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Join us for Porthcawl Eco Day! 27th April, 11am until 3pm Griffin Park!
A family fun day to celebrate the green and eco organisations in our local area! Stalls with games, activities and freebies! Live performances and music! Art Trail around Porthcawl! Fair Trade Cafe! And much more!
Hi Tide Inn, Porthcawl Mackworth Road, CF36 5BT. All Welcome.
Monday, Jan 29th 2024, 7pm
More information on the Sustainable Wales site.
‘Sleepwalking into Climate Change?” is a series of three twelve minute films, largely filmed in Porthcawl. They aim to locate climate change in the place where we live and will be used to stimulate debate and action locally.
Poster for 8 May Event
Find out more
At our community run ethical shop, SUSSED in James St. Porthcawl; in the afternoon of Saturday March 11th, Sustainable Wales new Young people’s climate group are presenting stalls and activities at the bandstand.
Also on Saturday 11th, we will be running a Fairtrade coffee, tea and cake cafe, above SUSSED
Homemade cakes using Fairtrade ingredients are being donated. The event will ask people to pay what they can afford or support with a donation towards Fairtrade activity.
The Green Room above SUSSED returns with new work from various writers and creators.
Stage Door, Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl CF36 3YW
https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/delirium
This collection of short prose begins with a real 1945 diary kept in Burma, and Minhinnick telling stories to his mother in her care home.
It includes a series of pictures of war-stricken Baghdad, and vignettes about place and travel, dedicated to Jan Morris.
On the way we encounter a Middle East island devoted to sustainability, close ups of what clearing a family house reveals, and the writer’s intimately imagined Welsh sand dunes.
Minhinnick also watches the Stereophonics in Sydney, mourns the Golan Heights and meets a family of destitute Bedouins.
Throughout we encounter the Covid pandemic, threats of extinction, and images of post-apocalyptic life.
A breathless epic…
Above SUSSED in the Green Room.
Our stall packed with goodies will be at Between The Trees festival on 27-29 August at Merthyr Mawr National Nature Reserve. It was great the last time, and we hope to see you there this year! (Blog post)
Shop staff erect 6ft ‘Air Pollution Kills - Kill your Engine’ banner outside their workplace.
Newly elected Bridgend Member of the Senedd, Sarah Murphy, will be there to support.
They will be politely requesting drivers to switch off any idling car engines
Friday, 25th June 2021 11.30am outside 4.5 James Street, Porthcawl CF36 3BG, outside SUSSED.
Find out more on our air pollution campaign page on the Sustainable Wales site
Shop staff wish to draw attention to the dangerous air quality they are exposed to daily from exhaust fumes.
Our community cooperative, volunteer run SUSSED is situated in the centre of Porthcawl town and some drivers ‘temporarily park’ leaving engines running directly outside the shop entrance. The gases are flowing into the shop and also affect people running street stalls.
Air pollution from particulates can cause lung cancer, and worsen heart and lung disease. Research has found there is no safe limit of exposure. The fumes also contribute to climate change.
Event Poster
Calling all crafters, quilters, creatives and lovers of sewing and knitting.
Charity Sustainable Wales is fundraising to support SUSSED our ethical community shop. We are holding this fabric, wool and haberdashery sale either in James Street, weather permitting, or in The Green Room above SUSSED, Porthcawl CF36 3BG.
Can others help raid attics, clear cupboards and donate fabrics, wool, cottons and haberdashery items and bring donations to SUSSED in advance. The event is a chance to reinvent, recycle, reduce waste and support the green agenda.
Fairtrade coffee, tea and refreshments will be available.
Savoury and Sweet you’re in for a treat. Take your taste buds on a tantalising journey from sweet, creamy milk chocolate to the rich intense flavours in Divine’s dark chocolate. Combined with a range of sweet and savoury tastes to bring out the best in the coca bean. Bring a bottle of your favourite tipple or check out the beer, wine and tea chocolate pairing guides below
The SUSSED shop will be open with a range of ethical Christmas gifts. Don’t forget members get 10% off (excluding local crafts, eco and food)… not a member yet? Sign up for membership on the night for an exclusive £8 (normally £12) and use your 10% member discount straight away!
