A Flurry of Poetry – Open Mic, Workshop, Stanza

As I am gearing up for Australia I am winding down other poetry activities apart from the desk-bound art of actually writing.

There are however, a few events still in the diary and the end of July saw Poetry Bites, a workshop in Stratford-Upon Avon and a Stanza meeting before it ground to a halt – where I had blanked out days to ensure that all my paperwork, adventure shopping, packing and performance/workshop preparation is in place.

I thoroughly enjoyed Headlining the bi-monthly Poetry Bites event in May and was looking forward to seeing Holly Daffurn and Jonathan Edwards perform.

It was a wonderful evening in a packed out Kitchen Garden Cafe. I am always delighted when friends discover poets I know and hear/see how good their work is.

As a Costa Award Winning Poet Jonathan Edwards wowed the room. (Some of us already knew he would.)

Holly Daffurn Headlined with a POWER set! She went on to win the Oooh Beehive Slam at the Blue Orange Theatre in Birmingham a couple of nights later as well.  

It was a fabulous night and my final open mic before I whizz off around the world.

Remaining photos © Elaine Christie

Rodger D’boer

Maggie Doyle

Neil Richards

Moggs

Anne Hodnette

Al Barz

Clive Oseman

Matt Nunn

Then our first headliner – Jonathan Edwards

 

 

Matt Nunn and Elaine Christie have done a sterling job taking over Poetry Bites from Jacqui Rowe. It is always lovely to see the venue full and this evening certainly pulled the crowds in.

Andrew Barnes

Mickey Ali

Nigel Hutchinson

Nina Lewis

Mike Alma

Gerald Kells

Liz Jolly

Ruth Williams

The evening ended with Holly Daffurn Headlining.

It was definitely an action packed poetry evening, sometimes it can feel overwhelming listening to this many acts, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

 

Following this event my next was a workshop where we looked at Travel – an apt theme, especially as I plan to work on a book during my 20 hour lay over! Which is fortunately on the return journey. That’s the thing with travelling so far you lose 4+ days just getting there and back!

 

I finished my poetry diary with a Stanza meeting which was a great evening. Lots of exciting news to come from this.

 

The final, FINAL poetry outing is the  4th August for the Cat Rescue Anthology Launch. Then Australia… I am coming to see you!

A Week of Poeting

I cannot believe that this week we enter JUNE! Still packing as much as I can into May. Today I am trying to submit work, chasing deadlines and later I will join lots of poets celebrating the launch of Dirty Laundry by Deborah Alma, published by Nine Arches Press. Which is somewhat ironic as I have tackled two laundry loads today! Her guest readers are: Pat Edwards, Meg Cox, Roz Goddard & Angela France so a superb night is guaranteed!  Going for a pre-Launch tea too, which will be lovely.

I am gutted to discover the Nine Arches party (celebrating 10 years in a day long programme of events) is on a date I am already booked in Worcester & Stratford. I discovered this a few weeks ago, so looking forward to seeing people tonight instead.

I also have a passport to renew, discovered they now allow digital photos to be uploaded so either today or tomorrow in front of the camera. I am getting very excited about Australia now and have booked in to some of the Fringe (Pre-Festival Launch) events too.

I am off to Worcester tomorrow for 42, on Friday I will finally make Stanza and over the weekend I am toying with the idea of spending hard earned cash on Andrew Motion at the MAC. I am undecided due to the fact that I blanked it out of the writing diary with work the following week and a ton of report writing and assessments to plough through!

I did miss Hay and cannot get to majority of Ledbury due to work, so I might treat myself.

WPL:

I am working on The Twin Town European Poetry Exchange and the Science/Maths Anthology ‘Every Word Counts’ and trying not to think about handing over the crown in two weeks time!

Mr. G. and I spent the Bank Holiday weekend ensconced in Garden Centres where I bought myself a small rabbit (not a real one), the plan this summer is to create a writing nook and this lil’ fella will be right at home watching me and making sure I do some work!

