Last night was the launch of the Naked Muse Calendar at Kraak Gallery, Manchester. A wonderful & moving charity event hosted by Dominic Berry, who revealed a lot more of himself than I’ve seen before.
Six months ago, I got a curious phone call asking me if I wanted to pose nude for charity, because I was “a beautiful male poet”. How could I refuse such an ego-boosting (if rather not entirely accurate) invitation?
The Naked Muse Calendar is an exciting collaboration between 41 UK artists, creating together to find a cure for Type One Diabetes. Organized by Cumbrian poet, Vik Bennett and her partner, Adam Clarke, it is a fascinating inversion of the ubiquitous male gaze, featuring nude photo portraits by 14 female photographers of 14 male poets, accompanied by poems by 14 female poets. Vik and Adam were inspired to create the calendar in response to their own experiences of raising their son, Django, a toddler with Type 1 diabetes.
The project has attracted plenty of excited media coverage – a feature in the Guardian, tweeted by Stephen Fry – and the spirit of all those involved has been inspiring. My own nude photo shoot in London was refreshingly liberating and my photographer, Laura Hynd, produced a beautiful image reminiscent of Caravaggio. All the photos in the calendar are top notch, especially the cover shot of Max Wallis lounging like a Regency Lolita on Coleridge’s opium bed and the one of Tony Walsh worshipping the rising sun waist high in a sea of summer grass.
Dominic Berry - a buff host in the buff
All proceeds of the calendar go towards the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. You can buy it online for only £12.99. Ideal Christmas guest for anyone who loves poetry or naked men.
