Collaborative Set in the Black Country – Performing Poetry

This year I am achieving something I attempted in 2015 (and failed) to perform less and write more. I will still support the regular open mic poetry events I enjoy, just not on a monthly basis. I am always on the look out for new and unusual places to share my words and accept such opportunities readily.

I met Dave Reeves in 2013 on my first return to the poetry mic with Julie Boden in Leamington. He MCed the event as well as performing with his squeeze box and harmonica.

Among many other things Dave does, he is Poet in Residence at the Black Country Living Museum (which is well worth a visit/ family day out). https://www.bclm.co.uk/learning/poet-in-residence/453.htm

The Works’ Canteen is a monthly spoken word night hosted by Dave Reeves and is an event I have scribbled in my diary before now.

There are headliners and open floor spots available and with the £3 admission comes free tea/coffee from the Rolfe Street Café. Which was much appreciated, as was the irony of having a Breakfast Tea at 7:30 pm.

https://www.bclm.co.uk/learning/the-works-canteen/758.htm

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Tuesday 1 March 2016

 Guest poets: Jan Watts plus R.M.Francis presenting  Permission to Speak  

Jan Watts, poet and playwright returns in words to Wales for St David’s day. Join the former Birmingham Poet Laureate and find out about Flat Head, Di Bungalow and the food you have to eat  in one day on a Pembrokeshire Farm. If you want to know what Jan’s surname almost became – this is a one time offer to find out.

Rob Francis runs the ‘Permission to Speak’ nights in Stourbridge. Tonight he’s been given a permit to The Works’ Canteen where he’ll be introducing some of the regulars from the spoken word and music venue.

MC for the evening is the Black Country Living Museum’s poet-in-residence, Dave Reeves and, as usual, there will be floor spots available.

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I was one of Robert’s poets representing a cross-section from PTS. It was great being part of a collective and I enjoyed listening to all the sets.

Jan Watts was fabulous, as always. She opened her set miming putting daffodils in a vase, it was St. David’s Day and she had left the bunch of real flowers on her passenger seat!

The open mic spots were good and it was a pleasure to hear some poets I had not met before. It was a lively and enjoyable night in the café behind the gift shop. I hope to make it back in a few months time.

© Peter Williams 2015 KAF ‘Mostly Circus’ Mouth & Music

RELATED LINKS:

Dave’s website http://www.textician.co.uk/

Poetry Wrap 5 (A Brief Introduction on Exhaustion)

A Brief Introduction on Exhaustion

June has started as busy as expected, both in terms of work and poetry. As I don’t work/earn over the summer I have to take on some extra work before the end of term – thus slipping the writing/working balance out of favour.

What I am trying to do, let me correct myself, what I was trying to do was maintain the writing schedule despite lacking ‘free’ time. For the past two days I have worked (yesterday was a 16 hour day) and then had a 2 hour sleep (starting with a few poems from Philip Larkin) when I have come home. Tonight this sadly means I am missing Mouth & Music as I feel my eyes are permanently glazed and driving would not be advisable. Instead I am sitting on the sofa writing this and will spend some time on the editing pile, possibly literally – asleep on top of a massive pile of paper!

 And an early night.

Poetry Wrap 5

Worcestershire Poet Laureate Competition

At the beginning of June the voting poll for Worcester Poet Laureate competition was closed. Our poems are still on the website, the shortlist has been revealed. This year the six competing finalists are (in no particular order);

Tony Shadforth
Heather Wastie
Suz Winspear
Damon Lord
Betti Moretti
Nina Lewis

http://worcslitfest.co.uk/worcestershire-poet-laureate-competition-2015/

Caldmore Community Garden Workshop with David Calcutt

This weekend sees Caldmore Carnival and the poets from the workshops are performing a collaborative poem, edited by David Calcutt and made from snippets of our workshop poems, lines we are most proud of/moved by. It is a strong piece and works well with various voices. I was lucky enough to have a part to read in rehearsals. Sadly I can’t make the event in the garden on the 13th as I will be working my last session, this academic year, for Writing West Midlands.

The workshop provided us with an opportunity for prose writing. I now have the scaffold of a short story/flash fiction about the garden or perhaps some raw material for a poem.

It was great seeing everyone again, I missed the last workshop as some man drove into my car and it was off the road getting fixed. I look forward to the next few, August will see the end of this project and David’s residency in the garden. It has been lovely being involved and has left me with happy memories and some decent poems. Always a plus point!

 

Stirchley Speaks – The P Café with Jess Davies

I met Jess through 52, a shy, retiring young poet, a fledging ready to spread her wings. Well she’s done that!

Stirchley Speaks was the first night of a monthly poetry event run by Jess at the P Café! What an amazing opening event she had, no less than 3 former Birmingham Poet Laureates; Spoz, Joanne Skelt and Jan Watts. She had people travelling from Swindon and Malvern to be there, she brought together poets from different genres, the Poetry Bites crowd was well presented as was the young, level up, beat poets of the now. Most importantly she brought poetry to the outer city, to Stirchley and was paid back loyally by a great local crowd of supporters and some NEW talent!

It was an incredible unfurling of a young poet’s vision and was an extremely adrenaline packed (and actually packed) gig!