We also enjoyed breakfast out on Sunday and several take-aways, I caught up with family and had my penultimate WWM Spark Young Writers session, informing the group it will be my last one next month was hard and their reaction… bless them. They do not want me to go, one even suggested writing a letter! But it is the nature of the work and WWM want other people to be offered these opportunities. It has been amazing!

Today I received lovely messages of thanks from some of the students at Blessed Edwards for our Living Library event held last week. Special.

The event was great fun, I have seen posts on Social Media for the past few years and thought about how I could get involved. So it was fabulous to be one of the Living Writers, it was the sort of thing I would have loved as a kid. Thanks to Linda Bromyard for the booking and for being one of the most creative, proactive Librarians in Education I know.

I will write a full post soon, that list is stacking up!

Mainly I am enjoying not working this week and having time to write and breathe!

 

A Week of Writing

Over the past week I have been busy writing new poetry, making submissions, working through my action plan chronologically and editing my manuscript. I have managed just one full day of writing (my 1^st this month) on the 18^th and I filled it with working on poetry and research.

I have made three submissions this week, written over eight new poems. This is great because by the end of last year I felt creatively drained and found writing new poetry an impossible task. Now I am back in the game, I can feel the desire to write return and have already thrown away two pens when they ran out of ink! Fortunately I have started the house de-clutter, so I know I have hundreds of pens AND I know where they are. Despite the rush of this creative spell, I have just spent over 40 minutes this morning trying to create a title for a romantic poem I wrote for last night’s Stanza meeting. It now has a title, although I think it may be a temporary title.

I have taken this week off from performing to concentrate time and focus on my writing, I intend to repeat this monthly as 2016 is the year I have to focus on writing the words. Real work has been busy too, spending the majority of my week with three year olds has been an eye opening, now I am thoroughly exhausted and looking forward to a restful weekend.

Work – Pyjamas – Poetry, has generally been this week’s theme.

Sonia Hendy-Isaac © 2014

I had an exciting invite last week to Daniel Sluman’s Book Launch for his new collection ‘the terrible’, which we have been promoting here on the blog since 2015.  Naturally the book launch clashes with another event that I had already committed to performing at, but with my new SatNav (thank you Mr G), I hope to manage both events before collapsing in a heap the next day.

I also discovered last week that Liz Berry is performing locally as part of the celebration for National Libraries Day. I grabbed some tickets and scribbled this February date straight into my writing diary. It will be a pleasure to watch her again in the new venue, doubly delightful as it is local and involves zero car miles.

Back to my desk now to write a few more romantic poems and then onto the next project.

My overall aim this week is to finish and resubmit my manuscript. I have finally (after two months of searching) decided on a new title for the collection and I cannot wait for my editor to read the strengthened version of poems. I look forward to posting updates about this soon.

Keep writing x

 

 

 

 

Corinium Museum Poetry Competition – Results

A few months ago 4 Stanza poets (and many more online) took a trip to Corinium Museum, which could have stayed in the tearooms with cake, were it not for a side door straight into the Museum!

It was a great day out – Poets Day Trips (a tour idea for the future), we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company, the company and freedom of our notebooks and the wonders of this museum in Cirencester.

Sometime later we all submitted poems based on the artefacts for a competition that Hilda Sheehan was judging.

I am delighted to announce that 50% of our day trip team won! Kathy Gee was Highly Commended as well as Short Listed for her 2^nd poem, Claire Walker and Sarah Leavesley (our stanza leader) were also Short Listed. Maggie Doyle performed her poem at a recent Book Launch and I am still playing with the word ‘triskle’ on my tongue.

There poems will be on display in the museum, congratulations to you all!