Beer http://www.divinechocolate.com/uk/sites/default/files/img/1726.pdf
Wine http://www.divinechocolate.com/uk/sites/default/files/img/_1566.pdf
Tea http://www.divinechocolate.com/uk/sites/default/files/img/_1565.pdf
£4 or donation
Dear SUSSED Supporters,
It is OUR pleasure to invite you to SUSSED Wales’ Annual Meeting 2016/17, 13th Sept 2017, 7:30pm followed by a discussion facilitated by Green Party Councillor Alex Harris and concluded with refreshments and buffet. To be held in the Green Room, above SUSSED.
The AGM, we expect, to be quite informal and short. It will update people about SUSSED’s trading, finances and activities and elect the SUSSED board of directors and volunteer roles and responsibilities.
If anyone would like to stand as a company Director please get in touch before-hand. Or maybe you would like to volunteer and help with shop sales, volunteer coordination, membership development, administration, finances, information research, communications or IT? We would be delighted to hear from you.
As a community cooperative our volunteers, supporters and membership are central to the organisation. We are a democratic and thus participatory organisation – we need not only your commitment to shop at SUSSED but also your ideas.
Indeed, as community members you have a stake in the business as you are in fact the “owners”. Thus, we appreciate it when people attend the AGM and give us feedback.
Our guest speaker is Councillor Alex Harris who represents the Green Party in the Rest Bay ward, Porthcawl. The theme we have asked Alex to speak on and lead the discussion is:
What effect will Brexit have on the local community? How can we respond?
Each community is different. There is a higher number of immigrants in Cardiff than in Porthcawl but there is a larger farming community here. What effect will the current negotiations have on us?
Infrastructure monies from the EU will dry up – when? Will the UK/Welsh Governments compensate for this? What effect will this have on us in Wales? If there is no money into the Valleys for instance, what impact will that have on Porthcawl?
It’s great to see that environmental policies from the EU are being incorporated into UK legislation. Are there any that are being omitted?
Afterwards let’s celebrate the fact that our community actually has a shop like SUSSED.
We hope that you can attend what should be an enjoyable evening.
Please RSVP, via email (mm@sustainablewales.org.uk ) or phone (01656783962) to ensure there is an appropriate amount of seating and refreshments available.
Best Wishes
Margaret Minhinnick on behalf of all the Directors SUSSED (Luke Evans, Martin Little, Robert Minhinnick, Peter Morgan, Melanie Johnson)
Click for more info.
Bridgend County Fairtrade Partnership is holding a Fairtrade Festival including a ‘Bake-Off’ at Carnegie House, Wyndham Street, Bridgend on Saturday 18th March from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is a family event and there will be Fairtrade stalls, coffee bar, stalls, story-telling music, films etc.
Find out more at the dedicated page on the Sustainable Wales website.
We are organizing an Autumn Frock Swap, offering another chance to update your wardrobe, live more sustainably and save cash.
by Robert Minhinnick, a novel published by Seren Books. With music from Peter Morgan and guest readers.
At ‘Ty Carnegie’ (Arts Hub), Wyndham Street, BRIDGEND, CF31 1EF. FREE ENTRANCE
Sustainable Wales’s ‘Green Room’ performance space has its autumn 2015 programme lined up. More details www.sustainablewales.org.uk
All events usually take place at 5, James St., PORTHCAWL CF36 3BG on the last Friday of the month.
However, on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 7.30pm we move to Ty Carnegie (Old Library) Wyndham Street, Bridgend CF31 1EF, for the launch of Robert Minhinnick’s novel, ‘Limestone Man’ (Seren). Free entrance.
The novel features a main character, Richard Parry, who returns to south Wales after teaching in Australia. He discovers his hometown is now notorious for the suicides of young people.
