Long-standing member and friend of the House Sam Conniff is writing about ways to find optimism.

House-regulars, One Track Minds, are streaming their live storytelling events exploring the transformative power of music and you can catch previous shows on their YouTube channel.

Our in-House wordsmith and Employment Academy graduate John Smallshaw, penned an ode to Soho and its resilience this week, listen to John perform the poem here.

And finally, if this newsletter is about all the reading you can handle right now, but you’re desperate to get your head into a book, Penguin have some pointers.

Along Those Lines – Monro Room

It is too often assumed that art is either abstract or figurative. For some artists this either/or is unnecessarily rigid. Along Those Lines is an exhibition that looks at the hybrid use of geometry in art. Curator Clare Bradley has chosen six artists who play with the infinite possibilities of geometrical forms as elements inside a wider representational context. Each of them in their different way is looking at the unbound resonance of geometric abstraction and what it does to us, intuitively and cognitively. For this, there are no boundaries and no limit to where it starts and stops.

The artists on show are:
Kerry Andrews
Richard Caldicott
Fieroza Doorsen
Günther Herbst
Bérénice Mayaux
Michael Stubbs

Magnus Gjoen with Art Surgery – Dickens Room

Born in London to Norwegian parents, Magnus Gjoen grew up in Switzerland, Denmark, Italy as well as in the UK. As a contemporary artist Gjoen has exhibited worldwide and questions the notions of beauty by juxtaposing a range of styles and media, incorporating a street and pop aesthetic with a fine art approach. His pieces draw on history and allusion, using existing artworks or fragments from the past to create his own, contemporary.

Releasing her debut album Samantha says “This record was written and recorded during and after some serious hardships in my life.

Somewhat Anomalous presents a night of jazz, disco and funk at the House of St Barnabas.

In this quick-fire taster session Mark Shayler and Tina Malcolm will provide a short and sweet, no-nonsense insight in how to market (aka grow) your business in this new world.

Rides Again is a personal journey into the world of soul-inspired country music, performed in the intimate Chapel at the House Of St Barnabas.

Please join Dan Hillier on Friday 24th January, 6:30pm – 9 pm, for an intimate ‘Meet the Artist’ evening at the House of St Barnabas in Soho, London.