LONDON: Apples & Snakes in Soho featuring Jean ' Binta' Breeze

Tuesday, 31st May, 2011, 8pm, £8 / £6 / £6 under 26
Soho Theatre,

21 Dean Street,
London
W1D 3NE

The Apples & Snakes in Soho series is an opportunity for audiences to see top-flight poets and writers alongside newer pioneers from the spoken-word scene. Soho Theatre offers the perfect central location for this eclectic entertainment. Featuring Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze also known as ‘the one woman festival’ and Steve Tasane, one of the most inventive verbal artists of the last two decades.

Info: 020 7478 0100 / www.sohotheatre.com / www.applesandsnakes.org

LONDON: Jazz Verse Jukebox

Sunday, 12th June, 2011, doors open 6.30pm, show from 8pm, £7

Upstairs @ Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (aka Ronnie's Bar),

47 Frith Street,
London
W1D 4HT
Tube: Tottenham Court Road
Web :www.jumokefashola.com

Email: JazzVerseJukebox@me.com 

Prepare for blushing eardrums in June as we dig deep into the dark, weird & erotic!

Featuring spoken word from Michael Horovitz, Dorothea Smartt, Ernesto Sarezale and Sabrina Mahfouz, with music from Randolph Matthews, plus Open Mic for poets/singers.

Compered by & with music from Jumoké Fashola.

EDINBURGH: Grey Hen Press reading

Saturday, 11th June, 2011, 2pm-3.30pm, FREE
Scottish Poetry Library,
Crichton Close,
Canongate

Edinburgh.

A reading from No Space But Their Own with A C Clarke, Eleanor Livingstone and Lyn Moir.

HUDDERSFIELD: The Albert Poets

Thursday, June 9th, 2011, 8pm, FREE The Albert Hotel,
Victoria Lane,
Huddersfield,
West Yorkshire
HD1 2QF

The Albert Poets - A reading with Julia Deakin, Joy Howard and Ed Reiss.

LONDON: Hammer and Tongue, Hackney

Monday 6th June, 7pm-11pm, £5/£4The Victoria,
451 Queensbridge Road,
Dalston

E8 1AP
contact: samberkson@gmail.com

Top poets, open mic slam and DJ. Showcasing Simon Munnery, genius poet and comic, described by the Observer as "one of the most original and talented comics in the country" and Shane Solanki, poet, activist, comic and general all-round good guy. Hosted by Angry Sam.

Plus open mic slam, chance to compete for a place in the final. Arrive early for slam sign-up (first come first served).

LONDON: Poets For Peace

Wednesday, 8th June, 2011, 7pm, £5 at the door

The Black Heart,
3 Greenland Place,
Camden
NW1 0AP

Join us at the Black Heart in Camden for an amazing night of slam poetry, all in aid of International Alert. See some fantastic poets including: Shane Solanki, curious, Stephanie Dogfoot, Angry Sam, Raymond Antrobus and Michelle Madsen.

Plus, come say your peace during the open mic session!

Shane Solanki - aka: 'Last Mango in Paris', political, frequently comic, Shane is immediately engaging, chillingly insightful, riproaringly comic and frequently disturbing. He has performed across Europe, India, America and Africa, supporting the likes of Lemn Sissay, Billy Bragg and Shazia Mirza among many others.

curious - The reigning London Hammer & Tongue Slam Champion, curious has grafted onto his hiphop roots a spoken word performance that is rapidly becomming a big feature of the London scene. Unafraid to speak his mind, and with plenty to say, he delivers edu-tainment with political anger, humour and much verbal dexterity.

Stephanie Dogfoot - Stephanie tells of love and life both in her native Singapore and her current home in London with a great feeling for the humans she meets with all their faults and failures, told with pity and love and a warm humour and an amazing maturity for such a young performer.

Angry Sam - Host of the Hackney branch of one the UK's most successful poetry networks, Hammer and Tongue, ANGRY SAM (Sam Berkson) has performed across the country and abroad, won slam competitions and collaborated with musicians such as Usedtobecool, Beatabet, Xhadrez and UK beatbox champion, Beardyman. “Angry Sam kills the crowd softly with rare wit and a laid back style that softens the knife wounds left by his acid political poetics and searing urban imagery.” – Martin Daws, POETica. www.myspace.com/poetthug

Raymond Antrobus is a spoken word artist, photographer, poet and writer, born and bred in Hackney. He is co-curator of Chill Pill/Keats Forum and has performed along side authors and poets such as Margret Atwood, Michael Horovitz, Lemm Sissay, Polarbear and Inua Ellams. Raymond appeared on series 5 of BBC Radio 4’s Bespoken Word.