Winners of the three age categories

Adults: Orion and Lepus by Emma Halliday

12-15 year olds: Horae by Annabelle Fuller

Under 12s: The Poppy by Sophie Martin

 

RELATED LINKS:

http://coriniummuseum.org/2015/04/02/corinium-poetry-competition-winners/

A Week of ‘S’ Scary Canary – Permission to Speak, Saxon and Stanza

 

CORINIUM MUSEUM POETRY COMPETITION

I have had a busy week with just 1 day off, which I used for writing, with everything else that has been happening I have only managed 4 writing days ALL YEAR so far! I finally got to write my poem for the Corinium Museum Competition, a group of us Stanza members went on a road trip/ research/ field trip last month.  I was relieved to get my poem written after hours of research and trying to make sense or find creativity in the pages and pages of scribbled notes. Now that the pressure is over, I am sure I will manage to write more – there’s a Mrs Getty poem and a sheep poem at least waiting to be written.

 

PERMISSION TO SPEAK – Scary Canary the Venue – with Rob Francis

 Photo Credit: Mary Davies

Rob Francis – a local poet who has moved back to homelands from Leeds and has started a new Poetry Night in Stourbridge, I met him in November and have enjoyed watching him perform his sets ever since. The headline was Fergus McGonigal and I wanted to go and support Worcester’s Poet Laureate. I have been asked to headline myself and have chosen May as I have a few other things happening in March (will post about these soon).

I had a fun time finding the venue – who knew there was Scary Canary the Ladies Dress shop, and Scary Canary in Victoria Passage, a now empty menswear shop and then finally – down the other end of the high street the venue. It is such a cool place – I will take my camera next time (Caution Poet is headlining in March) and post photos. Rob had a very successful first night and it was great to perform under a spotlight (because you can’t see the audience)! It was a great night, thoroughly enjoyed. It was great to catch up with friends and get lots of positive feedback on my set.

 

SAXON

After working all day I took Mr G and two friends to see SAXON at Civic Hall. Mr G and I saw a tribute band a while back who were brilliant and Mr G decided he wanted to see the real Saxon. He made do with some DVDs that Christmas, then they decided to tour! So we got tickets.

It was a fun night and I was front row all night! Really good position, it was funny seeing people of all ages rocking out. Afterwards everybody wanted to carry on partying, which would normally be okay – but I had work the next day. The booking was originally for Monday and got changed to Friday – I had attempted a day off after the gig. I spent the day with Nursery – it was a good job I had been driving the night before.

 

STANZA

After work on Friday I was so exhausted I came home and went straight to bed. This just about revitalised me for an evening of poetry, but I was very glad I went as there were an abundant amount of strong poetry and I received ideas for mine that I hadn’t considered. It was an enjoyable night as always.

However, I had no energy left to get to the Opus Club on Saturday night – hope to make the next one.

I spent some time on Tuesday checking out Arts Jobs and festivals. There are tickets I need to buy for Wenlock and Stratford (both in April). I nearly applied for a job this evening but there is a higher level of commitment and investment than I first realised and I am unsure whether the position is right for me right now.

I also received my copy of Maps and Legends – Nine Arches Press and can’t wait to get stuck in and I saw Mike Alma and bought a copy of his book too.

I have spent most of the weekend asleep and now have a week of poetry and work to look forward to again. I have 2 days work so far, Tuesday evening is Mouth & Music in Kidderminster – Guests are Lorna Meehan and Katie Wragg, Wednesday night is a new one called HOWL, in the city – hoping for Open Mic spot and Thursday sees SpeakEasy in Worcester with Gary Longden (Stafford’s Poet Laureate) headline. I am hoping to just enjoy a night out listening to everyone else perform. Then it is Mr G’s birthday and Valentines Day … so a busy weekend coming up too.

 

Two Events, One Meeting and The Shuttle – Review of a Week in Poetryland

The past week has certainly been a busy one, I need to find more time for writing (tomorrow I have ONE glorious day off) AND if the weather (snow) is anything to go by, I will need it! I am hoping to catch up on writing as well as sleep.

