Escarmouches: poets read & debate at London's Troubadour Coffee-House

escarmouches-the coffee-house colloquies

8pm
Monday 28th April, 2008
At the Troubadour, Old Brompton Road, London

"escarmouches - the coffee-house colloquies with Fiona Sampson, David Morley, Naomi Jaffa & Alan Brownjohn"

A mild skirmish in a very civil war as Coffee-House Poetry re-invokes the coffee-house traditions of radical dissent, intellectual disquistion & scurrilous writerly gossip to ask a group of poets, editors, activists to read from their own & others' contemporary poems & sit around a table to debate age-old questions from, How's the poetry going? to Where's the poetry gone?

Our poetry panel: Fiona Sampson (Common Prayer, Carcanet) founded Orient Express & edits Poetry Society's flagship journal, Poetry Review; David Morley (The Invisible Kings, Carcanet) is Professor of Creative Writing at Warwick and-among 17 books-co-edited seminal 1990s anthology, The New Poetry; Naomi Jaffa (Last Hour of Sleep, Five Leaves) is Director of The Poetry Trust which runs (among other things) the prestigious Aldeburgh Poetry Festival; and former New Statesman poetry editor & Poetry Society Chair (1982-1988), Alan Brownjohn (Collected Poems, Enitharmon).

London performance from Lewis & Hawkshaw: this Tuesday, 29th April

Performances by Sharon Lewis and Kirsty Hawkshaw
Tuesday 29th April
The 12 Bar Club
Denmark Street
London

The Shuffle at the Poetry Cafe, London: Saturday 26th April

The Shuffle

Poetry Cafe
22 Betterton Street
Covent Garden

Saturday 26th April 2008
7.30 - 9.30
Entry: £5/3

Jacqueline Saphra says: "We've got a great line-up this week - Stella Mandella, Ash Dickinson, Patrick Brandon, Linda Black, Heather Phillipson, Cath Drake, and Roddy Lumsden."

Utter! in London, Friday April 25th

Utter! Brixton#2: Liz Bentley, James Campbell, Jasmine Cooray, David Floyd, Richard Tyrone Jones
Tagline: We're back in Brixton, and ready for roti!

Friday, April 25, 2008
Time: 7:30pm - 10:30pm
Location: coffee@max-o's, BRIXTON'S WORLD CAFÉ - . www.maxoevents.com
Street: 11 Rushcroft Road, Brixton, London SW2 1JH
Tube: Brixton
Cost: £10 including ROTI MEAL!

Art of Poetry Exhibition: Glasgow, on NOW!

Seeds of Thought: ART OF POETRY Exhibition

6 April - 5 May 2008
Weekdays 2pm-5pm :: All day weekends

St Mungo Museum
Castle Street Glasgow

....poet becomes an artist and artist a poet...

for more info visit http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/venue/exhibitions.cfm?venueid=13

Poejazzi Is Back!

The Return of PoeJazzi

from 7pm
Thursday April 24th, 2008
SIN,
144 Charing Cross Road
close to tottenham Court Road
£6 on the door, £5 if you book online at: www.wegottickets.com/event/27788.

Featuring the magnificent Excentral Tempest(Live PA),
the soulful Ventriloquist (plus band) and our live band, Benin City.

Poetry Wales Launch Reading: London, Tuesday 22nd April

Poetry Wales Spring Launch
8pm, 22nd April 2008
Upstairs @ The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1DG.
Nearest tube = Tottenham Court Road.
Free entrance

Featuring Oliver Reynolds, Patrick McGuinness, James Byrne, Jerzy Jarniewicz and other readers.

MC for the night Robert Minhinnick.

Sunday Express at the Adam and Eve, Birmingham: TODAY!

Note from Liz on The Sunday Xpress:

We're still going! Please come to the Adam & Eve in central Birmingham tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) between 3pm and 7pm, for open mic everything and free roast potatoes. Free entry!

New Blood at the Poetry Cafe: this Tuesday, 15th April

Please click to enlarge. (I wonder if that works with people, too?)

Poetry at the Great Grog, this Sunday

Please click to enlarge

Mario Petrucci in Coventry TONIGHT, with Open Mic: 8pm

London poet Mario Petrucci will read in Coventry on Thursday night, as guest poet at the monthly open mic night run by The Heaventree Press.