Michelle Madsen - Hailing from commuter belt, small town Bishop's Stortford, Michelle is a poet of much verbal ingenuity, warmth and humanity. She is the host of Hammer and Tongue, Camden and a writer who's been involved in poetry events across Europe.

There will also be an open mic session on the night, where anyone can get up and say their peace.

For more info call 020 7627 6865 or email fundraising@international-alert.org

PLYMOUTH: Forked!

Thursday, May 26th, 2011, 8.30pm, £5 in advance, £7 on the door

B-Bar, Barbican Theatre
Castle Street
Plymouth,
PL1 2NJ

Forked is back with more delicious poets shaking their metaphorical tail feathers within the sumptuous velvet-curtained b-bar. Everyone’s favourite jazz floozy Mama Tokus hosts the evening, taking us on a journey through every kind of poetic life and wonderment. Featured this month we have a combination of beautiful beats, lyrical and musical excitement, political poetry and a wallop of comedy charm.
Featuring: Jennifer Walter, Vid Warren, Dominic Berry & Underdog
Arrive by 8pm to order your noodles from the delicious Thai menu

Booking/info: 01752 242021 / www.b-bar.co.uk  / www.applesandsnakes.org

GALWAY: Over The Edge May Open Reading

Thursday, May 26th, 2011, 6.30pm-8.30pm, FREE

Galway City Library,
St. Augustine Street,
Galway
 

The Featured Readers are Seamus Scanlon, Angela Carr and Rita Ann Higgins. The reading is also one of series of events which will mark Japan Day in Galway. Japan Day gives the people of Galway an opportunity to express their solidarity with the victims of the recent earthquake in Fukushima. Yoshimi Hayakawa of The Wa Café will read a poem at the open-mic on the evening to mark the day.

Seamus Scanlon is a native of Galway and currently living in New York. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from City College New York where he won numerous awards for fiction and drama. He was a runner up in 2010 Fish Publishing One Page competition and the winner in 2011 and was short-listed for the 2009 New Irish Writing Awards. He also won a prestigious Carnegie Corporation/New York Times award for librarianship in Dec 2009 with prize money of $5,000. His first ever reading was at the Over The Edge open-mic in Galway City Library in early 2004. Last September, Seamus was chosen by competition judge, James Martyn, as 2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year for his story ‘The Butterfly Love Song’. This reading is part of Seamus’s prize for winning the Over The Edge competition. He also received a cash prize of €700.

Angela T Carr hails from Glasgow, via Donegal, and has lived and worked in Dublin since 1999. She began writing poetry in 2007 and since then her work has been short-listed for the Single Poem award at Listowel Writers Week 2008, published in the Fish Anthology 2009, Commended in the Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2010 and Highly Commended in the Over the Edge - New Writer of the Year 2010. She is a member of the Words on the Wind poetry group, at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin, and excerpts from her poems were published on the streets of Dublin, as part of the Upstart initiative during the General Election campaign.

Rita Ann Higgins was born in 1955 in Galway, Ireland. She divides her time between Galway City and Spiddal, County Galway. Her first five collections of poetry were published by Salmon: Goddess on the Mervue Bus (1986); Witch In The Bushes 1988); Goddess and Witch (1990); Philomena’s Revenge (1992); and, Higher Purchase (1996). Bloodaxe Books published her next three collections: Sunny Side Plucked (1996); An Awful Racket (2001); and Throw in the Vowels: New & Selected Poems in May 2005 to mark her 50th birthday. Her plays include: Face Licker Come Home (Salmon 1991); God of the Hatch Man (1992), Colie Lally Doesn't Live in a Bucket (1993); and Down All the Roundabouts (1999). In 2004, she wrote a screenplay entitled The Big Break. In 2008 she wrote a play, The Empty Frame, inspired by Hanna Greally, and in 2008 a play for radio, The Plastic Bag. Her collection Sunny Side Plucked was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is a member of Aosdána. Her most recent book Hurting God – Part Essay Part Rhyme was published last year by Salmon.

There will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

TETBURY: Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Summer Festival

Tuesday, 7th June, 2011, 7pm-8.30pm
Market Hall,
Tetbury,
Gloucestershire

Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Summer Festival. A reading from all the Grey Hen Press anthologies with Alison Brackenbury, Ann Drysdale, Angela France, June Hall, Joy Howard, Elisabeth Rowe and Pat Simmons.   

Contact: festivaltickets@me.com

EARLS BARTON: Village Festival Open Mic

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011, 8pm
The Stags Head
High Street
Earls Barton
Northamptonshire
NN6 9JG

The Earls Barton Village Festival is taking place this year from 2nd to 18th June and will be hosting a number of arts events including music, photography, comedy, dance...and spoken word.