Last Thursday was the first SpeakEasy of 2015, I was asked to perform and delighted to go (missed a few months at end of 2014) and love this event. Always warm, always wonderful, organised by Worcester Litfest, hosted by Fergus McGonigal and featuring Maggie Doyle. Both Poet Laureates work hard for WLF in organising this monthly night of spoken word, poetry and fun.

“Worcester SpeakEasy” is a monthly event of poetry and prose from the page and the stage (and a little music now and then), which takes place on the second Thursday of each month. The event promotes, showcases and encourages writers from the whole of Worcestershire and further afield; there is an invited headline poet each month.

The event is brought to you by your very own Worcestershire LitFest & Fringe, via Poet Laureate Emeritus Maggie Doyle and the Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2014-15 Fergus McGonigal, SpeakEasy’s host and MC. –

© 2015 Events Page

This month we had a change of venue and it was a small and intimate event, packed full and over-brimming with talent and entertaining and thought provoking performances. Open mic-ers joined in with booked acts and we had not one but TWO headline acts.

Peter Sutton – Poet – who I first came across during Worcester LitFest last summer, stunned us with his word weaving and incredibly intricate poetry and later on at the end of the night Kate Wragg treated us to a magic set, just her, her guitar and some handmade teddy bears! We all wait with baited breath for Kidderminster – The Musical.

Do you remember (perhaps as a child) feeling really excited the day/night before you went away on holiday? That’s how I feel when there are back to back poetry events (which will not happen as often in 2015 as I have no plans to dominate the circuit with another 100+ gigs), I left SpeakEasy, knowing that the very next evening I would see many poets again for our monthly Stanza meetings.

 I have promised myself that the next Stanza meeting I will take a poem that is more than a few hours old! I always take something in need of tweaking or helping, as that is the whole point. The more you hone in on editing, the less stringy pieces become and so sometimes writing something completely new seems the only option. This feels like turning up to a party with a brewing kit instead of an armful of drinks…

I (as always) enjoyed our meeting and it was lovely to see everyone after the New Year break. There are lots of exciting things happening at the moment for all of us in our poetry bubble, one opportunity is resulting in a poet’s day out later this month, unfortunately I shall not be with them to share the luncheon and laughter, only in spirit. (My own fault for taking a fortnight offline over Christmas!)

The next event to take place happened just this evening – a 3rd Birthday party/Anniversary for Mouth and Music and Heather Wastie and Sarah Tamar kicked off in true hardworking, inspirational style with an event called ‘Spark Off’!

I have written an entire post about this evening – find it HERE https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/mouth-music-3rd-birthday-spark-off-special/

Heather sends press releases to the local paper to promote what’s on in the local area I was flattered by the coverage (it seemed only fair after this to let Peter’s team win)!

Photo credit © 2014 PhotoGiraffe

 It has been an incredible second week back on the circuit and I still have lots more to look forward to this month! To make tonight even more magical (despite not winning), we walked out to falling snow. It made the journey home for everyone slightly hazardous but SPARKED my childlike glee ignition and I happily danced out of BHG venue and twirled in the snow as I ran for the car and tried to zip my poetry collection up dry!

December Review – Week 1 – Work, Stanza, Southcart Books & Reading Aloud

 This week there was a high proportion of time committed to earning extra Christmas money by spending more days doing the day job than anything else, which I have found exhausting. No surprise considering my tasks included; teaching 120 different children in a morning, creating modroc volcanoes, papier mache Greek masks, adjudicating and marking test papers and having two days at a school where every lesson was in a different classroom with different kids (unusual in the Primary setting). By Thursday I was asleep at 7pm and Friday wasn’t much better. Good job I have already committed to cutting back on the performance poetry scene. Although I have noticed this sudden lack of creativity and socialisation has taken a toll on the way I feel emotionally. I gain inner strength from this full diary of writing events and activities and there is something to be said for the adrenalin boost too. 2015 is going to be a year of learning ‘balance’.

