Born in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked as a community development worker, poet, librarian and publisher, Keith Armstrong, now residing in the seaside town of Whitley Bay, is coordinator of the Northern Voices creative writing and community publishing project which specialises in recording the experiences of people in the North East of England. He has organised several community arts festivals in the region and many literary events. He has recently compiled and edited books on the Durham Miners' Gala, on the former mining communities of County Durham, the market town of Hexham and on North Tyneside heritage in From Segedumum to Spanish City.
Keith's poetry has been extensively published in magazines as well as in collections and on radio & TV. He has also written for music-theatre productions. He has performed his poetry on several occasions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Festivals in Bradford, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Greenwich, Lancaster, and throughout the land.
As an industrial librarian, he was christened 'Arts & Darts', organising poetry readings, theatrical productions, and art exhibitions by his fellow workers, as well as launching Ostrich poetry magazine using the firm's copying facilities and arranging darts matches between departments!
He has been a self-employed writer since 1986 and in 2007 he was awarded a PhD, on the work of Newcastle writer Jack Common, at the University of Durham from where he also received a BA Honours Degree in Sociology in 1995 and Masters Degree in 1998 for his studies on regional culture in the North East of England. He has held many residencies in the North East, his latest being at The Grand Hotel Tynemouth in 2010.
Keith has long pioneered cultural exchanges with Durham's twinning partners, particularly Tuebingen and Nordenham in Germany and Ivry-sur-Seine and Amiens in France, as well as with Newcastle's Dutch twin-city of Groningen. He often works and travels with folk-musicians from North East England, and has written the lyrics for an album, Bleeding Sketches, by folk-rock band The Whisky Priests, with whom he has toured extensively in The Netherlands.
Keith has recently edited and published a book to celebrate the centenary of Spanish City, Whitley Bay.
'Keith Armstrong has more aliases than a man on the run.' (Graeme Rigby, The Page, Northern Echo)
'Keith's poems raised goose pimples but also thoughts about today's culture.' (Peter Lewis, Hexham Courant)
'Keith is a noted Geordie wordsmith, a bloke whose musings were always radical, though of their place.' (Folk Roots magazine).
Links: www.keithboyarmstrong.blogspot.com
