Saturday 21st – Notts Poetry Get Together
Roll up roll up, for a Nottingham Poetry get together!
Featuring poetry submitted by an array of the fabulous poets based in Nottingham.. and beyond.
This Saturday features…
Wise Talk Collective – The Art of Losing
We can find ourselves in possession of everything, and lose it in the space of a second.
But we learn by being losers. Loss can make us more empathetic. Losing a relationship allows us to be more kind. Letting go of the importance we attach to material possessions and mental expectations can be a liberating experience. We should all – in some way – be masters of the art of losing.
Wise Talk Collective is made up of losers: Helen Rice, Chris Singleton, Sonia Burns and Camille McCawley.
Georgina Wilding
Georgina Wilding was crowned Nottinghams first Young Poet Laureate in 2017, and is now the Creative Director of Nottingham Poetry Festival, as well as the Founding Editor of Mud Press. She graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2015 with a first class degree in Creative and Professional Writing.
Gregory Leadbetter
Gregory Leadbetter is the author of two poetry collections, Maskwork (2020) and The Fetch (2016), both with Nine Arches Press, as well as the pamphlet The Body in the Well (HappenStance Press, 2007), and (with photographs by Phil Thomson) Balanuve (Broken Sleep, 2021). His book Coleridge and the Daemonic Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) won the University English Book Prize 2012. He has published widely on Romantic poetry and thought, twentieth-century and contemporary poetry, and he has written poetry and radio drama for the BBC. Five poems from The Fetch have been set to music for piano and voice by the composer and pianist Eric McElroy. He is Professor of Poetry at Birmingham City University.
Young Creative Awards present Steel Butterflies
Local writer Bridie Squires has been collaborating with Young Creative Awards and Archway Trust to deliver a series of creative workshops to a group of students at Bluecoat Aspley. The students have formed a collective under the name of Steel Butterflies and have created a series of poetry films especially for Nottingham Poetry Festival. Join the fresh-out-the-box bards and share in their wondrous words.
DIY Poets
DIYers are an eclectic bunch, and we are proud to showcase some of our members and their diverse poetry. Do join us from your sofa, your kitchen table, or your back-door step if you prefer. Infact, we don’t mind where you are, we’ll be here with our poems ready for you.
What will you hear? Ah, that’d spoil the surprise. But you might hear a tell of autumnal sounds, of environmental musings, of housework, of orange men, or of peas. You might not, but to find out you’ll have to tune in…
Poets Off The Endz
Poets off the Endz is a poetry and spoken word platform born from a YouTube series of the same name curated by Nottingham’s very own Jah Digga. Featuring wordsmiths from the city and beyond, the audience is invited to see life through the lens of their individual experiences through words and music within in their own unique prose.
Trekkah
Producer, record label boss, artist and a completely lovely chap, Trekkah reads us a poem that means the world to him.
Sonia Burns
Sonia is a member of the Paper Crane and Wise Talk poetry collectives. Sonia’s work has recently featured on the People’s Poetry podcast and BBC Radio Derby, published in the DIY Poets & 192 poetry ezines and is due to be included in an upcoming anthology produced by Nottingham’s World Jam.
Cleo Asabre – Holt
Cleo is a spoken word poet who has performed across the region, in London and internationally. Her work explores relationships, mental health, childhood and the urge to dance. She’s supported Hollie McNish and Roger McGough; and was a finalist in the search for Nottingham’s first Young Poet Laureate.
Paper Crane Poets
Join Beeston’s best poetry collective, Paper Crane Poets, for a fantastic evening of original spoken word, live in your living room. A selection of top poets will be weaving humour, social commentary, beauty and poetic perspectives to create an eclectic tapestry of stories. A selection of new writing and performance that’s really worth shouting about!
Bridie Squires – Casino Zero
Addressing themes of addiction, loss, mental health and social responsibility, the performance uses monologue, poetry and loop-station antics to create a nightmarish and hilarious world of repetition.
To create this scratch performance, Bridie Squires worked with poet and playwright Deborah Stevenson, sound poet Hannah Silva, beatboxer and loop station don Motormouf, and absurdist theatre maker Hugh Dichmont. Based on Squires’ experiences working as a croupier in 2012, the one-woman show is an insight into the space where roulette wheels rule, and asks the question of whether anyone can find a heart in the belly of the casino.