 I had time to write – but found some projects impossible to research without internet access (how dependent we have become), our connection failed on Monday and has only just been rectified – some signalling problem they said. (Our central heating and hot water has also broken!) I did manage to complete my Wild Fire Poem for David Calcutt (from the workshop in October)! I took it to Stanza on Friday and received some editing advice which makes it even stronger. Workshop poetry doesn’t always work outside of the bubble it was created in and I think some people were finding the connections I made difficult to understand which made me worry, so I went back to the drawing board with it. I performed it yesterday at Southcart Books to an audience that included fellow workshop participants and David to a positive reception.

After a week at work I was looking forward to our festive Stanza meeting, my first poetry related gathering for a week. As always it was a fun evening, I love the spirit of our members, listening to high quality poetry, receiving advice from writers I trust and having time to talk, because there never is enough time to connect personally at events. Our festive Stanza Meeting included Mulled Wine, a bounty of nibbles, included gorgeous homemade cakes and a Poetry Society mug.

My only other nod to the former on-the-road-poet-life of 2013/14 was a trip out (and around many times) to Walsall – I must get my SATNAV fixed, trying to follow unsigned roads is a tad difficult for me on a Saturday (or any other day of the week for that matter)! I was dreading the Christmas traffic, but the roads and motorways were relatively clear, in fact I got home quicker than last time, however, getting there took an hour as I went wrong in the town centre five times, got snarled in the one way system and even had a police car follow me for a mile at one point. My poetry life would not be the same without an exciting road trip story to arrive with. My first collection should be called :LOST:

The Reading Aloud event ran from 11am – 4pm and I always knew I would never make it for the start. It was midday before I set off. I was hoping to make it in time to see the end of the morning, then I got lost.

It was worth every penny of extra petrol though. Southcart Books is a wonderful Independent Bookshop and if you are every in Walsall you should pop in for a browse, chat and buy a book or two. Scott and Amy are very enthusiastic about books and writers, there is a special warmth inside this haven.

 © Walsalladvertiser

20 Lower Hall Ln, Walsall, West Midlands WS1 1RL

Open 9.30 -4.30

Southcart Books are the only independent bookshop in Walsall helping get the word around for local writers and artists.

Situated in a grade 2 listed building, Southcart Books sells new, used and antique books. They hold community events such as book signings and book readings. 

Original source; http://creativewalsall.com/southcart-books/ © 2014 Creative Walsall

David Calcutt organised the Reading Aloud Event in support of Small Business Saturday (Nationwide) 6th December 2014. He hosted a pleasurable day of talented wordsmiths, who all took to the chair for their readings. I’ve never performed a set sitting down before, it was a new experience. I wasn’t sure what to do with my feet and I can’t say I was entirely comfortable. However, as an audience member it was like being invited into your own private Jackanory and I enjoyed the change.

I felt absorbed by this experience and was glad I made it in time for lunch and mingling, I met a few poets I didn’t know, had time to catch up with those I do know and managed a quick browse the shelves too. I ended up treating myself to three Poetry books (my own personal Christmas presents), I look forward to reading them in the New Year.

It was lovely to hear lengthy sets (15mins) as often you only get a snippet of poetry at Open Mics. I am finding it difficult to express how great the afternoon was so I am going to say it with synonyms; fascinating, inspiring, impressive, wonderful and marvellous and then let David say the rest – he said it so much better;

It felt a real privilege today to be host to such a diverse, talented and friendly group of writers today at Southcart Books – Martin Hughes, Ann Clarson, Janet Jenkins, Angela Nock, Jane James, Eileen Ward-Birch, Chris Fewings, Sammy Joe, Antony R Owen, Nina Lewis and Bert Flitcroft.

