Welcome to Bristol Spring Poetry Festival 2014 How To Book
ADVANCE BOOKING FOR TICKETED EVENTS AT ARNOLFINI Box Office & General Enquiries: 0117 917 2300/01 Email: boxoffice@arnolfini.org.uk Online: www.arnolfini.org.uk Or in Person: ARNOLFINI, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA You can pay at the time of the event but events do sell out, sometimes very quickly, so advance booking is recommended to avoid disappointment.
Bristol Spring Poetry Festival & Bristol Poetry Festival are brought to you by Poetry Can. Poetry Can is a registered charity that works in Bristol and across the South West region providing information, advice and support on all aspects of poetry and poetry activities; we organise an annual education programme of poetry activities; support and promote poetryevents including Bristol Poetry Festival. We exist thanks to the involvement, support, enthusiasm and generosity of public bodies, charitable trusts and private individuals. If you would like to support Poetry Can, please consider making a donation towards our ongoing programmes of work. To make a donation, please visit our website www.poetrycan.co.uk or contact Poetry Can on 0117 933 0900 or by email: info@poetrycan.co.uk
HAMMER & TONGUE
The Birdcage, 28 Clare St, Bristol BS1 1YE Wednesday 2 April, 8.00PM-11.00PM (doors open at 7:30 pm) Featuring John Osborne Admission: £5.00 bristol@hammerandtongue.com www.hammerandtongue.com An open poetry slam with a top national spoken word artist showcase. This month’s guest is John Osborne who has written for Radio 4, had poetry published in The Guardian and a sold out Edinburgh show ‘John Peel’s Shed.’ Sign up on the door to take part in the slam.
CAN OPENERS
FOYLES, 6 Quakers Friars, Cabot Circus, Bristol BS1 3BU Friday 4 April, 12.00 NOON – 1.30PM Admission: FREE Hosted by Claire Williamson Special Guest: JOHN FORTH AND OPEN MIC.
PATCHWORK POETRY
LINK ROOMS 1-2, University of Bristol, 3-5 Woodland Rd, Bristol, BS8 1TB Wednesday 9 April, 5.00PM – 8.00PM Admission: FREE www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/research/poetry-institute/ patchworkpoetry/ The Patchwork Poetry project is about collaboratively making poetry in the form of material objects – collections of words
with rhythms and meanings and metaphors that emerge as ‘patchwork poems’ – put together, re-worked and collectively arranged. This event is by MakingLearning in association with Bristol Poetry Institute.
AGEING GRACEFULLY
THE LANSDOWN, 8 Clifton Road, Bristol, BS8 1AF. Friday 11 April, 8.00PM Admission: £5.00 in advance / £6.00 on the door. Further Information: 07954 147 464 The Bard of Windmill Hill, David C. Johnson and John Christopher Wood once again combine their talents to present a show for a discerning mature audience. They will be supported by the witty songs of Mike Danvers Scott. Expect lots of laughs and food for thought in a memorable evening.
PARK STREET POETRY
UPSTAIRS AT BOSTON TEA PARTY, 75 Park St, Bristol, BS1 5PF Friday 11 April, 7.30pm Admission: Free, please buy a drink Further Information: davidbriggs72@btinternet.com Hosted by David Briggs Special Guest Readers: Matt Merritt: Alisdair Paterson and Carrie Etter. In her third collection, Imagined Sons (Seren, 2014), Carrie reflects on her experience as a birthmother who gave up her son for adoption, presenting dream-like encounters, full of suppressed regrets, between the poet and her son once he’s come of age.
‘SPOKEN SONATA’
REDLAND PARK UNITED REFORM CHURCH, 1 Redland Park, Bristol, BS6 6SA Saturday 19 April, 2.00PM – 5.00PM Admission: £20.00 Further Information: spokensonata@gmail.com/07875 220879 www.jonpjames.wix.com/spokensonata Jonathan James and Rebecca Tantony join forces to create a workshop exploring musical ways into devising performance poetry. The workshop invites those with an interest in writing to consider the musicality within language and to experience the alchemy of the spoken word and music through improvisation, writing and performance.
LANSDOWN POETRY WORKSHOP The Lansdown, 8 Clifton Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1AF Sunday 20 April, 6.00PM – 8.00PM Admission: FREE Further Information: Charles Thompson on Charlesthompson8000@yahoo.co.uk Bring two poems to share. Round table and supportive comments.
