Winners of Wenlock Poetry Festival

The Winners have been announced – the full list and article can be found here

Poetry and Pollination at The Hive

Claire Walker’s detailed review of Poetry and Pollination, says it all really! It was a great evening!

SpeakEasy with A. F Harrold

Speakeasy was amazing, I was very tired by the time I got across to Worcester after working two jobs, I was hoping to get there in time for signing up to the open mic (4 free slots of 2 minutes) I didn’t manage it and they had put the parking up! I paid my entry and had a chance to mingle and catch up with everyone I knew, great to see new faces in the audience as well as getting up to the mic, this is one of my favourite spoken word nights and I missed it last month to go to the meeting with Writing West Midlands.

I was delighted to see that Matt Windle was performing and enjoyed his short set. It was great to watch new -to – us acts and also end up with 2 nice surprises. They managed to get through the first half quicker than normal. Which meant myself and Io had a chance to perform.

Hurrah! Unfortunately I hadn’t had time to set or rehearse, I just grabbed a bag of poems and when I was told there was no space, I didn’t bother looking at them, so on the spot, Fergus had to fill time whilst I went through my plastic file.

I wasn’t 100% happy with my performance but the feedback was good and the parts I had been unsure of no-one else seemed to notice.

The second surprise – I won the raffle! I chose Wreck this Journal, a great book by Penguin that I can fill in myself!

A great 2nd half and the headline A.F Harrold, I knew about him but had never seen him perform, very entertaining!

Confab Cabaret

 Last Wednesday night I managed to get across to Malvern for Confab Cabaret -always a great fun night with Amy Rainbow and Catherine Cresswell! We were back in Oliver’s again – they have had to nomadically shift venue after the Confab Club closed.

The furniture was the other way around to last week and I preferred it – a cosier performance space. The 2 minute slots were fab and varied – including a chap on a tin whistle. I loved seeing Adrian Mealing in action again, a great poem about his son!

I was very excited to see Dizraeli and he impressed me so much. I have seen him on You Tube, but in real time, he was amazing. I see a lot of beat poetry in Birmingham and although it’s not my thing I can appreciate it, Dizraeli crosses the line though – he is more than a beat poet – he blends folk and beat and there is a story, a moral, a heart tug. His set was a mix of music and words – he was superb, and just playing on and on – his set could have lasted forever as far as we were concerned, but he had a gig at the Grizzly Bear in Birmingham so he had to stop at some time!

He had never been to Malvern and I am happy to say Malvern was ready for him, by the end of his set I think he had melted us all!

It was a great night and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The group poem about graffiti* was compiled and read by Myfanwy – humorous and great as usual.

* Banksy has hit Cheltenham and Malvern! 🙂