Thank you very much to Scott Carter and Amy for hosting this and providing a comfortable and atmospheric reading space. Southcart Books is such a strong, independent bookshop. Just the place you should visit. Thank you again to all the readers.

Here are a couple of photographs capturing the Reading Aloud event, © 2014 Stuart Williams

Chris Fewings

Antony R Owen

—————————————–

To round off the week I am typing up poems scribbled in my notebook over the past few weeks and if I have time (Mr G and I are also ‘tackling’ the house) I will be submitting some work too.

November – Performances, Submissions & Mentoring

This week has been busy week, one which finally had a writing day in it. I took on a lot of work this week and even took a last minute booking on the 1st writing day I had planned.

I am currently busy working on several things including my Hanbury Hall poems and writing material for an event at the end of the month as well as general submissions, I made 2 on my writing day (Fri) this included 4 new poems and 2 fairly new ones that I have been working on for a few weeks with the intention to submit.

I performed a set for Mouth & Music on Tuesday night, the theme was ‘Remember’, I could have just read my recently published Paragram Poem ‘Picasso of Dance’, I intended to spend Tuesday writing to the theme – but I got called into work.

Instead I took both my poetry books to the venue and organised my set ad hoc. Amongst my set I performed an edited version of ‘Return to Stone’ previously performed at Roy McFarlane’s ‘Soulful Voices’. Roy had been booked to headline, unfortunately his mum passed away very recently. My thoughts go out to him and the family.

We were treated to Fergus McGonigal and Humdrum Express (Ian Passey) as headline guests and the whole night was great fun, alive with atmosphere – which after the beginning of my working week I felt I very much needed and benefitted from.

   Photography: Peter Williams © 2014

On Friday I had a writing day which was long overdue, I spent 4 hours working on poetry for submissions and caught up on admin for another hour, before taking a well earned and much needed rest. Fortunately I did wake up in time to get ready for Stanza!

 It was Children In Need on Friday and I had the opportunity to perform in Wolverhampton, but had already committed to Stanza and the meeting was a lot closer to home.

Stanza was a great night with lots of people, helpful editing advice and lovely nibbles. I love Stanza, it is such a friendly and helpful group. I am glad we have less than a month to wait before the next meeting – booked early because of Christmas!

On Saturday I worked as an Assistant Writer for our group at The Hive. I was performing in the Birmingham Literature Festival, I missed October’s group – it felt like I had been away for months.

I also had the 1st of 3 Mentoring sessions, I was asked back in the Summer if I would consider being a Writing Mentor, of course I said YES! It was a great first session and I look forward to continuing this work in December & January.

Since then I have spent some time catching up with family, sleeping and avoiding buying bags!

Next week looks good, I didn’t have a particularly blank diary, but I realise I need to re-energise, I have officially only committed myself to a set in Cheltenham on Friday and apart from this think I may have a week off. I am working in the day job and need some energy to finish writing projects, plus it IS cold and rainy – staying in is always more appealing in this season of dark afternoons and pre-Christmas busy-ness!

Week 3 October Ghosts, Meetings & Phenomenal Women

I decided at the beginning of the month that I would do less performance events this month and focus on my writing. I have found it hard, if not frustrating, especially as I feel I have missed out on some great events.

There is a certain amount of stress and pressure which comes from being under deadlines. I want this life, I want to have a full writing diary and lots of projects on the go, but I have to learn to find some balance. This life is tiring whilst I write alongside the day job (as many of us do) , I need to give myself enough time to rejuvenate and refuel. Energy is essential.

This week sees the Book to the Future Festival at  Birmingham University, it finishes tomorrow. There was a great programme of events, which I missed out on as I have done lots of day job work this week too. I managed to contact a few writers who were lecturing to get seminar notes in return to being on their mailing lists. I also managed to get to Phenomenal Women on Wednesday night. I am missing Ben Norris this evening as I promised Mr G the weekend and am chained to my desk until deadlines pass.

