The smallest number needed to make a clear pattern, it’s used by visual artists to create balance and by storytellers as the beginning, middle and end of their tales. The ancients believed three was the number of harmony and wisdom… a reason perhaps why polymathic performer Misneach Mangan feels so comfortable in her work.
“I’m a poet, a rapper, and I guess very soon to be someone who writes novels,” she declares. “All three strands of who I am – the book, the band, and the bard – my Trident.”
At Lighthouse as part of the Sanctuary artist residency, Mis has been unpacking their experiences of a three-week backpacking trip to Cambodia undertaken with two broken hands.
“That was either tenacious or tremendously questionable, but like all good adventures anywhere, it was life-changing in a very unexpected way in that I didn’t go to Southeast Asia for a life-changing experience, I kind of just went there… with two broken hands.
“It took some really weird turns, and I had no idea that I was going to end up writing a book off the back of it, but while I was out there, I failed to keep my journal because I couldn’t write. So, I had my dictaphone and kept a verbal record of everything I did.”
Having come home much sooner than planned (“because I saw sense”) Mis went to recuperate in a tiny village in Devon, exploring the haunted castle and playing the church piano (“wonderful physiotherapy for broken hands”), as their thoughts and reflections solidified into lyrics, poems and prose.
“I’ve always had a life around words,” they say. “I learned the world of music to support my love of words, and poetry has always been a way of getting my ideas down without the constraints of songwriting – although songwriting has always been about the idea that limitation causes creation.
“I’m often told the things that happen to me are just so weird and wonderful that I should write them down and this has been the year it all started happening. I’m now just two chapters away from completing the book.”
In addition to Sanctuary at Lighthouse, Mis has a residency at Raise the Bar in Bristol, where they live most of the time. She plans to use that to finalise an hour-long show that will tie together the three prongs of their creative life.
“The other main project will be the band, which is a mix of rap, rave, punk and poetry. We’re Dreg Queen. Not Drug Queen or Drag Queen, but Dreg Queen – I see myself as the Queen of the Dregs. I’m proudly working class. Proudly from poverty, from estrangement. We live in a world where even AI gets to pretend it’s had a rough life, but I’ve fought my way to be here. Where I come from and the way I’ve grown up you don’t have access to things like this.”
In line with its founding principles, Lighthouse is for everyone. Launched in 2020 in response to the challenges faced by artists during the Covid pandemic, the Sanctuary residency is an established feature of summer at Lighthouse when space is made available to artists for free and with technical support.
Last year, Bristol-based theatre makers Eryn McDonald and Aish Humphreys – friends of Mis – used their residency to hone their show Girlhood on T in which they explore experiences of gender dysphoria.
“They are two incredible performers who had such a productive time here, so coming to Poole feels like a real do or die moment for me; I want to make every minute count. What this week offers me that I just wouldn’t have in my day-to-day is peace, privacy, structure and routine.
“Even just the way I can get my desk set up and have all my mess around me, it means that, especially with my ADHD, my very skittish brain, I can just go from book to poem to lyrics. If I’m not working on the band, I’m writing a poem. If I’m not writing a poem I’m working on the book.
“I live in a squat in Bristol, and whilst I love living in that environment and community, it’s definitely not a private or a quiet space. If you can’t access your flow state, then you’re really going to struggle and strain. But then struggle and strain, that’s every day, and I’ve done well enough in that state, so it’s grand.”
And there’s no let-up; it never stops. Mis’s days at Lighthouse incorporate breaks to go busking in Poole with evening appearances at open mic showcases.
“You meet someone new, have a conversation and who knows what happens next. I like catching people off guard. When I go busking during the day, I play songs like 500 Miles, or really old Americana folk songs, or traditional Irish songs like The Fields of Athenry, but I’m standing here with two double mohawks, jet red lipstick and this goth punk cowboy hat!
“I like that life can be a walking art piece and being in Poole bringing all that together, it’s really come to fruition.”
(NC)
