Contemporary responses to The Odyssey amongst diverse range of new arts commissions on BBC Radio 4

A selection of his first commissions for Radio 4 include The Odyssey Project: My Name is Nobody - providing contemporary poetry responses to Homer’s epic - and six features taking listeners behind the scenes to follow a year in the life of six artists across the UK.

New commissions also cover protest art in revolutionary times in Latin America, dancing in Sudan, musician Alex Kapranos reporting on the arts in post-crash Greece and Tenor Roderick Williams telling the choral history of Britain.

James Runcie has also confirmed that Radio 4’s new long-form presenter-free arts interview series - opening up Wednesday mornings on Radio 4 to arts from April - will kick off with Grayson Perry, Naomi Alderman and Chi-Chi Nwanoku.

James Runcie says: “These new commissions reflect the energy, diversity and geographical range of the arts across the United Kingdom and, indeed, the globe. The aim is to complement our existing coverage, so that as well as giving Radio 4 listeners a front row seat, we take them backstage, to places they might not normally go, and present the artist’s unique take on the world as it is, as soon as we can, right here, right now.”

The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody

Radio 4 has invited 10 writers from various diasporas to create new radio poems in response to Europe’s second oldest poem, Homer’s The Odyssey. Daljit Nagra, Radio 4’s Poet in Residence will curate The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody over two weeks and introduce the poets and the context of their pieces in relation to Homer. Whilst the title reflects Odysseus’ response to the Cyclops when he asks for his name - "My name is Nobody" is his answer - these contemporary responses are not versions of The Odyssey, but new poems written in its lamplight.

The parallels between the ancient tales and themes of the 3,000 year old epic and today’s events and concerns around the world are striking. The urge of ordinary people - Nobodies - to find home and security, the concern for family, the importance of hospitality and the necessity of disguise, guile - and luck – these are as potent today as modern stories of refugees and migrants as when, on the western seaboard of Turkey, Homer composed his poem. Among people who have arrived recently, and the offspring of those who came earlier, are poets. In The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody they bring their own experience to bear on the great epic of European literature.

As well as introducing these contemporary responses to The Odyssey, Daljit Nagra is writing one himself. He and six other poets, Mir Mahfuz Ali, Sarah Howe, Mona Arshi, Inua Ellams, Karen McCarthy Woolf, and Zaffar Kunial are writing their work in English. Three poets, writing in their own languages, are collaborating with English language poets: Alemu Tebeje (Amharic) and Chris Beckett; Reza Mohammadi (Dari) and Nick Laird; Golan Haji (Arabic) and Stephen Watts.

The ten part series will use the resources of radio fully - performance by the poets, and others; work in their original languages and English translation; actuality; sound - and silence. There will be music specially recorded by performers from The Jungle camp, and the Afghan musician Milad Yousofi.

The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody will air over two weeks from 17-28 April at 9.45am.

Only Artists

Radio 4’s new long form presenter-free interview series launches on Wednesday 5 April at 9am. Only Artists offers a very different kind of cultural conversation: two artists from different disciplines - they could be writers, musicians, poets, painters, film-makers-– meet to focus on a specific question, process or decision. The series takes its title from the first two sentences of The Story of Art by the renowned art historian E H Gombrich: "There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists."

In the first programme, Turner Prize-winning ceramicist Grayson Perry meets novelist, dramatist and computer games writer Naomi Alderman. "I’m interested in the borders between high and low culture," says Grayson Perry, "and also I’m mystified by computer games, so I’m hoping Naomi is going to convince me that they are deserving of being called art." For Naomi, entering the world of gaming is like learning about opera - you have to immerse yourself and give it time. Together they discuss story-telling, violence and whether a game can make you cry. Finally Naomi selects a game which she thinks Grayson will enjoy and hands him the controller, offering to be his guide - but will he be converted?

The series continues as a chain of conversations, so in the second programme Naomi Alderman decides to meet an artist whose life is radically different from her own. "I’m a writer, so I sit at home in my pyjamas, tapping on my laptop, trying to think of what to say next," says Naomi, "so I want to find out what the creative life is like when it’s all done in public." She meets acclaimed classical double-bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku, whose creativity depends on high-profile public performances. Chi-chi is a leading chamber and orchestral musician, and founder of the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe's first professional Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) orchestra. The first series of Only Artists is six half an hour episodes.

A Year In The Life Of (w/t)

Radio 4 will follow six artists across the UK over the course of a year to capture the immediacy and excitement of making art. The features will take Radio 4’s audience backstage into the worlds of the artists, who are: dancer and choreographer Crystal Pite who is currently making her first work for the Royal Ballet; Kully Thiarai, artistic director of the National Theatre Wales; Mirga Granzintye-Tyla, the music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Dawn Walton, founder and director of Eclipse Theatre Company; David Greig, playwright and theatre director whose work has been performed at all of the major theatres in Britain and Joanna MacGregor, Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music, as well as a concert soloist, teacher and festival curator.

Mother Tongue

In July, this new international poetry series will feature poetry in both the original language and translation presented by Helen Mort. The series will feature poets from around the world and also consider the craft of poetry translation.

No Singing No Movement

Can Sudan learn to dance again? After a crackdown by the Islamic government in the 1980s and the introduction of Sharia law across Sudan, Radio 4 investigates a thawing in cultural policy in the country. The two-part series broadcast in September explores the possibilities of musical performance in the capital Khartoum at the moment and visits the safe spaces in which it attempts to survive.

Daljit’s Poetry Blast

A new four-part series with Radio 4 poet-in-residence Daljit Nagra showcasing the freshest writing and performance from the frontlines of the UK’s dynamic poetry and spoken word scene. Recorded at festivals and events around the UK, Blast will be broadcast in late 2017.

Further commissions later this year cover identity, feminism, gender, place and politics presented by Momtaza Mehri, Inua Elems, Sabrina Mahfouz and Bridget Minamore. Also, Singer Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand reports on the arts in post-crash Greece in a two-parter as he travels to Athens where one outcome of the political, economic and refugee crisis is an extraordinary eruption of arts activity. Tenor Roderick Williams tells The Choral History Of Britain and Radio 4 will head over to Latin America for a new series on protest art in revolutionary times.

Some of the titles and tx details might change.

• The Odyssey Project: BBC Radio London
• Only Artists: BBC Radio London
• A Year in the Life of: BBC Wales, Monty Funk Productions, BBC North, Rocket House Production, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio London
• No Singing No Movement: BBC Wales
• Mother Tongue: Whistledown Productions
• Daljit’s Poetry Blast: BBC Bristol
• The Choral History of Britain: BBC Bristol
• Alex Kapranos features: Just Radio

LZ