This week I had planned to be out at events for 4 nights in a row, it has been a challenging week at work and I decided I do not have enough energy to deal with that many performances.

• Tuesday I performed at Mouth & Music, Jasmine Gardosi headliner along with PTR Williams.
• Wednesday I attended a writing meeting at Writing West Midlands
• then hotfooted Birmingham University for Phenomenal Women with Jan Watts.
• I was supposed to go to PFL Poetry for Lunch and Hit the Ode on Thursday, however I decided to take time off I missed Lorna Meehan perform at HTO!
• On Friday I missed Spoken Word at The Ort, Birmingham and Spoken World’s at Burton.
• I did go to a Stanza meeting, there were only 3 of us, last month there were 14. A small group were out in Malvern to see Carol Ann Duffy.
• Today there are poetic happenings in the Library of Birmingham, Ben Norris performs at Birmingham University and tomorrow Maurice Riordan speaks at Notts Festival of Words – at Notttingham University.

I now have a 5 day stretch to write and finish several projects I am working on and take on a new opportunity. Towards the end of the week I have some book promotion events, charity events and a book launch also next weekend sees our own VIRTUAL WRITING RETREAT – INKSPILL! Then it’s half term, Halloween and a bunch more events.

 

MOUTH & MUSIC Tues 14th

This month’s M&M was electrifying – we had 4 Birmingham Poets amongst us – Jasmine Gardosi was Head-lining, along with PTR Williams. Those factors were the only differences to the usual stellar line up of open mic-ers – but it was just one of those nights that caught an extra sprinkling of magic along the way. Funny really because it was Ghosts and Ancestors theme and those of you who know me, know I am a complete scaredy cat!

 I had written a 2 poems (especially for M&M) that I couldn’t wait to perform, I plan to use it them on the Halloween circuit in a fortnight (42, Halloweeny Night at the Ort, Word Up) – they went down well and from audience reaction had the right amount of spooky foreboding! Perfect. The other 2 poems I shared were written a while ago now, 2013.

I really enjoyed all the sets and seeing people I haven’t seen for months. We also had several performers new to M&M and they were fabulous, hoping they will be back. The lovely Saffron Toms brought her kit and snapped amazing, arty photos of the night to catch the atmosphere. The venue is incredibly dark so just on light settings alone she deserves a lot of kudos. All photos are copyright Saffron Toms. Just a taste – think there are over 60 shots posted online.

© Saffron Toms 2014

Jasmine Gardosi

 

Jan                                                                                                   Tessa Lowe                                                              Mogs

Katie Wragg                                                               Caution Poet                                                                      Najma Hush

 Myself – Nina Lewis

Wednesday 15th October – Writing West Midlands Meeting for Writers with Young People

Annually WWM get all the Lead and Assistant writers from the Midlands groups together. It was a fun meeting and they were also selling off book overstock from the Birmingham Literature Festival… discounted books -yes, please!

I also signed up for the possibility of training to mentor Arts Awards later on this year.  

 

Wednesday 15th October – Book to the Future Festival – Jan Watts – Phenomenal Women Event

From The Custard Factory (WWM HQ),  I hot footed in torrential rain to the University to take part in the Book to the Future Festival for the 2nd year. Jan Watts organises an annual Phenomenal Women event, there were 12 poets booked to perform including;

Janet Smith

Swingerella

Jasmine Gardosi

Charley Barnes

ScrubberJack – Jackie Smallridge

Andrea Smith

Kathy Gee

Heather Wastie

Jan Watts

and myself, Nina Lewis

It was a great night and secretly for me – it was also a celebration of meeting Jan Watts a year ago!

I performed my post office rant (written the day before) and a couple from the Maya Angelou collection – as it was phenomenal women….

