LEAMINGTON SPA: PureandGoodandRight

Monday, June 13th, 2011, 7.30pm, £3 (£2 Student/OAP)

The Sozzled Sausage,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4NX.
 

Each month we invite a fabulous guest performance poet. This month we are delighted to have the unique and wonderful Naomi Paul.

Naomi Paul writes, sings and performs. Over the past two years, she has been performing her own work at cabaret/comedy and spoken word events at various venues around the country, including Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Manchester. She has had slots on local community radio stations Radio Wildfire and Rhubarb Radio, and, this summer, she will be taking a solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe. 

'Hear her shopping for underwear in Golders Green, riding a hippy bus out of downtown Oakland, sing a lament as a protest for books thrown out of libraries … and more.’

(Dave Reeves: Radio Wildfire)

‘Hilariously quirky unique viewpoint, beautifully delivered...' (Janice Connolly)

‘Naomi’s shrewd balance of recital, storytelling, and at one stage acapella singing bore testimony to her stagecraft.’ (Gary Longden)
  

DEFINITELY AN EVENING NOT TO BE MISSED!
With open mic support from…….yes……YOU!
Come and share your poems or enjoy the talent of others- seasoned poets & first time performers most welcome!

If you would like to know more about the night, please email pgrpoetry@gmail.com

LONDON: Kid, I Wrote Back

Monday, 13th June, 2011, 7.30pm, £3 on the door/FREE to perform
Bar Kick,
127 Shoreditch High Street,
London,
E1 6JE
Nearest Tube: Shoreditch High Street/Old St/Liverpool St

kidiwroteback@instorage.org.uk
www.facebook.com/kidiwroteback
www.myspace.com/kidiwroteback

BRISTOL: Brizzlemania 11

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011, 8pm, £3

The Arts House

Stokes Croft

The LAST EVER BRIZZLEMANIA, featuring:

The one and only, here at last
BYRON VINCENT

From Soho to Stokes Croft, Chill Pill Champion
RAYMOND ANTROBUS

4th time's a charm
VANESSA KISUULE

LONDON: Helen Burke book launch

Saturday, 11th June, 2011, 7.30pm-9pm, £3 on the door

The Poetry Cafe,
22 Betterton Street,
City of London,
WC2H 9BX
 

Helen Burke's The Ruby Slippers is nothing less than a poetry landmark; collecting 31 of the finest poems from a remarkable 40-year poetry career.  The book, published by Scarborough's Valley Press, will be available at a generous discount on the night, which will also include a reading from the author and music from Julian Willmore.

Contact the cafe on 020 7420 9888

BRIGHTON: Waterloo Press & Brightstock Open House Poetry Night

Friday, June 10th, 2011, 8pm for 8.30pm start, £5 (no concessions)

Iambic Arts Theatre 

Regent St, Brighton

01273 572101

Waterloo Press and Bookstock, the Brighton Book Festival, proudly present An Open House Poetry Night, featuring vibrant and varied readings from WP poets:   

Bernadette Cremin

Miming Silence and Speechless

Robert Dickinson 

Micrographia  

shortlisted for the Aldeburgh Best First Collection Prize 2010

   

Judith Kazantzis  

The Odysseus Poems

David Pollard

patricides and Risk of Skin 

plus   

OPEN MIC

   

Come and mingle with Brighton Book Festival go-ers, and enjoy a sampler of some of the best poetry the South-East has to offer!

LONDON: Jawdance

Wednesday, 15th June, 2011, 7.30pm, FREERich Mix,
35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road,
London,
E1 6LA

Why did the skeleton cross the road? Not to go to the body shop, to come to Jawdance!
And no wonder why – There’s fantastic films, fabulous features, fresh-faced first-timers and frequent flyers. All for free! Phenomenal.
So if you’ve got poetry in your bones, and want to come and join the fun, it’s every third Wednesday at Rich Mix. Get down early to sign up for the open mic and show us what you’re made of. Let us know if you have a poetry-film to show, or get in touch before for more on the jaw, otherwise see you on the door!
Featured artists: AC Fume, Musa Okwonga, Spring Poets (KeliAnne B, Angela Chicken, Rick Bollinger, Lucas Howard, Ben Lawrence) and host to be announced.

www.richmix.org.uk / 020 7613 7498 / boxoffice@richmix.org.uk
Open Mic: russell@applesandsnakes.org / Films: George@applesandsnakes.org
Check out the JAWDANCE facebook page, you will find photos, footage and films from the shows. Tweet # Jawdance.

LONDON: Poetry Snapshots

Friday, 10th June, 2011, 8pm, £3 (includes glass of wine)

The Albany,
Douglas Way,
Deptford
SE8 4AG

Naomi Woddis – poet, photographer, and now photographer of poets – launches her latest exhibition. Featuring portraits of thirty key players from today’s spoken-word world, it’s real rogues’ gallery – but in the nicest possible way. And, to ensure it’s a genuinely three-dimensional experience, some of them will be stepping out of the celluloid, as it were, and shaking their photogenic booty on the stage. Featuring Sabrina Mahfouz, A F Harrold, Dzifa Benson, Joe Duggan, Jasmine Cooray, Joelle Taylor, Kayo Chingonyi and Tshaka Campbell.
Booking: www.thealbany.org.uk  / Info: www.naomiwoddis.com
Get arty with the literati and get yourself down to The Albany.

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

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.