 

The Stags Head has opened its doors to poets and punters alike, and invited you all to an evening of words to soothe the soul, or raise the spirits, with a pint or two of your favourite tipple on the side.

 

This is an open-mic event, which welcomes spoken word performers and poetry readers of all kinds and from anywhere. There will be a limited number of walk-up places for those who want to get up and have a go on the night, so if you would like to perform, write to donnerscott@yahoo.co.uk or call 07807 086 747.

LONDON: Pete (the Temp) verses Climate Change!

Monday, 6th June, 2011, 7pm-10pm

The Monarch

Camden High Street 

Pete the Temp is the current Hammer & Tongue National Slam Champion and BBC Radio 4 South of England Slam Winner. He is also a damn fine administrator. Watch him solve the climate change using only his mouth! The show takes a satirical look at climate change and our attempts to tackle it. It employs satire, physical theatre, audience interaction, character acting and stand-up comedy...
www.petethetemp.co.uk/?page_id=67

Richard Tyrone Jones Has a Big Heart

Richard Tyrone Jones Has a Big Heart is the long-awaited, understandably-delayed debut one-man show from the poet, Director of 'Utter!' and “Ringmaster of Spoken Word” (Three Weeks). Learn the lurid details of near-near death from dilated cardiomyopathy, a convoluted convalesence and how to live with the condition which will almost certainly kill you, through anecdotes, cardiomyopoetry and bisoproLOLs. For anyone who ever had a heart. Or failure. Clear!...

www.utterspokenword.com/news/?page_id=498

LONDON: Camden Poetry Series

Friday, June 3rd, 2011, 7pm (doors open 6.30pm), £5/£4, WINE

Trinity United Reform Church,
1 Buck Street,
Camden Town

1-2 mins. Camden Town tube

 

Ruth O'Callaghan presents  Waterloo Poets Benadette Cremein, Maria Jastrzebka and David Swann.                           

       

Poets from the floor very welcome (some longer spots available). Please bring a copy of the poem if you wish to be considered for the new anthology which will be edited by Ruth O'Callaghan.

DERBY: The Venus Papers

Friday, 3rd June, 2011, 8pm, £10/£8

Assembly Rooms,
Market Place,
Derby,
DE1 3AH

Box Office: 01332 255800

www.derbylive.co.uk

The Venus Papers

written and performed by Lydia Towsey

directed by Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze

What if Venus, the Roman Goddess of love and beauty, were to wash up in the 21st century? What would she do next?

The performance combines poetry, music and film with myth, fairytale and contemporary issues – from anorexia to shopping in Primark.

What the audience say:

“Mesmerising – truly mesmerising. I couldn’t break my concentration, not wanting to miss a word. Beautiful and moving whilst being thought provoking. A privilege to have experienced.”

“Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. It was beautiful, inspiring. Funny in places, devastatingly heart breaking in others. Truly something to be part of and I was honoured to watch it.”

“I found the performance at once alluring, compelling and disturbing, impossible to ignore!’

“Brilliant, funny, feminist, poignant. A pleasure to watch.”

LONDON: Wordamouth presents Open/Wide

Saturday, May 21st, 2011, 7.30pm-11.30pm, £5

Alaska Studios,
Alaska Street,
London
SE1 8XE.

OPEN/WIDE comes early this month. Come and read, spit, drink, eat and be entertained at London's most open mic night. Poetry, MCs, comedy and who knows what else!? Cheap drinks, free cake and sick DJs till midnight + WIN a chance to record at the studio and perform at other WORDAMOUTH gigs - £5 to all and sundry!! Hosted by curious and Angry Sam.

fb event link:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=215100231848439

BRIZZLEMANIA 10: Project May-Hem

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011, 8pm, £3
The Arts House,
Stokes Croft,

Bristol

Open Poetry Slam, featuring:

From Radio 4 and international Slam dominance to your ears
ANNA FREEMAN

Bath-based hip hop prodigy turned spoken-word maestro
TOBY THOMPSON

April's Slam Champion, up-and-coming
MEGAN BEECH

BIRMINGHAM: The Rhymes Milton Keynes Take-Over

Wednesday, 18th May, 2011, 8pm, £5 

The Station Pub,
Kings Heath,

Birmingham

 

Join the Rhymes Slam Winner 2010, the fabulous Mark Niel and his fellow poet friends from Milton Keynes...