 

Friday 17th October Stanza

I had had a terribly challenging day at work beforehand (emotionally drained) and unfortunately that blew my Thursday performance plan out of the water. I spent time writing some new poetry and on Friday night (after another long work day) I went to the Stanza Meeting armed with a poem about Migration. Big thanks to Mike Alma for the lift, I was far too tired to drive and wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise!

 

This weekend sees many Poets and bands in Birmingham for Oxjam, as well as all the other exciting things I have mentioned- I am happy writing – trying on the ‘reclusive writer’ for a while until deadlines pass!

Next week is already filling up – there is a Hanbury Hall Project I am involved with as well as other things, including lots of days of work (as it is half term the week after = no income) I am busy writing new poetry and have a job application to send off as well.

\ Happy Writing! /

Meetings – The Good Sort!

I am way behind on my blogging and need to catch up with myself before October.

Meeting 1

On the 12th of September I met the other 3 poets involved in the Naked Lunch commission for Birmingham Literature Festival. Meeting

I had met Aysha Begum, a talented poet and winner of the OXJAM Slam earlier this summer in Birmingham, she also facilitated Bridge the Gap – the event on the canal boat so her name may be familiar to you too. Hannah J Graham (thank you for the photos) and Amanda Hemmings are the other poets contributing to this project.

Now we have started writing for the commission and have just a fortnight before we perform. Christopher Baker and Joe Whitehouse are the brains behind Naked Lunch, organising and promoting events for Spoken Word Artists. They claim not to be poets themselves, I am not convinced!

Our performance is on 11th OCTOBER in the Foyer at the Library of Birmingham as part of the final weekend of events for the Birmingham Literature Festival, which starts on this Thursday on the 2nd of October.

They announce the new Poet Laureate in the evening, I know two of the finalists this year, Matt Man Windle and Jasmine Gardosi …. I wish them both all the luck in the world. One poet is a champion boxer, the other a Karate expert…. it could be the first fight between poets, who knows!

Poet Laureate (you can read the candidates poems here)

I should be in the library to hear them and the other shortlisted poems perform their city poems. Shortlisted candidates;

Adrian Blackledge, Andy Connor, Jasmine Gardosi, Pauline Morgan and Matt Man Windle

 © HJ Graham 2014

Anyway back to the meeting, we explored the community garden in Digbeth and spent some time talking to each other, discussing the project and theme.

SATURDAY 11th OCT. 4 -4:30pm

FREE

Urban Nature – find out more about this project/ performance here

Birmingham Literature Festival

 

Before hot footing it back on a train to get to my Stanza Meeting. I had spent most of the day trying to write a new poem to take, but as time ran out I had a look through recent writing and picked a poem I was not altogether happy with.

Meeting 2

It was a packed and busy night at Stanza, hosted this month by Ian Glass, who had been at work at all day and like the rest of us couldn’t believe how many poets had turned up. Enough to give the ‘youth’, whose parents had gone out and left a crowd of noisy teens rampaging in their garden a run for their money! Despite this distraction the atmosphere inside was as special and electrifying as I always find stanza meetings to be.

 I also had lots of helpful advice from other people on editing and strengthening my poem. Which I have left brewing in a drawer for a few weeks, before culling and reworking starts.

I find these meetings helpful and sociable, we never stop learning and I love hearing people performing their material post edit somewhere public and feeling privileged that I heard it before it had its best clothes on.

And this month Claire Walker had baked an amazing cake for our meeting – with butter icing and foraged forest fruits – which gave me a great idea for One Year A Poet – my anniversary/ Birthday celebration of poetry.

Meeting 3

Was the very next day, where Ian MacLeod and I saw our WWM Writing West Midlands group come back together at the start of a new year/term. It was a fun session.

My one to one mentoring role starts next month, which I am looking forward to.

After the meeting I had to rush off into Birmingham to watch a live radio interview recording with Lenny Henry, followed by watching him in Ruddy’s Rare Records at The Rep. Big, BIG thanks to Andrea Smith for the tickets and beautiful company!