Petrucci’s first collection, Shrapnel and Sheets (1996), dealing with war themes, family relationships, bereavement and scientific issues, won a Poetry Book Society recommendation. This was followed by two further collections: Lepidoptera (1999) and Bosco (1999). In 2002, he won the Daily Telegraph Arvon International Poetry Competition, with a book-length poem on Chernobyl . This led to the publication of Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl (2004), launched on the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, along with its sister volume, Half Life: Poems for Chernobyl (2004). His most recent volumes are Flowers of Sulphur (winner of the 2007 New London Writers Award) and Catullus, a set of translations from the Latin.

“Twin engines drive Mario Petrucci’s poetry: one engine is a personal and cultural knowledge of the sweep of European history; the other is a scientific understanding few poets have. Between them, these engines take Mario's poetry to dazzling heights.” – Ian McMillan

Mario Petrucci will read at Liquid Cafe Wine Bar in the City Arcade. 8pm start. Free entry. Reduced price drinks for performers.

Hope to see you there!

Re:versing the Damage: Oxford, in association with Hammer & Tongue, this Wednesday

CLIMATE XCHANGE
Launch of Re:versing The Damage – Notes From The Climate Journey
Wednesday 2nd April, 8.00 pm
Festival Room 1, Christ Church
£7.50

Join us for a creative journey through climate change. This event will showcase Oxfordshire writers responding to the highs and lows of the climate journey, making you laugh, possibly even cry, but engage in a refreshing and new way with climate change and our responses to it.

Brought to you by Oxfordshire ClimateXchange and Hammer and Tongue
www.climateX.org
www.hammerandtongue.co/uk

Hammer & Tongue in London: Wednesday 2nd April

Hammer & Tongue London
Open Poetry Slam + Special guests John Berkavich - UK Slam Champion +
Chloe Poems - Gay Socialist Transvestite Poet
Wed 2nd April 7.30-11pm
Bethnal Green Working Mens’ Club, Pollards Row, E2
Tickets: £6/5 Cons
Nearest Tube: Bethnal Green
07809 236133
www.hammerandtongue.co.uk
www.workersplaytime.co.uk

“The best live poetry is to be found at the Hammer & Tongue slam” Sunday Times

Oxford’s finest home-grown spoken word night is back with cake, chaos and its very own brand of raucous, energetic and thought-provoking performance poetry. This month we have award winning rhymes from UK Slam Champion John Berkavich, Gay Socialist Transvestite Poet Chloe Poems as well as the furious Angry Sam, who is fresh back from his international debut in Denmark earlier this month.

We will of course also have the open slam so anyone who wants to test out their rhymes on a willing and pliable audience, rock up at 7.30, the first 8 performers to sign up will slam so pass the word round and come and give it a go. We had some really wicked poets turn up and slam last month and are expecting a bevy of bright new performers from London and beyond, so get involved!

For more info contact Michelle on 07809 236133 or at madsen.michelle@gmail.com.

FAREWELL TO THE BIG WORD!

Join host Jenny Lindsay to say... GOODBYE BIG WORD!

Final cabaret of Edinburgh's finest lyrical poets and songsters! THURS 17 APRIL, THE JAZZ BAR, CHAMBERS ST, EDINBURGH £4/3 CONCS, doors 7.30, show 8 - 11. Hosted by Jenny Lindsay

Featuring a huge line-up of: TIM TURNBULL, anita govan, MARK RAFFERTY, ross sutherland, JONATHAN MUIRHEAD, tracy patrick, ROBIN CAIRNS, j.l williams, STEVEN BARNABY, graeme hawley, BRAM GIEBEN, milton balgonie & KEVIN CADWALLANDER

For more info, contact Jenny on 07989 508 436 (NB: This is NOT a slam: tis a wonderful lyrical medley of spoken word/performance poetry pro's!))

Come celebrate the best of the spoken word with short sets from 12 of the best spoken word artists in Scotland, plus joyfully satirical songs from Mark Rafferty.

The Big Word finishes up its last season with THE BEST bill ever! To celebrate OVER A DECADE of running shows in Britain (first London, Bristol, then Edinburgh and a short stint in Glasgow) co-ordinator Jenny Lindsay has gathered a selection of the poets who have regularly shone on The Big Word stage in Scotland.

