25 | June | 2017 | awritersfountain

I have spent the past 9 days organising my first real-life event as Worcestershire Poet Laureate. SALT KING 200 is a FREE public event organised by Barbara Middlemass as part of the ARTSFEST in Droitwich. Opening the lawns of the Chateau Impney (as John Corbett did) to the townspeople to picnic and celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Corbett, the Salt King.

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I have been working with Droitwich Arts Network (DAN) for the past 5 months organising the poetry events for ArtsFest in July (22nd July). I contacted them to enquire about a poetry element for the SALT KING event and then called to action local poets. I was delighted to have a great response for something on short notice.

Originally there were 10 poets, unfortunately some have had to drop out – the irony of which is there are 7 poets (I am the 7th Poet Laureate) and myself. 8 poets is still a fair number and it is sure to be a lovely day – especially if the weather does what it did yesterday. The forecast was 18°C and turned up to 26°C and it remained dry. My new picnic blanket (bought yesterday) is waterproof if not.

The event if FREE and is from 12-5 with plenty of stalls and entertainment as well as an official ceremony marking the Corbett family.

corbett-picnic

The poster design is by wonderful local artist Rosie Philpott.

http://www.rosiephilpott.co.uk/

Poets are meeting at 1PM for a picnic and then performing for an hour 2-3PM around the site. At 3PM we take to the DAN stage to perform our sets on the mic and promote the rest of the poetry events for the ARTSFEST.

salt-king200

I am grateful to our local poets:

Mike Alma

Leena Batchelor

Holly Daffurn

Cass Osborne

Neil Richards

Timothy Stavert

Suz Winspear

I am busy with BIOS, writing poetry and dreaming up my perfect picnic lunch for the rest of the morning!

If you are local, do come along and join in the celebrations.

All are invited to bring their own food & drink;
Local history and community groups will be highlighting the life, times and heritage of John Corbett.
Members of John Corbett’s family will be in attendance as will people from Tywyn and Amblecote
There will be live music, poetry and some simple entertainment will be provided for children.
No commercial activities will be allowed at the event, however, Chateau Impney will offer some light refreshments;
The day starts with an (optional) walk from John Corbett’s graveside in Stoke Prior to the Chateau in the morning.

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http://www.droitwichartsnetwork.org/salt-king-200/

https://droitwichstandard.co.uk/news/giant-community-picnic-held-grounds-chateau-impney-celebrate-200th-anniversary-salt-king-john-corbett/

As part of our Worcester LitFest performance of 30-40-60 we invited poets to get in touch and book open mic slots. We dedicated the first half hour to these performances, each poet receiving 5 minutes. We had additional poets on a reserve list and were sad that not everyone had the opportunity to perform in this time frame.

We hope those interested parties might be able to come and perform at another event in the future.

On the night – due to the tight timing of our performance/event/booking, I decided that introducing poets by anything other than name would be stealing time from their set.

As the poets delivered their work I was aware that as an audience member I would want to know more about this talented bunch. So at the end of the Open section I promised the audience that I would blog the BIOS and related links for each of our open mic-ers.

AND here it is!

Thanks once again to everyone who came and shared their words.

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Elaine Christie

Elaine C. Christie is an Activist, Poet, Editor with a diploma in Self Publishing. Her work appears in both the UK and US, online and magazines such as First Time, Dial 174, Dawntreader, Warwick Dodo, Silhouette Press, Poetry Rivals, Forward Poetry, Pixie Chicks’ Writers Group, The Guardian, I am not a silent poet, WWF Book and Born Free Supporters Poetry. Elaine is now Editor & Publisher of www.restlessbonespublishing.com She has facilitated workshops, hosted poetry events and performs at Spoken Word events.
In 2011 Elaine became a Member, Activator & Fundraiser with Born Free Foundation. Correlating and Publishing an Anthology ‘Restless Bones’ in 2014 to raise funds to
help fight the fur trade. Her poetry creates strong visual images, she is working on a collection ‘Hear my Cry’ soon to be released.

Nigel Hutchinson

Nigel Hutchinson is based in Leamington Spa, his first collection ‘The Humble Family Interviews’ is available from Cinnamon Press. He’ll be launching the book at Waterstones in Leamington at 5.30, 30th June and reading at Poetry Bites in Birmingham on 25th July.

https://www.cinnamonpress.com/index.php/hikashop-menu-for-products-listing/poetry/product/243-the-humble-family-interviews-nigel-hutchinson

Neil Richards

Neil Richards has recently returned to poetry. He performed this year at the Wychwood Festival.

BIO to follow.

Belinda Rimmer

Belinda has poems in magazines, including, Brittle Star, Dream Catcher, ARTEMISpoetry; Obsessed with Pipework; Sarasvati. On-line successes include, Cloud Poetry, Picaroon Poetry, Ground, Writers Against Prejudice, Amaryllis. A few poems are in anthologies. Recently she came second in her first Poetry Slam. She won The Poetry in Motion Competition as part of 2017 Cheltenham Poetry Festival and enjoyed seeing her poem turned into a film. She regularly reads at open mics events. She is a keen crafts person and likes to sew or make things from discarded books.

Website: belindarimmer.com

Rick Sanders

Rick Sanders, aka Willis the Poet, is an established comedy stand-up poet based out of the mighty West Midlands. As well as being a regular on the Birmingham poetry circuit, Willis also actively supports the flourishing spoken word event scene in the region and beyond.

https://willisthepoet.wordpress.com

BIO to follow

Kate Weatherby

BIO to follow

Suz Winspear

Suz Winspear is a poet, writer and performer, Worcestershire Poet Laureate for 2016-7, and Poet in Residence at the Museum of Royal Worcester. She published ‘I do not need a new Obsession’ in 2013, and her latest pamphlet, ‘The Aniseed Elite’ was published in June 2017

https://www.museumofroyalworcester.org/product/pamphlet-2/

Paul Wooldridge

Initially inspired following the loss of his father, Paul writes, in formal styles, on ageing, death, fatherhood and other mundane ponderings common for a married father of young girls. In a restrained tone, with dry humour woven throughout, Paul uses personal experience and the description of life’s intimacies to reflect on universal themes.

Paul’s work has so far been included in The New Humanist Magazine, The Cannon’s Mouth, About Larkin (The Philip Larkin Society’s magazine), A Swift Exit, Poems to Survive in, Graffiti Literary Magazine, Indigo Dream’s The Dawn Treader, Artficium’s Imprimo Anthology, The Blue Lady Literary Journal, The Good Dadhood Project, The Good Funeral Guide and Lighten Up.

Paul reads at Permission to Speak in Stourbridge and The Grande Slam in Dudley. He’s also reading at Mierce’s Marks, at Wolverhampton’s Art Gallery on June 15th, and at the Double Whammy Slammy on Sunday 18^th June at Drummonds Bar in Worcester.