Difference in Devon.’

This event will include a song commissioned by Chudleigh Against Racism and funded by Teignbridge CVS.

Being me was written by 15 Year 5 students at Chudleigh Primary School over a series of workshops with South Devon Singers’ musical director, David Haines.

It is hoped that some of the children will be able to join the choir to sing.

The idea for the song was sparked by the real experience of a local resident who discovered that her mixed-race children were descended from Jamaican slaves on their father’s side, and from a famous Tudor slave-trader through her own family’s ancestry.

It attempts to take a light-hearted look at how minority-race members of our community sometimes find themselves the object of unwanted curiosity simply on the basis of their appearance.

The verses adopt, in turn, the point of view of The Hair, The Eyes, and The Skin of the person receiving unwelcome attention!

The evening will end with the ‘anthem’ from which the concert takes its title, In My Devon Home, an unashamed declaration of love for our glorious county and its people.

The music covers a wide range of styles – from jazz to ballad, from contemporary classical to… unique!

Tea, coffee and cakes will be available at the interval, and it is hoped that donations towards costs can be made at the door.

In My Devon Home, features an evening poems and songs with the South Devon Singers Community Choir and Matt Harvey at Chudleigh Parish Church, at 7pm, on January 7, 2023.