Verve Poetry Festival Poetry Parlour
and Verve Poetry Festival Hit the Ode Tech Special
Feb16
Tag Archives: Hannah Silva
Feb16
Verve Day 1 Thursday 15th Feb.
WOW! What an amazing night that was. I was up until the early hours writing my first Verve Festival Blog posts, high on post-event adrenalin. I will share the links as soon as the posts go live. Until then enjoy these harvested clips and shots!
Poetry Parlour with Imtiaz Dharker and Hit the Ode Technology Special were superb< understatement!
Poetry Parlour with Imtiaz Dharker
Cynthia Miller © Pat Edwards 2018
Pat Edwards © 2018
Imtiaz Dharker in conversation with Jane Commane
Cynthia Miller © 2018
Hannah Swings © 2018
Hit the Ode Verve Technology Special
Our three featured poets for the Hit the Ode Tech Special – Tomomi Adachi, Yomi Sode & Hannah Silva – all use technology in their performances. These poets bend technology to their will, using it to inform, enhance and warp their words. They achieve what Tomomi Adachi describes as ‘an intermediary between poetry and music, and it doesn’t mean poetry plus music, its something in between.’
Verve Poetry & Spoken Word Festival © 2018
Bohdan Piasecki Hosting HTO – Gaia Harper © 2018
Tomomi Adachi pre-wearable tech. Verve Team © 2018
Tomomi Adachi – Hannah Swings © 2018
Hannah Silva & Tomomi Adachi -Bringing the magic. Hannah Swings © 2018
Yomi Sode – Hannah Swings © 2018
And for those who missed it all, snippets from the amazing HTO! Enjoy!
I went home after nearly 5 hours at Waterstones with this ringing in my ears…
Verve Official Blogger Links to be shared soon.
#verve2018
Dec12
PUBLIC ADDRESS Soapbox Tour Hannah Silva, Apples & Snakes
On November 13th I missed Stanza to catch the final leg of the Soapbox Tour at the MAC. I was delighted that Jasmine Gardosi had the opportunity to be one of the four core poets in this PUBLIC ADDRESS show. It was directed by Hannah Silva, award winning writer, performer and theatre maker. I was fortunate enough to catch Hannah performing at Opus, earlier this year and I knew this was a show not to miss.
From mythological women to reasons for love, from the quirky to the political, from gender to bees and everything in between – across the UK, performance poets are taking to their soapboxes and giving voice to the passions and stories within us all.
Lyrical ingenuity and heart-warming humour explode from this unique, theatrical spoken word show, directed by award winning writer, performer and theatre maker Hannah Silva, described by The Times as “one of the most ambitious and entertaining poets in the country”.
Public Address features an exciting ensemble of spoken word artists with voices hailing from all corners of the UK.
Apples and Snakes is England’s leading organisation for spoken word, with a national reputation for producing exciting, engaging and transformative work in performance and participation.
Public Address: The Soapbox Tour features an exciting ensemble of spoken word artists, whose unique voices hail from all corners of the UK. Justin Coe (Essex), Jasmine Gardosi (Birmingham), Shagufta K (Bristol), and AJ McKenna (Newcastle) explore topics of sexuality, death, mental health, love, gender, and violence, through lyrical ingenuity and heart-warming humour. This theatrical spoken word show is directed by award winning writer, performer and theatre maker Hannah Silva, “one of the most ambitious and entertaining poets in the country” The Times.
This diverse group of artists has been brought together by Apples and Snakes for a unique commission, and will be joined by guest artists throughout the tour, ensuring a special and exciting programme of events. The featured guest artists will include Henry Raby (York) and Keisha Thompson (Manchester), Ingrid McLaren (Nottingham) and Helen Seymour (Canterbury). In the South West, budding poets from Plymouth Young Writers Squad will also perform alongside the ensemble.
© Official Programming
http://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/public-address-the-soap-box-tour/
The performance was exciting and moving. A combination of different voices and subjects, audience participation, serious and entertaining. A cocktail mix of spoken word. The least shouty, high impact soapbox I have ever heard. Relatable and real. I really felt like I’d seen something special. This show filled me with thoughts.
AJ 
asked the public to tweet and this material was used for the final performance of the show. Which in Birmingham I was fortunate enough to be part of. Although having to make split second judgements between love or not love was pressurising and difficulty.
Here are some shots from the official publicity and others taken by the Gardosi family.
Hannah Silva
Justin Coe (Essex), Jasmine Gardosi (Birmingham), AJ McKenna (Newcastle) and Shagufta K (Bristol).
Photos to Follow
PHOTO CREDIT © Gardosi
Apples and Snakes is England’s leading organisation for spoken word, with a national reputation for producing exciting, engaging and transformative work in performance and participation. 
May31
Opus Club – The Dark Horse
Opus Club – The Dark Horse, Birmingham
Opus Club is hosted by Jasmine Gardosi, run by herself and Mike Stork. I have not managed to get across for any Opus Clubs beforehand, so this was my first impression of it all, what a cracking event it was!
I wasn’t sure I could manage ‘vintage’ dress but I did find a fascinator that I wore on my top and I used the jacket bought for my brother’s wedding, some spots and my hair on the side and hey presto – sort of.
I was really nervous about performing after seeing last month’s line up of open mic-ers, I changed my set four times. I needn’t have worried the atmosphere was friendly and the venue had a cosy stage filled with the house band Mstork & The Flights. I think part of my nerves were that I had chosen to perform with musical backing, when you imagine a beat or a guitar that is one thing but a whole band. It went well and feedback included people telling me they thought it was a rehearsed set, guess I have the talents of the band to thank for that. It was great fun trying something different and I have no regrets, sure it makes my delivery of the words stronger too. Hannah Silva headlined and she made the band backing work tremendously well.
Amongst the line up there was; Leon Priestnell, Nafeesa Hamid, Tom Kwei, P.A.D & Catriona Heatherington, who is a wonderful story-teller, myself – Nina Lewis and some who signed up on the door.
The night is split into 3 parts; open mic-ers, open mic-ers with music, music and featured artist. If this wasn’t enough it is followed by partying into the night until 2AM! There was even a Magician, Harry – who blew my mind before the night even took off.
It was lovely to see people I have not seen for ages and meet new faces. I had a ball. Left on a real high – I couldn’t manage the partying into the night after a 4 day run of poetry performances and workshops.
Rang-Zeb took some amazing photos of the evening and for your delight – and for those of us who were there, to bring the magic back. With kind permission… feast your eyes!
Rang-Zeb is an amazingly clever photographer, as you can see from these shots. He is incredibly supportive, open & giving – not to mention talented! I still cannot believe this is not his full-time profession!
Thanks for letting me use your photography to enhance this review.
I had watched Hannah’s You Tube performances but seeing her live was something else. Queen of Linguistics.
I had a fabulous night and can’t wait for the next one!
awritersfountain 