Parry is a ‘writer who cannot write, a painter who does not paint’. His obsession is Lulu, “an orphan off the street, an aboriginal green child.” Lulu was gone missing in mysterious circumstances.
‘Limestone Man’ is the second novel in Robert Minhinnick’s ‘Sea Holly’ series.
The performance will feature two voices plus space-age keyboards played by Peter Morgan. There will also be three guests at a special ‘Open Mic’ event. ‘Limestone Man’ retails at £9.99. available at SUSSED
More information to follow
Marine Biologist To Speak At The Green Room, James Street, Porthcawl
Learn About The New Swansea Bay Marine Wildlife Voluntary Code Of Conduct For Sea Users And Help Protect Marine Life In The Bay
MONDAY 27th July: 6.30 - 7: 45pm.
The free workshops are funded by the FLAG, (Fisheries Local Action Group) and will launch the new marine voluntary code for all sea users that has been developed by the Nature Conservation Team at Swansea County Council and Judith Oakley, Marine Biologist (Oakley Intertidal).
The new marine wildlife voluntary code of conduct aims to help people interact safely with marine wildlife and help minimize disturbance to the fantastic sea life present within Swansea Bay.
Passionate marine biologist, Winter Dotto will lead presentations and discussions in the Green Room, above SUSSED, 4/5 James Street, Porthcawl, CF 36 3BG, 27th July, Neath Civic Centre 23rd of July and NSA Afan Employment Academy in Port Talbot 22nd July.
She is currently working for the Swansea Environmental Forum on the Clear Streams Initiative and explains that "The events hope to draw attention to the new voluntary code of conduct for sea users and get people on board. I will also talk about marine recording, and how people can submit their sightings to their Local Authority Biodiversity Unit.”
The code of conduct applies to recreational and commercial sea users across Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend counties.
Local marine biologist and author Judith Oakley will also be running sessions in Swansea on 22nd and 23rd July.
For more info: winter@environmentcentre.org.uk
Tel: 01792 480 200
Event Poster click to enlarge.
Although she’s a very successful short story writer, Significance (Seren) is Jo Mazelis’s first novel. It deals with the life of Lucy Snow, who, seeking a new direction, moves to France. Or is she running away? “Lucy wants all of it gone”.
Significance follows the consequences of her decision.
Jo Mazelis has been a graphic designer and photographer as well as a writer, working on magazines in London. She lives and writes in her hometown, Swansea.
Jo’s reading will be followed by questions, opportunities to purchase her books, and the popular Green Room Open Mic for others to perform their work.
More details: 01656 773627
Novelist, poet, photographer, essayist and short story writer, Jo Mazelis
was born in the middle of a summer storm on the edge of the Gower Peninsula. She grew up in Swansea, later living in Aberystwyth and London for over 14 years before returning to her hometown. She worked as a graphic designer back when magazines were put together with scalpels and wax, occasionally undertaking portrait assignments to photograph writers such as P.D. James, Patricia Highsmith and Kathy Acker, artists Paula Rego and Nan Goldin, and actors Miranda Richardson and Tilda Swinton amongst others.
She has won a prize in the Rhys Davies Short story award five times, was longlisted for the Asham Award and her first collection of short storiesDiving Girls was shortlisted for both Wales Book of the Year and Commonwealth Best First Book. Her work has appeared in New Welsh Review, Spare Rib, Poetry Wales, Raconteur, Cambrensis, Nth Position, the Big Issue, Corridor, The Ottawa Citizen, Everywoman, Tears in the Fence and Lampeter Review amongst others. Several of her stories have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
She has exhibited her artwork at Camerawork, London, The Camera Club, London, The Dylan Thomas Centre, Pontardawe Arts Centre and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and has recently begun exploring filmmaking as a means of exploring identity and memory.
Green Room (new account for events):
@1thegreeneroom
@suswales
Jo Mazelis:
It's that time of year already and the ever popular Festive Fundraising Feast returns. Profits for our sister Charity, Sustainable Wales. Tickets available from SUSSED and online; booking form. Make a date for your diary - Friday, 12th December at the fully licensed Olive Tree Restauarant, Pyle, CF33 6BJ.