 

Half-pintsized poet, minx and mischief maker Danni Antagonist, fond of rhyming stuff with other stuff, and shouting it at anyone not quick enough to run away.

www.myspace.com/antagon1st

 

Fay Roberts, who co-manages Poetry Kapow! with Danni and performs in various parts of the Midlands and South East, as well as being part of Milton Keynes poetry collective Bardcore. She also co-hosts the Cambridge chapter of Hammer & Tongue.

www.fayroberts.co.uk

 

Donna Scott, an energetic comedian, short-fiction writer and editor as well as an awesome poet and was also the very first official Bard of Northampton from 2009-2010.

www.badgerandboodleentertainment.com

 

Mark Niel, a true ambassador of performance poetry, who has won Slams hands down all over the UK and is the host of the Tongue in Chic Poetry and Spoken Word events in Milton Keynes as well as being a comedian, actor and singer.

www.akickinthearts.co.uk

 

Tickets via www.rogueplay.co.uk

 

For more info and to see clips, go to the 'Rhymes' Facebook group or www.myspace.com/rhymesnight

LONDON: Waltham Forest Literature Festival second reading

Wednesday, 18th May, 2011, 7.30pm (doors open 7pm), £4 on the door includes wine
Walthamstow Library,

High Street,
London
E17

Poetry from Julia Bird, Heather Taylor, Liz Berry and Graham Buchan. Support from members of Forest Poets. Part of Waltham Forest Literature Festival. 

PLYMOUTH: Forked!

Thursday, May 26th, 2011, 8.30pm, £5 in advance, £7 on the door
B-Bar, Barbican Theatre
Castle Street
Plymouth,
PL1 2NJ

Forked is back with more delicious poets shaking their metaphorical tail feathers within the sumptuous velvet-curtained b-bar. Everyone’s favourite jazz floozy Mama Tokus hosts the evening, taking us on a journey through every kind of poetic life and wonderment. Featured this month we have a combination of beautiful beats, lyrical and musical excitement, political poetry and a wallop of comedy charm.
Featuring: Jennifer Walter, Vid Warren, Dominic Berry & Underdog
Arrive by 8pm to order your noodles from the delicious Thai menu

Booking/info: 01752 242021 / www.b-bar.co.uk  / www.applesandsnakes.org

LONDON: Apples & Snakes in Soho featuring Jean ' Binta' Breeze

Tuesday, 31st May, 2011, 8pm, £8 / £6 / £6 under 26Soho Theatre,
21 Dean Street,
London
W1D 3NE

The Apples & Snakes in Soho series is an opportunity for audiences to see top-flight poets and writers alongside newer pioneers from the spoken-word scene. Soho Theatre offers the perfect central location for this eclectic entertainment. Featuring Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze also known as ‘the one woman festival’ and Steve Tasane, one of the most inventive verbal artists of the last two decades.

Info: 020 7478 0100 / www.sohotheatre.com / www.applesandsnakes.org

LONDON: Wordamouth presents Open/Wide

Saturday, May 21st, 2011, 7.30pm-11.30pm, £5

Alaska Studios,
Alaska Street,
London
SE1 8XE.

OPEN/WIDE comes early this month. Come and read, spit, drink, eat and be entertained at London's most open mic night. Poetry, MCs, comedy and who knows what else!? Cheap drinks, free cake and sick DJs till midnight + WIN a chance to record at the studio and perform at other WORDAMOUTH gigs - £5 to all and sundry!! Hosted by curious and Angry Sam.

fb event link:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=215100231848439

GALWAY: Over The Edge May Open Reading

Thursday, May 26th, 2011, 6.30pm-8.30pm, FREE
Galway City Library,
St. Augustine Street,
Galway
 

The Featured Readers are Seamus Scanlon, Angela Carr and Rita Ann Higgins. The reading is also one of series of events which will mark Japan Day in Galway. Japan Day gives the people of Galway an opportunity to express their solidarity with the victims of the recent earthquake in Fukushima. Yoshimi Hayakawa of The Wa Café will read a poem at the open-mic on the evening to mark the day.

Seamus Scanlon is a native of Galway and currently living in New York. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from City College New York where he won numerous awards for fiction and drama. He was a runner up in 2010 Fish Publishing One Page competition and the winner in 2011 and was short-listed for the 2009 New Irish Writing Awards. He also won a prestigious Carnegie Corporation/New York Times award for librarianship in Dec 2009 with prize money of $5,000. His first ever reading was at the Over The Edge open-mic in Galway City Library in early 2004. Last September, Seamus was chosen by competition judge, James Martyn, as 2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year for his story ‘The Butterfly Love Song’. This reading is part of Seamus’s prize for winning the Over The Edge competition. He also received a cash prize of €700.

Angela T Carr hails from Glasgow, via Donegal, and has lived and worked in Dublin since 1999. She began writing poetry in 2007 and since then her work has been short-listed for the Single Poem award at Listowel Writers Week 2008, published in the Fish Anthology 2009, Commended in the Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2010 and Highly Commended in the Over the Edge - New Writer of the Year 2010. She is a member of the Words on the Wind poetry group, at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin, and excerpts from her poems were published on the streets of Dublin, as part of the Upstart initiative during the General Election campaign.