I had lots of positive comments about the poem I shared (although it is my favourite poem) it is always good to hear how it touches others. To the point of getting them to feel like writing again (job done).

Here are some great photographs shot by Murdock Ramone Media, to try and bring a little Stirchley to the Blog.

The venue itself has been highly rated in reviews of Stirchley Speaks. The P Café boasts a fabulous drinks menu as well as truffles, muffins cakes and bakes.

Behind the camera there was standing room only and some people listened from through the opening in the café!

I have written a longer review of this event in a separate blog post LINK TO FOLLOW.

 

Permission to Speak at The Scary Canary with Robert Francis

Robert Francis booked Brenda Read-Brown and Peter Williams to headline this month’s Permission to Speak. There were some new faces to the event, venue and the stage – which is always a bonus. Rob made the decision to make this event FREE and move it to Thursday evening – one step closer to the weekend. I hope the success of this event continues to grow. People of STOURBRIDGE – GO TO THE NEXT ONE!

Peter treated us to sets in the 1st & 2nd half, Brenda delighted the audience with her wit – I thoroughly enjoyed watching audiences reactions. There were plenty of people there who hadn’t discovered Brenda Read-Brown, as with most people who have caught her set, they are now hooked!

Plenty of open mic talent and all round a great night on my favourite stage of them all, (it’s made from old school desks)!

 

Spoken Word at The Ort with Debbie Aldous

I was glad to be able to catch up with Tessa Lowe on Friday and miss the tennis for The Ort – the tennis was postponed for playing the next day. It was a great night of Spoken Word and Music. I saw lots of familiar faces and lots of new – a particular highlight for me was the improvisation set with David Rees-Jones. Plenty of open mic action, it all is, no headliners here.

I shall not make the next one as it is the 10th July and I am one of TEN poets performing on the QUIET COMPERE Tour!

 A Cluster of Poets at Cannon Hill Park MAC (Midlands Art Centre)

Before the weekend I was invited to take part in a poetry event at Cannon Hill Park, thanks go to Jasmine Gardosi and Tony Fox for organising it.

We performed in the Pop Up Storytellers Tent to a mixed crowd, some of the cutest kids. We were all fumbling through our poetry when we realised how young the audience was, we managed it though and had a great time in the process.

Here are some photos to give you a flavour.

   Timothy Scotson & Carys Jones  Farhan  The Storytellers

This is how Storytellers fall ^^^^

and the poets? Well, they fall like this –

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ‘Jazz hands’!

Farhan, Callum Bate, Ryan Murray – now Frankie – now Frankie Ryan, Nina Lewis, Jasmine Gardosi & Timothy Scotson

 

I loved the PINK Storytelling chair, it matched my new (worn for the 1st time) shoes! This pop up poetry event was a great way to end a full on week of poetry.

Poetry Events in March – Permission to Speak (4.3.15)

I started to catch up with Blog posts last week and then wordpress ate my draft and I couldn’t find it anywhere and then ran out of time to rewrite. Now I have finished a busy weekend of poeting and have time to start afresh (in a word doc.) just incase!

I am backtracking to the beginning of the month. My first event was ‘Permission to Speak’ with Rob Francis at the Scary Canary in Stourbridge. Caution Poet & Dave Halama were the featured artist this month, great sets from them both. Caution has a book out, ‘Fragile’.

The words from Rob Francis himself;

Our next spoken word event hosted by the great Robert Francis includes words from the great ‘Caution Poet’ and musical delights from Dave Halama.

© 2015 Peter Williams

 © 2015 Peter Williams

Caution Poet With a new poetry collection titled ‘Fragile’ available to purchase on the night this writers work reflects life “from his childhood recollections of The Big Brum Estate, to the sobering reality of Tinted Windows To The Soul, Caution Poet slices through life with dark pop poetry precision. As we throw Caution to the wind, accepted reality becomes fragile perception. No-one ever said it was going to be easy…”

 Rob Francis

You can see Caution Poet here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdJ-oXtPMRU

It was a great night! Only the 2nd event and Rob has built up a great crowd of supporters and artists at this event. What made the evening special was Stacey Pilcher the co-owner and creator of the bar, performed behind the mic.

 Photography Peter Williams

Especially as up until then (not that I’d noticed), I was the only female performer!

Next month the featured artist/poet is Dave Reeves, poet in residence from The Black Country Museum and the compere for the evening in Leamington in 2013 when I took my first step back towards the mic, at Julie Boden’s spoken word event. In May, I will be the featured guest.

This event happens monthly and if you are local enough to give it a try, I would recommend it! Rob is a great host and the audience are receptive and warm.

Beyond the event the venue itself is worth a visit, a refurbished site, once a McDonalds with a cafe downstairs and Scary Canary, an excellent venue for entertaining, live events. I love the overuse of lampshades, the homely settees, the leather suites, the coffee tables which were once doors, the MDF drinks mats and the original (maybe) tiled bar area. They also display artworks by local artists, there is always something new on display and it can all be bought!

I have borrowed a recent article to give you a taste.

Stourbridge Venue – Stourbridge News Photographs © James Butroid

Copyright 2015 James Butroid Stourbridge News