Worcester LitFest 2016

Here is a round up of this year’s WLF (Worcester LitFest) 10th – 19th June. I was not able to make as many events as I had hoped and heard lots of good things about those events I missed.

The festival was five days in before I made it to the city this year.

42 Worcester LitFest Special – 15th June

Many of us wrote pieces to perform at this event based on the theme of the ‘Last Stop on the Worcester Night Train’. It was a pleasure to perform and the atmosphere was brilliant.

SpeakEasy LitFest Special – 16th June

The following evening saw Angela France feature at SpeakEasy.

Featured artist Angela France has had poems published in many of the leading journals and has been anthologised a number of times. Her publications include ‘Occupation’ (Ragged Raven Press, 2009), Lessons in Mallemaroking (Nine Arches Press, 2011) and Hide (Nine Arches Press 2013). Angela teaches creative writing at the University of Gloucestershire and in various community settings as well as working for a local charity. She runs a reading series in Cheltenham, ‘Buzzwords’. © 2016 WLF

My set included a Fox poem, as Myfanwy Fox was the guest MC and ‘Awumbuk’, a poem I wrote in response to workshop writing with Angela.

It was a great night and good to be back at the original venue opposite the river.

The Quiet Compere

After the success of the Quiet Compere Tour last year, Sarah Dixon was back with us at The Hive for a full on night of poetry.

Sarah L Dixon runs regular Quiet Compere events in Chorlton, Manchester. She hosted a medical-themed poetry event at Cheltenham Poetry Festival in 2014. Sarah has toured The Quiet Compere format (ten poets x ten minutes each) nationally in 2015 and in the North of England in 2014. Quiet Compere events enlist great, established poets and emerging voices. The Quiet Compere introduces them with little fanfare so the poems (and not the poet’s track record) tell you all you need to know. © 2016 WLF

I was looking forward to seeing Adam Horovitz, as I missed him at Swindon and am currently missing him at Ledbury too. I must book the week off next year!

The QC event was a night of powerhouse poetry. Featured poets included;

Adam Horovitz, Jess Davies, Jasmine Gardosi, Leon Priestnall, Ken Evans and Holly Magill. Pre-booked open mic slots myself, Polly Stretton, Leena Batchelor and Neil Laurenson. Other open mic spots were Kathy Gee, Anne Milton (reading publically for the first time) and Kieran Davis.

Who better to tell you all about it but the Quiet Compere herself. Read Sarah’s review here. http://thequietcompere.co.uk/robin-williams-apple-sorrow-and-elephants-in-every-corner-the-blog-of-quiet-compere-at-worcs-litfest-2016/

This was my final dip into WLF 2016 and what a way to go out with the QC!

 

Congratulations to Suz Winspear – Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2016-2017 AND the new Poet in Residence at the Museum of Royal Worcester.

Follow these links to delve into the magically gothic world of Suz Winspear.

 

Buy her poetry here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/not-need-new-Obsession/dp/1291592547

Read about her residency here

Poet Laureate

For the full festival listing of all events follow this link https://worcslitfest.co.uk/programme-tickets-2016/

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! 🙂

Grayson Perry, Lunch with Poets and Poetry For Lunch

Poetry For Lunch is a great lunchtime event hosted by Jan Watts (former Birmingham Laureate) last week the Worcester Stanza Group took over for the whole session, thanks to Claire Walker for organising this event, which is usually 30 minutes but was 45 minutes for us.

© Twitter 2014

We made a whole morning of it. The Grayson Perry tapestries are on show at the Museum & Art Gallery until the 11th May.

© Wikipedia 2014

 

We hit the gallery first, it was amazing, if you get a chance to see it, do. Hard hitting but also aspects we would all recognise from our lives – across a broad range of ages. I am in awe of the work that went into these tapestries. I also (being a writer) loved the use of text in them. The story they told. Photography is not allowed so we went to buy postcards from the gift shop. The colours were not as vivid as the real thing, and buying the whole collection was nearly £7 so after a little deliberation, I bought the catalogue for £14.99 – a treat!

© Artsthread 2014

It is really good, documents all the lead up to the work, I will be using it to write new material.

© Artfund 2014

We had lunch at the gallery and then went onto the library to perform in the amphitheatre. It was great performing alongside fellow Stanza members and well worth taking a day off work. A pity it rained – but we carried on!

Towards the end of the session we met a wonderful young performance poet Damani TruStar Dennisur, who was Birmingham’s Young Poet Laureate the same year as Jan Watts. (2012), he had the final slot – and boy, am I glad we didn’t have to follow him! Blew me out of the water. WOW! A name to look out for. He looks like he’s dancing towards Jan in these photos.

Bernard Davis photographs many of the events in Birmingham and kindly came and took fabulous shots of the Stanza group – which does include men and a few more members – obviously not everyone is free to perform in the middle of the day!

STANZA: – Kathy Gee, Ruth Stacey, Claire Walker, Maggie Doyle, Myfanwy Fox, Nina Lewis & Amanda Bonnick with Damani TruStar Dennisur & Jan Watts.

A Fabulous Night at Confab Cabaret!

This wonderful evening of entertainment has been running for nearly a year, I have known about it since last Autumn but have never been able to make the dates before tonight. Sadly they have lost the original venue and now like a roaming, travelling. great spectacular they are touring venues in Malvern for the next few dates!

Truth is a great Cabaret or Spoken Word event (or in my experience any club, group, or meet) is as strong as those who host, lead and organise the event to begin with. Confab will be fab and will go on, driven by Amy Rainbow, Catherine Crosswell and Myfanwy Fox.

This event attracts a massive audience (I think the biggest I have performed to yet) and the atmosphere is as divine as melted chocolate!

 There were several more rows behind this too!

I had such a great night I am falling over my words, struggling to communicate how alive a night like tonight makes me feel. I am going to fall back on a world of synonyms and hope they convey the message!

Astonishing – astounding – awesome – fantastic – incredible – marvellous – spectacular – superb – terrific – peachy – rad – tops – wicked! (I am so glad I am only working a half day tomorrow and get a lie in!)

It was great to get a sign up 2 minute spot and share my poem ‘Honesty’. To meet my friend Ali again (from Custard Factory Writing Class), to know she has heard and enjoyed my poetry, to see other friends who have been off piste (off the circuit) for a while, to share all our good news face to face. Michelle Crosbie – is a headline act at Gary Longden’s gig Poetry Alight 9, this month (in 2 weeks) alongside Jo Bell and Matt Merritt. My Assistant Writer job – which starts this Saturday. New relationships. Birthdays recently celebrated….

 

I have had a wonderful evening, I am dancing on air – (imagination still running!) BIG thanks to everyone involved, everyone who came to talk to me about my performance.

And it’s not even Friday! 🙂