Rita Ann Higgins was born in 1955 in Galway, Ireland. She divides her time between Galway City and Spiddal, County Galway. Her first five collections of poetry were published by Salmon: Goddess on the Mervue Bus (1986); Witch In The Bushes 1988); Goddess and Witch (1990); Philomena’s Revenge (1992); and, Higher Purchase (1996). Bloodaxe Books published her next three collections: Sunny Side Plucked (1996); An Awful Racket (2001); and Throw in the Vowels: New & Selected Poems in May 2005 to mark her 50th birthday. Her plays include: Face Licker Come Home (Salmon 1991); God of the Hatch Man (1992), Colie Lally Doesn't Live in a Bucket (1993); and Down All the Roundabouts (1999). In 2004, she wrote a screenplay entitled The Big Break. In 2008 she wrote a play, The Empty Frame, inspired by Hanna Greally, and in 2008 a play for radio, The Plastic Bag. Her collection Sunny Side Plucked was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is a member of Aosdána. Her most recent book Hurting God – Part Essay Part Rhyme was published last year by Salmon.

There will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

BOURNEMOUTH: Freeway Poets

LONDON: Lumen Poetry Series

Tuesday, 17th May, 2011, doors open 6.30pm for 7pm, £5/£4, WINE

LUMEN
88 Tavistock Place
WC1

Tubes: Russell Square , Kings Cross, St Pancras.

Ruth O'Callaghan presents Imtiaz Dharker and Stephen Watt. Poets from the floor very welcome.

LONDON: Velvet Tongue

Monday, May 16th, 2011, 7pm doors, performances start 7.30pm, £3/FREE to perform
Bar Kick,
127 Shoreditch High Street,
London
E1 6JE

Nearest tubes: (Shoreditch/Old St/Liverpool St)

Webpage: http://velvettongueuk.blogspot.com/
Contact email: sarezale@yahoo.com
Phone (Ernesto): 07733263823

Guest readers will join forces with fresh un-heard talent to bring you an evening of velvet-tongue-in-cheek poems, performance art, burlesque and erotically charged bits and bobs to tempt and titillate your minds!

Bring along your sexy words and share them with us. Have you got an erotic poem, a sexy short story, a salacious monologue, a sexually charged section of your novel, a provocative comic strip, or a risque stand up routine? Would you like to share a piece of erotica from an author you admire? Come and get a 'kick' out of reading it in front of an appreciative audience in our sinfully cosy and relaxed basement.

To sign up for the 5 minute open-mic slots, email Ernesto: ernesto@sarezale.com (or sign up on the night, if there are any slots left!!)

Review of the first night:
http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=6555

LONDON: Elvis McGonagall's Caravan of Poetry

Friday, 13th May, 2011, 8pm, FREE

Balham Bowls Club
7-9 Ramsden Road,
London
SW12 8QX

The lovably sardonic star of Radio 4's Saturday Live trundles into town with a trailerful of his poetry chums. Expect an extravaganza of well-honed words, some of them rhyming.
Featuring: John Osborne, Mab Jones and John Citizen, alongside the King himself.

Info: www.balhambowlsclub.com /020 8673 4700 / www.applesandsnakes.org

GALWAY: Over The Edge May Writers’ Gathering

Friday, May 13th, 2011, 8pm, FREE
at The Kitchen @ The Museum
Spanish Arch
Galway

The Over The Edge May Writers’ Gathering presents readings by poets from the USA and Australia plus the launch of a new collection of poetry by one of Irish poetry’s exciting new talents. Art Stringer, Ron Houchin and Jane Williams will read their work. The evening will also see the launch by Professor Adrian Frazier of Follies, the debut poetry collection by Sarah Griffin, which has just been published by Lapwing Press. All are welcome.

A. E. Stringer is the author of two collections of poems, Channel Markers (Wesleyan University Press) and Human Costume (Salmon Poetry). His work has appeared in such journals as The Nation, Antaeus, The Ohio Review, Denver Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Poetry Northwest, and in Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virginia. He has edited and introduced a new edition of Louise McNeill’s Paradox Hill, (West Virginia University Press, 2009).  He has read his work in a wide range of American locales and also previously in Galway.  For twenty years, he has taught writing and literature at Marshall University in West Virginia USA.

Ron Houchin lives on the banks of the Ohio River across from his hometown of Huntington, West Virginia.  For thirty years, he taught public school in the Appalachian region of southernmost Ohio. He has three books published by Salmon Publishing, Death And The River (1997), Moveable Darkness (2002), and Museum Crows (2009).   His other books Among Wordless Things (2004) and Birds In The Tops Of Winter Trees (2008) were published by Wind Publications of Nicholasville, Kentucky. His awards include Appalachian-Book-of-the-Year-in-Poetry, a National Society of Arts and Letters Prize, an Ohio Arts Council Fellowship, a poetry prize from Indiana University, a Writers’ Digest Award. 

