Category Archives: poetry

The Quiet Compere

Standard

I am delighted to be back on tech duties – although with this line up, I am not sure how I will concentrate on screen work.

The tour brings together a diverse selection of poets of all ages, cultures, styles and experience, designed to entice an audience that may never have experienced spoken word events before.

Sarah has been running spoken word events under her guise as The Quiet Compere for ten years.


Quiet Compere events are unique. There are no lengthy introductions to poets, no-one is designated as ‘top-of-the-bill’ – all platform performers considered equal in Sarah’s eyes. Each line-up boasts a varied and diverse mix of poets, ranging from established local poets, some new to the scene who are ready to stun audiences with their talent, plus a generous sprinkling of nationally well-known poets and performers.

© Quiet Compere



Co-Host and performer for the evening: Emma Purshouse
George Bastow
Gracey Bee
Penny Blackburn
Mark Connors
Linda Goulden
Helen Ivory
Jack McLean
Elizabeth McGeown
Jennifer A. McGowan
Mark Pajak

You can find tickets on Eventbrite. Don’t miss it!

Nov 12th

Quiet Compere Live and Online Tour 2022 – Stop 9 – Zoom Finale

Sarah L Dixon, The Quiet Compere of Huddersfield, is taking her showcase and workshop series to new places.

Remembrance Day

Standard

Today is Remembrance Day – I have gathered some poems for reflection.

This anthology was compiled whilst I was Worcestershire Poet Laureate (2017-18). It was important to me to represent globally – the international anthology was the first of many online anthologies produced during my tenure.

International Remembrance Anthology

Thank you to all poets who submitted their work.


inews remembrance day poems 2021 first world war poetry including:  John McRae, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Ivor Gurney, Rudyard Kipling

seven touching remembrance day poems

CWGC Remembrance day poems for reflection

Photo by Eric Smart on Pexels.com

A Tale of Two Cities II – The Reading

Standard

Earlier this week I shared the sizzle… here’s the recording of our Transatlantic reading. Enjoy!

ATOTC II ~ 30/10/22

With gratitude to all participating poets and to Rodger Martin and Polly Stretton for managing this second edition of the project with me.

A Tale of Two Cities II – The Reading

Standard

Some poetry events are just magical! Mix the alchemy of Transatlantic poets writing call and response poems and you are sure to have a cracking reading. The power of hearing these poems performed by each poet was fabulous. Added to the words, the reunion of people, not just across the pond but within our own communities.

I have huge gratitude to every poet in this project. Polly Stretton is a marvel and without her, the gleam wouldn’t have been as bright as it was. I appreciate every ounce of work she has delivered since the summer.

We are currently editing the film for YouTube and then over the next few months will compile a print anthology with Black Pear Press.

Watch this space!

Here’s a flavour of what’s to come…


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

A Tale of Two Cities II

Standard

It gives me great pleasure to announce a project that has been underway since the summer.

We did it again! Poets from Worcester UK and Worcester USA paired up to write call-and-response poems.

In the original project there was a UK launch and a USA reading, but thanks to the wonders of technology we will all be united on Sunday 30th October, the start time will be 18:00 GMT (UK) and 14:00 EDT (USA) the link for the online event will appear here and on the BPP Facebook Event Page on the day. And yes, that’s definitely 18:00 start time UK, our clocks fall back this weekend!

Black Pear Press are delighted to be part of this project and will host the online event.


Background ~ Every tale starts somewhere.

The Original ATOTC

Back in 2017, when I was Worcestershire Poet Laureate I embarked on a huge transatlantic project linking poets in Worcester UK with those in Worcester MA USA.

It was a massive undertaking on both sides of the pond and a wonderful, fulfilling project involving 47 poets. You can read all about it here:

Project Go Ahead

A Tale of Two Cities Begins

Poets Revealed

A Tale Nearly Ready to Tell

A Tale of Two Cities Anthology

And feast on the wonderful poetry which was written about our cities here.