Sustainable Wales, is hosting its annual Christmas Fundraising Feast on Friday, December 12th, at ‘The Olive Tree Restaurant’, Pyle CF 33 6BJ. Reception 7.30pm, followed by a delectable three-course meal and coffee; tickets are £28.50.
The chefs will use the finest Fairtrade, organic and local ingredients, to cook-up a culinary storm – this is one Christmas celebration you don’t have to feel guilty about! Slip on your suits and grab your gowns!
“Once a year we like to create an elegant evening out for Sustainable Wales’ friends, supporters and well-wishers. Creating a five-star meal from ethical ingredients is not only a great showcase for the public, but also an exciting challenge for the chefs at this new restaurant. The menu looks delicious.” said Margaret Minhinnick, Sustainable Wales’ Director. “Tickets are priced at £28.50, with all profits going to Sustainable Wales.”
Online booking form: http://sustainablewales.esy.es/christmas-fundraising-feast/
Tickets available from SUSSED. Tel 01656 783962
Here's the menu of delicious local, fairly traded and organic food...
OneTimeAlive launch their debut album at SUSSED. A gatefold CD with 16 page colour booklet this locally created album will be launched with live acoustic sets of the album's songs. Find out more about the album at www.onetimealive.com.
Check out the album and pick up the album before the 3rd November worldwide launch on Amazon, iTunes etc.
Verse & Vine 8pm, Thursday Oct 30th at the Green Room above SUSSED
This popular event is back! Held above SUSSED - time to refresh your wardrobe for the new season...
Child Labour and Fairtrade in Pakistan
SUSSED and the Bridgend Fairtrade Partnership are delighted to announce that on Monday, July 21st, we will be joined in the Green Room by journalist and Fairtrade Wales volunteer, Muhammad Younas, for a presentation and discussion on the prevalence of child labour in the developing world, and whether there's anything that can be done about it.
Using Pakistan and the football manufacturing industry as a case study, Younas will examine how a country that effectively made it unconstitutional to make children below the age of 14 work in hazardous conditions, currently has an estimated 3.8 million workers in the 5-14 age group, many of whom are being denied their basic human rights under the Charter of the United Nations.
With billions of eyes all looking to Brazil and the Football World Cup this summer (and the often lavishly paid players, coaches and dignitaries that are involved), the discussion about whether it is acceptable for a small child being paid around US$0.07 to stitch a football that will sell for around $30, has rarely been more poignant. Furthermore, with so many internal and external factors making the road to change in Pakistan so long and tenuous, as Younas will explain, perhaps the party best placed to make a difference is actually (as it so often is) us, the consumer...
Younas is a thoughful speaker, passionate about FairTrade and deeply knowledgeable about the region. We love to see as many of you as possible there, as anybody is invited to join us for what promises to be a relaxed and interesting afternoon discussion.
The presentation will take place at 1.30pm in the Green Room (upstairs in SUSSED), and is open to all, free of charge. Fairly traded refreshments will, of course, be available.
Lots of events are planned including our Banana Bake off on the 1st March from 11am (see the detailed event listing previous to this) and free Divine chocolate tasting at SUSSED. Our Green Room Cafe above the shop will be open across the fortnight check in store for details.
Download a guide to Fairtrade Fortnight activities in Porthcawl and the Bridgend Borough (PDF)
Banana Bake-Off details on the Fairtrade Fortnight site
Robert Minhinnick signs copies of ‘Island of Lightning’ his new prose collection from Seren.
On Saturday, December 14, 11am – 2pm, there will be a chance for shoppers at SUSSED at 4-5, James St., Porthcawl CF36 3BG, to purchase signed copies of local author, Robert Minhinnick’s latest book. There will also be teas, coffee, cakes or mulled wine and mince pies available in ‘The Green Room’ upstairs.