Jane Williams was born in England in 1964 to an Irish father and Australian mother. She has lived all her adult life in Australia where her poetry has been widely published since the early 1990’s. Awards for her poetry include the Anne Elder Award for her first book outside temple boundaries, the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize and the D.J.O'Hearn Memorial Fellowship. She is the author of four collections of poems and lives in Tasmania. Samples of her work can be found at http://www.janewilliams.wordpress.com

Sarah Maria Griffin is currently completing her MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Sarah won first prize at the 2010 Over the Edge Fiction Slam in Galway and has appeared on RTE Radio’s Arena speaking about and performing her poetry. She recently took part in a Culture Ireland sponsored showcase of the best of Irish performance poetry at the famous Nuyorican Poets’ Café in New York City. Follies, Sarah’s debut collection of poetry, has just been published by Lapwing Press and will be launched by Professor Adrian Frazier, Director of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

For further information contact 087 6431748.

LEEDS: Get Me Out Of Here!

Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 7pm-8.30pm, FREE
Waterstones,

93-97 Albion Street,
Leeds
LS1 5AP

Get Me Out of Here! - Poems for trying circumstances

The official launch of the new Grey Hen Press anthology, with readings from various contributors. Wine and nibbles - all welcome

13th May at Leeds Central Library

12 - 1.30 pm

A follow up reading from Get Me Out of Here!

Free event, all welcome

LONDON: Michael Horowitz

Thursday, 12th May, 2011, 6.30pm, £3

Waterstone’s,
82 Gower Street,
London
WC1E 6EQ

Nearest Tube: Goodge Street (Northern Line)

We recommend arriving in good time to avoid being disappointed. For more information tel: 020 7636 1577 or email events@gowerst.waterstones.com

Visit www.waterstones.com/events for the event listings

CAMBRIDGE: Hammer and Tongue featuring Mark Gwynne Jones and Alison Brumfitt

Wednesday, 11th May, 2011, 7.30pm-10.30pm, £5, £3.50 concessions, £2 slammers
The Emperor,
21 Hills Road,
Cambridge
CB2 1NW

Time again for another round of the Cambridge Hammer & Tongue 2010-2011 season...

This is your chance to become part of the spoken word slam brilliance that has graced this here fair city for over a year, in the warm and wonderful surroundings of fabulous venue The Emperor. Sign up as one of the eight to compete for a place in the Regional Final, or just dive in and soak up the atmosphere and talent on display. And some great beer.

Mark Gwynne Jones is a poet who works in film, on stage, in print and with music. During his travels Mark has sold poetry to the CIA, won The National Trust Poetry Competition and thrice won the Buxton Festival Fringe. He currently tours with The Psychicbread providing an unforgettable show of music and poetry. He is a poet who works in film, on stage, in print and with music. During his travels Mark has sold poetry to the CIA, won The National Trust Poetry Competition and thrice won the Buxton Festival Fringe. He currently tours with The Psychicbread providing an unforgettable show of music and poetry.

Beautiful, powerful, moving and incredibly funny - sometimes all at the same time - don’t miss this chance to see Mark Gwynne Jones solo at Hammer & Tongue.  Find out more at http://www.psychicbread.org

And he’ll be warmly supported by the elegantly funny, quirky poetical stylings of festival favourite Alison Brumfitt.

Find out more at http://www.alisonbrumfitt.co.uk/

Hosted by Alex Iamb and Fay Roberts.

A poetry slam is a live democratic poetry competition where random members of the audience are made judges giving scores to a series of 3 minute spoken word performances with an Olympic-style score system.

http://www.hammerandtongue.co.uk/

http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/site/cal_display.asp?area=775&i=366573 for event details.

LEAMINGTON SPA: PureandGoodandRight

Monday, May 9th, 2011, 7.30pm, £3 (£2 Student/OAP)

The Sozzled Sausage,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4NX
 

This month we are delighted to have the enchanting Julie Boden. She travels nationally and internationally, delivering workshops, conducting readings, performing, lecturing, mentoring and judging poetry competitions. She has appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Poetry Societies and Poetry Please , Radio 3's The Verb,and Five Live's Late Night Currie. Her published poetry collections include: Through the Eye of a Crow (2003), Wasted Lives (2004), Bluebeard's Wife(2005), and Aheenthi(2006) which has been translated into Gujarati. She  was the seventh Birmingham Poet Laureate (2002/3) and is currently Poet in Residence at Symphony Hall Birmingham. 