Then there were launches and festival events for a while.

July 2018 Droitwich Arts Festival – Launch of ATOTC UK

Artsfest UK Launch A Tale of Two Cities

Then it was the turn for our partners in the USA.

A Tale of Two Cities Massachusetts

AT read promo

September 2018

I worked on promotion for the American A Tale of Two Cities reading, happening at the Sprinkler Factory, Massachusetts on Friday 28th. Very excited to hear how it all goes and hopefully by next year there will be some bigger plans in progress for this project.

pulse
telegram_logo

I followed up the USA performance of A Tale of Two Cities – there was certainly a lot of pre-event news coverage and it seems to have gone really well.

US Reading ATOTC

BOB GILL ATOTC2


The plans I had bore some fruition in 2019 when I produced a show with some of the UK poets, lots of film work and the helpful narration of an American relative, for the Evesham Festival of Words.

It had been booked for the festival in 2018, before the Perth Poetry Festival in Australia and before my stint in hospital and my Annus horribilis. It was not quite the year I thought it would be and neither was 2020.


As our lives moved online I caught up with WCPA crew at some events and thought about joining forces to celebrate the collection again.

Roll on a few years, many poets are still in contact with their partners and one of the UK poets, Polly Stretton, had a conversation about doing just that.

Photo by Sharefaith on Pexels.com

July 2022

After a few email exchanges with Rodger Martin and Bob Gill, an idea was floated to go beyond meeting online to read our original work… after some discussion we all agreed to repeat the Call & Response project. And ATOTC II was born.

Since then poets from the original team have been paired up to produce a new selection of poems, this time the theme was open and as before, there has been lots of fun! And this time after the reading, my future ideas for A Tale of Two Cities will bear fruit.

Photo by vectors icon on Pexels.com


A huge thanks to Polly Stretton for all her management skills, for compiling the programme and organising the tech and assisting with the promotion. It has been a blast. Thanks also to Black Pear Press.

And thank you to all the poets in Worcester UK and from WCPA Worcester Massachusetts, for your wonderful partnerships and poems. I cannot wait to celebrate with you all!

Photo by Vie Studio on Pexels.com

Come and join us

ATOTC II Event Page will include Zoom information on the day.


RELATED LINKS:

https://blackpear.net/

A Big Week for Some of my Poems

Standard

Back in the midst of Lockdown (2020) I was involved with several projects in Sheffield. One of which was Lab 4 Living Experiencing Ageing workshops with Joan Healey and Sheffield Libraries.

The outcome of which has been an exhibition in Sheffield Library, an anthology of selected poems from the project and more recently (Friday 21st October) The Poetics of Ageing as part of the Off the Shelf Festival of Words.

‘… one of the UK’s largest literary festivals. Every October we bring the biggest names in local, regional, and international literary talent, media and the arts to South Yorkshire.‘ – University of Sheffield.

It was an enjoyable project to be involved in, I love it when research turns to poets and it was my involvement in this project which led me to become a part of DNA: Our Stories for the Resonate Festival at Warwick University back in January.

Prior to the original 2020 project, I’d written about Dementia and experienced first hand the effects of this and Alzheimer’s disease. Lab 4 Living also enabled me the space to write more elder poems, which was always important to me but has been made doubly so since the loss of my Great Aunty and Grandma earlier this year.

I shared some of my poems from the anthology at a recent event for Droitwich Arts Network and the impact and conversations with audience over the conception of them and the Lab 4 Living project were rewarding and insightful.

https://offtheshelf.org.uk/event/the-poetics-of-aging/

An exploration of the wondrous process of growing older through poetry and prose.  The evening includes poetry from local writing groups about the felt experiences of ageing, readings of work by people living with dementia and provocative extracts from fiction.  We hope to create a space where we can share, play, gain new insights and perhaps re-imagine what it is to be older.  This event comes from a project  ‘Re-imagining ageing’ run by Joan Healey and Claire Craig as part of Lab 4 Living’s 100 Year Life research.