ACOUSTIC NIGHT
HALO CAFE/BAR, 141 Gloucester Rd, Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8BA Monday 21 April 8.15PM (sign up to perform from 7.30PM) Admission: £5.00 Further Information: anditrans@hotmail.com Bristol’s longest running open mic poetry and music sessions presents a Bristol Spring Poetry Festival Special, welcoming back
the enigmatic, theatrical poet Robert Garnham and support from poet Robin Kidson, voted best Geordie accent 2012-2013 Plus the usual open mic.
WRITE SPACE WORKSHOP
GREENBANK, Bristol Sunday 27 April,10.30AM-1.00PM and 1.30PM to 3.30PM Payment by donation Writing sessions for poets and all other writers, facilitated by Polly Moyer, MA. Writing session with prompts and excercises from 10.30AM to 1.00PM and a feedback workshop from 1.30PM to 3.30PM. All styles and forms welcome. Email polly.moyer@gmail.com with Write Space in the subject to book and for venue details.
BLAHBLAHBLAH
BRISTOL OLD VIC basement, King St, Bristol, BS1 4ED Monday 28 April, 8.00PM-10.00PM. Admission: £6.00 Hosted by Anna Freeman Further Information: Box Office: 0117 987 7877 www.bristololdvic.org.uk/blahblahblah.html Performance poetry showcase featuring Katie Bonna, Edinburgh Fringe Festival First winner 2013; John Osborne, ‘Gentle without being dull, sharp but never sneering, witty but without a hint of the show-off’ - and Stephanie Dogfoot, ‘Poetry for spiritual beings on a human journey’.
Thursday 17 April, 7.30PM ARNOLFINI | 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA Tickets £8 / £6 concessions
TELLING TALES PRESENTED BY PATIENCE AGBABI “A pilgrimage of punks, badasses, broken hearts, beat poets, silver-tongued fixers, town criers, beauties, sinners. A jostle of life... A poem on wheels. Inventive, risky, serious and fun.” Jeanette Winterson Award-winning poet Patience Agbabi retells Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales for the 21st century. Mining Chaucer’s MiddleEnglish masterwork for its performance as well as its poetry and pilgrims, this boisterous and lyrical collection gives one of Britain’s most significant works of poetry thrilling new life. Patience Agbabi is the author of three collections, Bloodshot Monochrome, Transformatrix and R.A.W., and she is a former Poet Laureate of Canterbury. Her poems have appeared on radio and TV around the world and she has toured widely with the British Council. The event is part of the Telling Tales Tour produced by renaissance one www.renaissanceone.co.uk
Friday 18 April, 7.30PM ARNOLFINI | 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA Tickets £8.00 / £6.00 concessions
COUNT ME IN
starring SARA-JANE ARBURY, LUCY ENGLISH AND GLENN CARMICHAEL with THE GROWING CREATIVES, WINDMILL HILL
Saturday 19 April, 8.00PM ARNOLFINI | 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA Tickets £12.00 / £10.00 concessions
By popular demand Bristol Spring Poetry Festival is proud to present the most original poetic voice in the UK.
SIMON ARMITAGE Simon Armitage’s website:
www.simonarmitage.com
Thursday 24 April, 10.00AM – 12 NOON ST GEORGE’S, BRISTOL | Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR Admission for participating schools only, This event is not open to the public.
RAISE THE ROOF & KISS THE SKY
Bristol Primary Schools Poetry Slam STARRING THE YOUNG POETS FROM ASHTON GATE, BISHOP ROAD, ST MARY REDCLIFFE and WHITEHALL PRIMARY SCHOOLS With Raise The Roof & Kiss The Sky Mentors and Hosts: SARA-JANE ARBURY, GLENN CARMICHAEL, JONNY FLUFFYPUNK and CLAIRE WILLIAMSON Four teams of four young poets from each school and cheered on by over four hundred of their school friends will raise the roof, rapture the walls and rose-petal the floor of St George’s, Bristol with their inspirational, surprising poems. Poets Sara-Jane Arbury (St Mary Redcliffe), Glenn Carmichael (Whitehall), Jonny Fluffypunk (Bishop Road) and Claire Williamson (Ashton Gate) have been working with the children in the schools, nurturing enthusiasm, kindling a fiery, eager excitement for words and developing their skills and their confidence to write and perform poems with passion and with style. The proud mentors will host the slam and exhort the audience to make the wild music of cheering and applause that is the red hot rocking soundtrack to every great poetry slam. This will be a poetic experience the children will never forget. Only one team can win the Poetry Slam cup for their school... but every team can raise the roof and kiss the sky with a poem. THIS EVENT COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN PLACE WITHOUT A KIND AND GENEROUS PRIVATE DONATION