Our mission

Ethos

Established in 2009, Little Episodes is an independent publisher and arts production company which aims to:

LE’s ethos is about empowering people and fighting the constraints that exist within the artistic industries and the difficulties faced by people trying to enter them.

The spirit of LE is enabling self-actualisation through creative means. LE is very much about giving each and every one of its members an equal creative opportunity or pathway.

LE unites established talent (Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess, Nina Antonia, Carl Barat, Adam Ant) with emerging artists and is run by all the members as a community/movement in the face of government cuts.

LE helps its members to realise their own artistic visions and all ideas and concepts are welcome. LE has members and links with high profile industry figures and so offers a realistic platform for talent wanting to carve professional careers.

LE also provides a hub for local community and anyone interested in trying their hand at something creative, simply enjoying other people’s work as an audience member or engaging in the day to day running of the venue. LE also encourages its members to use the project to give themselves a voice – to raise issues and wage campaigns using art as a medium.

LE believes in the cathartic properties of art, particularly the powerful platform that it can provide to incite empathy and understanding. LE has run various projects and campaigns to raise awareness of mental health, support the LGBT community, promote art and literature to urban youths, encourage social inclusion for minority groups and to promote local trade and small businesses.

LE also operates a mentor scheme between artists, puts on poetry and music nights and art exhibitions and provides a large book exchange as well as running classes and book clubs.

LE’s cafe is to operate using a co-op scheme. Anyone can join as long as they donate a minimum of 2 hours a month to help run the venue and pay an initial £25 joining fee – in return they get to attend all events for free and get a reduced rate in the cafe/bar.

For ways of contacting Little episodes, see our contact page.

LE Publishing

LE has now established itself as a prolific indie publisher with links to Little, Brown Book Group in the UK and Europe as well as Vagabondage Press in the U.S. LE Publishing has four titles in its back catalogue and books are available via the main site, the cafe/LE Library, Amazon, Kindle and various indie book sellers both in the U.K and the U.S. Contributors consist of both emerging and established talent such as Todd Swift, Melvin Burgess and Clint Catalyst. LE has earned a host of positive literary feedback from well known authors and publishers. Check our endorsements page for further reading.

In keeping with our ethos and intention to use art to highlight important issues, we are accepting submissions for: for:

Queer Episodes- an anthology of queer writing, providing empathy and insight into the LGBT community.

Literature’s Long – aimed at getting young people, particularly those of duel heritage or living urban areas, interested in literature and linking the exploration of language and creative writing to rap, screen acting and contemporary story lines.

Our 4th Expression of Depression anthology – raising awareness of depression and addiction whilst trying to destigmatise and provide understanding.

Events/Projects

As well as running a cafe/bar, LE will host an array of ongoing and one off events/projects. Our links to the publishing world, established artists and high profile events in London offer our patrons/members more than just a one off platform but the opportunity to climb a professional ladder. This sets the LE cafe apart from any other artistic venue in Brighton. We are not just providing a consumer with a product/stage; we are asking them to join a group of artists and help each other and themselves.

LE Online

LE cafe/bar will provide free WiFi and encourage all members to use their LE profiles. www.littleepisodes.org is an online network for musicians, writers and artists of any medium as well as those who simply enjoy art. Every mont,h we interview and feature one of our artists on the site. We also post videos and photos from all of our live events.

Book Exchange

Little, Brown Book Group is LE Publishing’s mentor and guiding light. It is the biggest publisher in Europe and prints, among other titles, the Twilight series and Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks.

Little, Brown Book Group has pledged to donate as many titles as we can stock for a book exchange/LE Library service. We have also been given 100 Penguin Classics from a private source.

Shop

LE books, artwork, CDs and merchandise (including t-shirts, branded and uniquely designed clothing and badges) are available via the site and event nights. LE will also sell all its products, original art and bric-abrac at the Brighton cafe. We aim to stand out from the many coffee shops of Brighton; we aim to provide somewhere that isn’t just an eatery or place to use WiFi but is somewhere to shop, view art, read, meet like-minded people and sign up for the courses/evening events as well as to the organisation as a whole.

LE Records

LE is re-releasing The Fay Wrays’ album War Cry via iTunes.

LE is also promoting the Save Torrianos, Raise the Bar Records campaign – two compilation albums from the bands that play regularly at Torrianos.

LE has opened submissions for an audio anthology – four performance poets to read/sing the selected material with music/accompaniment written by The Skuzzies and Jerome Alexandre. The anthology is to be selected by Nina Antonia.

Carl Barat and his sister, Lucie, are recording the song War Cry as a single download/release through LE Records.

LE offers free downloads from LE artists via the LE Records page on the main site.

LE plans to record live gigs, sessions and one off arrangements of songs with LE artists to be released via iTune, on LE Records and, down the line, as CDs to sell on site.

Arts Against Apathy

Choice is the cornerstone of a free society. It allows people to determine their future and their lifestyles but these decisions are under constant pressure from the interests of large organisations and businesses. Minimising or eliminating these pressures through education will empower the individual to make informed decisions about how their choices affect society and the world around them.

2012 will see LE embark on a year long project using the arts to promote the idea that the individual has a central role in using their choices to benefit their society and community.

Our aim is to educate and enlighten the public how their actions can have a direct impact on making a better world. We will address a range of issues from voter engagement through to environmental issues and how people, using the arts, can start to address and combat apathy toward the problems we face as a society today.

Events

LE has a vast track record in event hosting. We have filled London venues such as The Water Rats and Oxford Street’s 100 Club with full band gigs, plays, poetry and acoustic music and we even held an art exhibition that ran for a month in the Novas Urban Contemporary Centre in Southwark.

LE cafe/bar will run a full and vibrant calendar of poetry and acoustic nights, art exhibitions, comedy, theatre, book clubs, reading group and rehearsed script readings.

LE will also continue to host London events and aims to eventually branch out around the country, and the world, soon!

www.members.littleepisodes.org

Mission Statement – Lucie Barât, 2011

These days, the artistic and entertainment industries can generate seriously big money. While this may be palatable enough for the lucky few who get picked to ‘succeed’, it is alienating and depressing for the hoards of equally talented creatives lost in a sea of penniless artists. Huge marketing bodies dictate who is to be the next ‘talent to watch’ and who is now dispensable, with the onus always on super-stardom rather than working artists. Although not every consumer lets the powers that be sway their taste and personal choice, the artistic industries are tightly controlled and many interesting, original and talented artists simply get starved out of the running.

I was a ‘resting’ actress, simultaneously penning a novel and teaching part-time at an inner London college when I met Chris Colston, himself eeking a living from a small painting commission. We sat, one summer’s day, on a sweaty Southbank, and ranted about the restraints and pure luck needed to earn any kind of crust from an artistic career. We felt guilty that we couldn’t bend our minds to become decent accountants or train drivers and berated ourselves for our inability to be happy enough in an office job of some description.

After a second round of tap waters, we decided the only option was to expand upon the ‘Expression of Depression’ anthologies — books featuring work from unknowns alongside successful writers — we were already printing and branch out to encompass other artistic mediums. We had a vision of collaborating with talented individuals to bypass the lottery of the big industries and take high quality art straight to an audience bored of being dictated to.

Little Episodes is an independent publisher and arts production company run by pro-active artists. We curate art exhibitions, put on poetry nights, gigs and plays, publish books, run an online social network and forum and are soon to open a café/bar in Brighton.