'Poetry drips off her tongue like honey from a comb...' Birmingham Post

DEFINITELY AN EVENING NOT TO BE MISSED!

With open mic support from you!
Come and share your poems or just come, listen and enjoy - seasoned poets & first time performers most welcome!

If you're planning to come along, or would like to know more about the night, please email pgrpoetry@gmail.com

Remember to check out our blog at http://pgrpoetry.blogspot.com !!!

LONDON: Hammer & Tongue Open Poetry Slam

Monday, May 9th, 2011, 7.30pm, £6/£5

Green Note Cafe

106 Parkway

Camden Town

London

NW1 7AN
020 7485 9899

HAMMER AND TONGUE PRESENTS THE OPEN SLAM feat. MARK GWYNNE JONES and NIALL O'SULLIVAN

8 poets, 1 prize, 3 minutes each... c'mon down to win a place in the long-long awaited London slam final

Mark Gwynne Jones is one of Hammer and Tongue London's favourite poets - magical, witty, absurb, with the aid of fluorescent tuebs of plastic Mark tells stories of alien raves and re-imagines romantic poetry for the hallucinogenic generation.

This is Mark's website, roll around in it and laugh with joy
http://www.psychicbread.org/

Niall O'Sullivan is the left ventricle of the beating heart of London's poetry scene. Published in Wolf, London Magazine, South Bank Poetry and Rising, Niall is best known for his role as host of the Poetry Cafe's Poetry Unplugged, London's biggest poetry open mic night. He's been nominated for the Forward prize, has published 2 books and is simply marvellous. We coaxed him away from his usual haunts of Covent Garden with the prmoise of the best audience that london has ever seen... yes, that means you!
http://niallosullivan.co.uk/

BOOK TABLE - poets, if you want to offer your printed words up for sale, come on down early doors, we will have a book table.

BRIZZLEMANIA 10: Project May-Hem

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011, 8pm, £3The Arts House,
Stokes Croft,
Bristol

Open Poetry Slam, featuring:

From Radio 4 and international Slam dominance to your ears
ANNA FREEMAN

Bath-based hip hop prodigy turned spoken-word maestro
TOBY THOMPSON

April's Slam Champion, up-and-coming
MEGAN BEECH

BIRMINGHAM: The Rhymes Milton Keynes Take-Over

Wednesday, 18th May, 2011, 8pm, £5 

The Station Pub,
Kings Heath,

Birmingham

 

Join the Rhymes Slam Winner 2010, the fabulous Mark Niel and his fellow poet friends from Milton Keynes...

 

Half-pintsized poet, minx and mischief maker Danni Antagonist, fond of rhyming stuff with other stuff, and shouting it at anyone not quick enough to run away.

www.myspace.com/antagon1st

 

Fay Roberts, who co-manages Poetry Kapow! with Danni and performs in various parts of the Midlands and South East, as well as being part of Milton Keynes poetry collective Bardcore. She also co-hosts the Cambridge chapter of Hammer & Tongue.

www.fayroberts.co.uk

 

Donna Scott, an energetic comedian, short-fiction writer and editor as well as an awesome poet and was also the very first official Bard of Northampton from 2009-2010.

www.badgerandboodleentertainment.com

 

Mark Niel, a true ambassador of performance poetry, who has won Slams hands down all over the UK and is the host of the Tongue in Chic Poetry and Spoken Word events in Milton Keynes as well as being a comedian, actor and singer.

www.akickinthearts.co.uk

 

Tickets via www.rogueplay.co.uk

 

For more info and to see clips, go to the 'Rhymes' Facebook group or www.myspace.com/rhymesnight

LONDON: Elvis McGonagall's Caravan of Poetry

Friday, 13th May, 2011, 8pm, FREE
Balham Bowls Club
7-9 Ramsden Road,
London
SW12 8QX

The lovably sardonic star of Radio 4's Saturday Live trundles into town with a trailerful of his poetry chums. Expect an extravaganza of well-honed words, some of them rhyming.
Featuring: John Osborne, Mab Jones and John Citizen, alongside the King himself.

Wandsworth Arts Festival offers a series of events over three weekends, bringing artists to the borough to create a diverse, inspiring and engaging programme.

Info: www.balhambowlsclub.com /020 8673 4700 / www.applesandsnakes.org

LEAMINGTON SPA: PureandGoodandRight

Monday, May 9th, 2011, 7.30pm, £3 (£2 Student/OAP)

The Sozzled Sausage,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4NX
 

This month we are delighted to have the enchanting Julie Boden. She travels nationally and internationally, delivering workshops, conducting readings, performing, lecturing, mentoring and judging poetry competitions. She has appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Poetry Societies and Poetry Please , Radio 3's The Verb,and Five Live's Late Night Currie. Her published poetry collections include: Through the Eye of a Crow (2003), Wasted Lives (2004), Bluebeard's Wife(2005), and Aheenthi(2006) which has been translated into Gujarati. She  was the seventh Birmingham Poet Laureate (2002/3) and is currently Poet in Residence at Symphony Hall Birmingham. 

