Performance

15 May 2025 at 7.30pm

The James Joyce Centre in association with Anna Livia Creative hosted a performance by poet Jessica Traynor and artist Nicole Rourke on Thursday, 15 May 2025 at 7.30pm. They dig deep into the worlds of Motherhood/Non-Motherhood to explore the choices we (& the body) make, and the emotional and physical landscapes we navigate based on these choices.

The performance was be followed by a Q&A on the topic and a wine reception.

Nicole Rourke has been part of the Irish theatre and spoken word arena for more than three decades. She has featured with many theatre companies including Theatreworks, Storytellers, Yew Tree and Tmu-Na; and her international appearances include those at the London and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Glasgow International, Craw Festival Berlin, Singapore Arts Festival, and Konfrontacje Teatraine Poland. Rourke’s one-woman play, Baggage, was a smash hit at the SoloSIRENS festival in Dublin in 2019, and went on to be adapted to film reaching a global audience. Baggage will tour internationally in 2025. Her other notable success is Raven and the Crone, which premiered at The New Theatre for the First Fortnight Festival. Rourke’s spoken-word projects mark a distinctive originality within the genre. Tea or Gin, Gristle and Meeting Karma powerfully explore themes of sexuality, trauma, and resilience in monologues of extraordinary wit and profundity. Her latest piece, The Lingerie Queen of Crumlin, topped the bill at the James Joyce Centre Bloomsday celebrations in 2024. Nicole is a seasoned creative workshop facilitator and is co-director of Anna Livia Creative.

Jessica Traynor is the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry. Her latest collection, Pit Lullabies, (Bloodaxe Books, 2022), is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is the 2023 recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award and is the 2023 Arts Council Writer in Residence at Galway University, and a Creative Fellow of UCD. She is poetry editor at Banshee Press.

‘Jessica Traynor [is] capable of creating canonical work which draws on a contemporary re-thinking of poetic traditions while finding a voice that is wholly her own.’ – Poetry Ireland Review

‘An absolute force of nature. Engaging, hilarious and fabulous….Nicole Rourke is a goddamn sparkling GENIUS’ – SoloSirens Festival Review

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.