Big Word was born in London; brainchild of highly acclaimed performance poet Jem Rolls ( living in Canada the past two years). He took the idea to Edinburgh and joined forces with spoken word artist Anita Govan, not only running the biggest poetry slams the nation had ever seen, but finding and promoting excellent poets from all performance genres. Jenny Lindsay has been running Big Word in various guises since 2002: first in Glasgow with Anita Govan (2002 - 2003), then in Edinburgh from 2004-2005 with Jem, then solo from 2005 till now. Big Word has enjoyed (with the help of Scottish Arts Council funding) a stupendously long existence for a poetry cabaret. It ends on a high, having nurtured an ever-growing and now not-quite-anonymous art form in Scotland.

The last cabaret features short sets from all the acts below.

TIM TURNBULL: Winner of the Arts Foundation Award 2007 & nominated for the Felix Dennis award for new writing 2007.
ROSS SUTHERLAND: Member of poetry boyband Aisle 16 & regular performer at The Big Word.
BRAM GIEBEN: Chemical Poet & Big Word slam champ. Founder of radical new writing/protest group Weaponizer.
STEVEN BARNABY: ...and his 50 word stories!
J. L WILLIAMS: Sensual spoken word artist: host of new cabaret Neue Liebe.
TRACY PATRICK: Paisley poet & prose writer.
ROBIN CAIRNS: Glasgow's finest stand-up poet.
JONATHAN MUIRHEAD: aka Audrey Witherspoon. Former co-ordinator and host of Piranha Poetry.
MILTON BALGONIE: "Ranting, raving spluttering cross between Rabbie Burns, Elvis & the tasmanian devil...A must see act" The Scotsman.
GRAEME HAWLEY: Newly crowned Scottish Slam Champion (Aye Write Festival, 2008) Big Word slam champ 2006: witty, dark & poignant verse.
ANITA GOVAN: Co- Promoter of new spoken word night VoxBox. "Artfully sculpted poems," Sunday Herald.
KEVIN CADWALLANDER: Highly acclaimed North-East poet, promoter of VoxBox, and author of many publications too fabulous to mention.
MARK RAFFERTY: Glaswegian comic-songwriter. Satirical and side-splitting alternative verses to many a classic song :)

Thank you to everyone who has supported The Big Word over the years: it will definitely not be the last you hear of the great acts above! And...perhaps not the last of the exhausted host :)

Best
Jenny Lindsay
The Big Word
07989 508 436

La Langoustine est morte: Saturday 5th April

La Langoustine est morte

Saturday 5th April 2008
The Poetry Café
22 Betterton Street
London
WC2H 9BX

7.30pm -10.00pm
£5/4 conc.

With Chris McCabe, Siddhartha Bose, Jack Underwood, Tom Chivers & Georgina Banfield.
Hosted by Anthony Joseph.

The acclaimed Langoustine est morte reading series continues this April with another night of eclectic literature from 5 innovative poets. This month’s readers are Chris McCabe, author of The Hutton Enquiry (Salt), poet and academic Siddhartha Bose, Jack Underwood, recipient of the Eric Gregory Award in 2007, poet/poetry activist Tom Chivers and the emerging voice of Georgina Banfield.

La Langoustine est Morte was established in July 2006 by poets Anthony Joseph & Sascha Akhtar as a series of evenings celebrating experimentation and innovation in poetics and fiction. For further info and to possibly be part of La Langoustine contact:

lalangoustine@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/langoustine

Oxford Literary Festival Fringe Event: Poetry & Music in the Vaults

Back Room Poets presents:
An Evening of Poetry and Music
With Peter McMullin (flute), Gulliver Ralston (keyboard), Liam Ings-Reeves (vocals/guitar). Featuring Fluttering Hands, a debut collection by Stephen Wilson, and a sequence with flute and percussion from Cassandra Fractured by Jenyth Worsley.
With: Tina Sederholm, Pat Winslow, Inge Milfull, Alison Brumfitt, Tim Greenwood.
Organic food and drinks will be available before the show and during the interval.

This event will raise money for the charities RESTORE (promoting mental health) and Salaam Baalak Trust (working with street children in Delhi).

An Oxfringe Event
Venue: The Vaults and Gardens Cafe (Radcliffe Square, Oxford)
Date: 02/04/08
Time: 7:30pm
Price: £6.00(£4.00)
Tickets available at the door