'Poetry drips off her tongue like honey from a comb...' Birmingham Post

DEFINITELY AN EVENING NOT TO BE MISSED!

With open mic support from you!
Come and share your poems or just come, listen and enjoy - seasoned poets & first time performers most welcome!

If you're planning to come along, or would like to know more about the night, please email pgrpoetry@gmail.com

Remember to check out our blog at http://pgrpoetry.blogspot.com !!!

LEEDS: Get Me Out Of Here!

Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 7pm-8.30pm, FREEWaterstones,
93-97 Albion Street,
Leeds
LS1 5AP

Get Me Out of Here! - Poems for trying circumstances

The official launch of the new Grey Hen Press anthology, with readings from various contributors. Wine and nibbles - all welcome

13th May at Leeds Central Library

12 - 1.30 pm

A follow up reading from Get Me Out of Here!

Free event, all welcome

LONDON: Lumen Poetry Series

Tuesday, 17th May, 2011, doors open 6.30pm for 7pm, £5/£4, WINE

LUMEN
88 Tavistock Place
WC1

Tubes: Russell Square , Kings Cross, St Pancras.

Ruth O'Callaghan presents Imtiaz Dharker and Stephen Watt. Poets from the floor very welcome.

LONDON: Waltham Forest Literature Festival second reading

Wednesday, 18th May, 2011, 7.30pm (doors open 7pm), £4 on the door includes wineWalthamstow Library,
High Street,
London
E17

Poetry from Julia Bird, Heather Taylor, Liz Berry and Graham Buchan. Support from members of Forest Poets. Part of Waltham Forest Literature Festival.  

LONDON: Waltham Forest Literature Festival

Saturday, 14th May, 2011, 6.30pm, £4 on the door includes wineVestry House,
Vestry Road,
Walthamstow,
London
E17

Poetry from Gerda Mayer, Kathy Towers, Lorraine Mariner and Graham Clifford and support from members of Forest Poets. Part of Waltham Forest Literature Festival.

See full programme attached. Some more info on our Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/pages/Forest-Poets/175675543588?sk=wall 

LONDON: Velvet Tongue

Monday, May 16th, 2011, 7pm doors, performances start 7.30pm, £3/FREE to perform

Bar Kick,
127 Shoreditch High Street,
London
E1 6JE

Nearest tubes: (Shoreditch/Old St/Liverpool St)

Webpage: http://velvettongueuk.blogspot.com/
Contact email: sarezale@yahoo.com
Phone (Ernesto): 07733263823

Guest readers will join forces with fresh un-heard talent to bring you an evening of velvet-tongue-in-cheek poems, performance art, burlesque and erotically charged bits and bobs to tempt and titillate your minds!

Bring along your sexy words and share them with us. Have you got an erotic poem, a sexy short story, a salacious monologue, a sexually charged section of your novel, a provocative comic strip, or a risque stand up routine? Would you like to share a piece of erotica from an author you admire? Come and get a 'kick' out of reading it in front of an appreciative audience in our sinfully cosy and relaxed basement.

To sign up for the 5 minute open-mic slots, email Ernesto: ernesto@sarezale.com (or sign up on the night, if there are any slots left!!)

Review of the first night:
http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=6555

LONDON: BEAT at Charlie Wright's

Monday, May 2nd, 2011, 1pm
Charlie Wrights
45 Pitfield Street,
London

N1 6DA  
After 40 nights and a lot of hangovers, the chimes ring at midnight and the bells a toll for us. It's time, you've guessed it, for the last installment/episode of the last season of - The Final Chapter in the BEAT Saga.
 
40 nights, that's plenty of talent and even more drinks. You've all been great and we salute you for opening up your hearts and ripping your souls apart, all for a piece of poetry. The singers and players who've made us think and hear the unthinkable - thanks.
 
After 3 years and countless Glitterbeasts, Not Nights, BEATs and what have you, all over London, from Soho to Stokie, the BEAT organizer has decided to hang up the events hat and roll on. A decision easy to make, but hard to forget
 
Lets go out in flames, lets make this one, one to recall
 
See you Monday
 
Last BEAT Ever Fab Line Up Is:
 
Alexander Thanni
Elisabeth Amato
Graham Buchan
Ant The Rant
Andreas Grant
 
+ much, much more TBA and surprise appearances...