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” Frank Lloyd Wright 

Curated by Sheffield Hallam University


I also received a commission to write for a special event. More news on that soon.

The Quiet Compere – Stop 6 Poetry Showcase

Standard

Come and join us tonight, hurry to register for a ticket here:

A showcase of ten emerging and established poets.

About this event

A showcase of 10 emerging and established poets with a short open mic section hosted by Sarah L Dixon and Dave Pitt.

Sarah L Dixon, The Quiet Compere of Huddersfield, is taking her unique show on a nine-date tour. Six live and three online events. This series will feature 73 performers.

The tour brings together a diverse selection of poets of all ages, cultures, styles and experience, designed to entice an audience that may never have experienced spoken word events before. Sarah has been running spoken word events under her guise as The Quiet Compere for eleven years.

Quiet Compere events are unique. There are no lengthy introductions to poets, no-one is designated as ‘top-of-the-bill’ – all performers considered equal in Sarah’s eyes. Each line-up boasts a varied and diverse mix of poets, ranging from established local poets, some new to the scene who are ready to stun audiences with their talent, plus a generous sprinkling of nationally well-known poets and performers.

Siegfried Baber

Ruth Kelsey

Jonathan Kinsman

Gill Lambert

Sharon Larkin

Hannah Linden

Nicky Longthorne

Liz Mills

Finola Scott

Olivia Tuck

Line-up is subject to change.

Website link to bios:

http://thequietcompere.co.uk/quiet-compere-tour-2022-stop-6-online-wednesday-august-17th/

© Quiet Compere 2022

I was fortunate enough to perform in earlier QC tours, tonight I will be helping manage the tech. It is a night not to be missed!

Mindful Poetry Moments Book Launch

Standard

I have been overjoyed to play a part in The Well/ Mindful Poetry events over the past few years, (since Lockdown 2020/21). For the 2nd year running I am delighted to have poetry included in the anthology.

The Book Launch happens today at The Mercantile Library, which is incredibly beautiful and in Cincinnati… however, if you are not you can still watch the event on Crowdcast, to register: book tickets for the Live Launch or reserve your spot virtually check here.

I am really looking forward to spending some of my Birthday celebrating with these poets and can’t wait to hear everyone’s words.

Hope you can join us!

Book cover artwork courtesy of @alexandraramirezarts⁠ ⁠ Mindful Poetry Moments was incubated with @onbeing and virtual gatherings are supported by @cincyhive @wordplaycincy and @themercantilelib⁠ ⁠ #TheWellWorld #TheWell #MindfulPoetryMoments #MindfulPoetry #Poetry #PoetryCollection #OnBeing #PoetryUnbound #Poems #Poets #Poet

Featured Poem ~ In the Breast Unit

Standard

I was lucky enough to complete the manuscript (my first collection) last year. I then sat on it for a while before returning for final edits in Spring 2022. It is now finding a home with a publisher. So it brings me great joy to announce Cafe Writers chose to feature my poem In the Breast Unit as the poem of the month.

It can be hard to find places where writing poems about our bodies is an acceptable read. I am grateful to the team for picking this poem.

Proud to be sharing the space with so many wonderful Poem of the Month Picks.

Poem of the Month – In the Breast Unit

I was delighted to see/hear incredible headline sets from Kim Moore and Jenny Pagdin and enjoy the always amazing open mic. When I received the email notifying me of this news, I danced!

NaPoWriMo – Nina’s Challenge #Day 30

Standard

Everyday throughout April I am posting an image for you to use as a writing prompt. Feel free to post links to the resulting work in the comments.

This is the end of NaPoWriMo 2022, we made it! Thanks to those who posted the prompts elsewhere. I look forward to hearing all about your National Poetry Month!

#Day30

© Marina Barcelos

© Mel Poole