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Dead Good Poets – 21st Birthday Party

Published on March 12, 2010 in Dead Good Poets and Events. Closed Tags: .

This month, Dead Good Poets Society celebrates its 21st Anniversary.

That’s 21 years – 21 years! – of open floors, guest nights, poetry reading groups, slams, workshops, and other poetic happenings.

On Wednesday 17th March 2010, DGPS will be 21 years and 8 days old – please come help us celebrate!

There will be an Open Floor for… poets old & new, a chance to catch up with poets you may not have seen for a while, special sets from DGPS original members, competitions and prizes.

Will there be cake? YES!
Will there be jelly? NO! POETS & JELLY – NOT A GOOD COMBINATION …
Will there be prizes for those in the best ’80s costumes? YES!
Will there be more poets than you could shake a stick at? TOO RIGHT!
Will it be a night that shall still be spoken of in hushed tones 100 years from now? WE BLIMMIN’ WELL HOPE SO!

Our Open Floor comes of age. Expect the usual moving, funny, weird, inspiring, anarchic, clever poetics – but WITH CAKE.

Come early to book a performance slot with our comperes.

New poets and first time performers always welcome. You will be well-looked after and your courage rewarded with loud applause and much appreciation.

Old poets loved and welcomed, as ever.

Audience members (old and new) simply adored!

Wednesday 17th March @8pm
The 3rd Room
Everyman Bistro
Hope Street
Liverpool

Alice Lenkiewicz Poems and Prose reading in Hammersmith

Published on March 8, 2010 in Events. Closed

Seven Towers Writers to read at the Hammersmith ram

Liverpool-based Alice Lenkiewicz will be reading from her first collection of poems and prose,  ‘Men hate Blondes’

Sunday, 28 March 2010
Time:   18:00 – 20:00
Location: Hammersmith Ram
Street:     81 King St
Town/City:     Hammersmith, United Kingdom

Further information

Dead Good Poets – Dates Events Feb / Mar 2010

Published on February 19, 2010 in Dead Good Poets and Events. Closed

Sunday 21st February – NEW! – Dead Good Poets Society Writing Group

Luckily with some help we have managed to find a room, so we won’t need to meet in Costa Coffee. The meeting will be at 2pm on Sunday 21st, as planned, but will be held in the room above News From Nowhere, the bookshop on Bold Street. If you are not sure where that is, you turn left as you come out of Liverpool Central Station Bold Street exit and head uphill. The bookshop is on your right a little way up. Ring the bell on the door next to the shop when you arrive. If you are not sure, you can call me on 07974605789.

Just to recap the purpose is to write together from shared starting points and ideas, then talk a bit about what we have done and get some feedback. It is not a formal workshop in which anyone will be teaching or running a lesson, just a supportive environment, so don’t worry that you have to produce a masterpiece!

Look forward to seeing you if you are interested, Colin Salmon.

Wednesday 3rd March @ 8pm – Dead Good Poets Society Open Floor. 3rd Room, Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool. 24 slotsof 5 minutes for poets to perform their own work. New poets and new audience members always welcome. An inspiring, funny, moving mix of poetry guaranteed. £2 /£1 pay on the door. Come early to book a performance slot with our compere, Colin Watts.

Sunday 21st March

Lemn Sissay : Why I Don’t Hate White People
Invitation to a live recording for BBC Radio 4 at Contact Theatre on Sunday 21st March at 6.30pm. This is a one-off version of Lemn’s stage show with specially created new material for an invited audience. For one night only.
He didn’t know a black person until he was eighteen. It wasn’t his fault. They just thought it was better that way. He spent most of his adult life searching for his family who were black like him. It’s a story explored in his previous award-winning play Something Dark.
In Why I Don’t Hate White People Lemn continues the journey, not for family this time but for something more evasive – race. This is a whirlwind tour of race as seen from one man’s unique and intensely personal perspective as he seeks a truth, trying to find if there is something he is missing in the quagmire of race relations.
Exploring this contentious area with humour and originality, Lemn depicts some unexpected race-related situations, from an anti-slavery workshop where he chains up his students and leaves them in the classroom, to the launch of a new Richard Pryor Centre for Equality, which implodes at the opening ceremony. The result of Lemn’s journey into race is his discovery of the many reasons why he doesn’t, in fact, hate white people.
For tickets please call 0161 244 4255 and leave a contact name, telephone number and details of how many seats you would like. This event may be over-subscribed so book early.

Dead Good Poets Society presents – The Romance Slam

Published on February 16, 2010 in Dead Good Poets and Events. Closed

Wednesday 17th February @ 8pm, The 3rd Room, Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool

Dead Good Poets Society presents … The Romance Slam

Are you Liverpool’s Most Romantic Poet?
Could you charm, flatter, flirt and woo the audience?
Dead Good Poets Society present its first Romance Slam.
Poets will perform poems on the subject of love, romance, passion, lust -
all competing for the title of Liverpool’s Most Romantic Poet.

Could you perhaps be the most romantically costumed audience member?
Come along and vote for your favourite poet in the romantically secret ballot.
Pass a billet-doux to another member of the audience. Our own “cupid” will be at your service to deliver love notes.
Poetry and dressing up and PRIZES – what’s not to like?!

£30 first prize plus “Liverpool’s Most Romantic Poet” satin sash.

£3 / £2 pay on door.

Dead Good Poets – December Diary 2009

Published on December 7, 2009 in Dead Good Poets and Events. Closed Tags: .

Diary for December 2009

Wednesday 2nd: 2.30pm-4.30pm: Book Launch – The Poet’s Perspective (Headland Press). This beautiful book focuses on a selection of famous paintings exhibited in the Walker Museum. Each has inspired a poem by a range of authors: Roger McGough, Pat Fearon, Alicia Stubbersfield, Janette Stowell, Ade Jackson, Rebecca Goss and more. Hosted by editor Gladys Mary Coles. All welcome! Free event.

Wednesday 2nd @ 8pm – DEAD GOOD POETS SOCIETY OPEN FLOOR. 24 slots of 5 minutes over three sets for you to perform your own poetry. New poets always welcome – come early to book a reading slot. The 3rd Room, Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool. £2/£1 pay on the door.

Saturday 5th December: 12:00pm – 8:30pm From Laptop to Bookshop
Ticket Prices: £20 / 15 Day ticket including readings
£10 / 7.50 single workshop, £5 / 3 readings An exciting day of workshops, readings and meet the author events, suitable for emerging and more experienced prose fiction writers.
12.00 – 2.00pm Workshop (women only): Writing a Synopsis, with Debbie Taylor – helping writers identify what their book is about and communicate it to an agent or editor.
3.00 – 5.00pm Workshop (women only): First Paragraph, with Lesley Glaister – helping novelists and short story writers create an arresting opening.
7.00 – 8.30pm Reading/interview (open to all): Hilary Mantel & Debbie Taylor. Hilary Mantel reads from her most recent work and talks about her personal ‘road to publication’: how she became a writer, her mistakes, regrets, false starts. Followed by an interview and questions from the audience.

Monday 7th @ 8pm: Come Strut Your Stuff! Poetry and Music Open Mic at The Egg Café, Newington, Liverpool (opposite New Quiggins). http://www.comestrutyourstuff.co.uk/

Wednesday 9th @ 8pm: Vale Royal Writers Group and Dead Good Poets Society meet for their annual Christmas Poetry Party (aka Poets & Pints). Guest Poets Alicia Stubbersfield, Andrew Rudd and David Bateman with lots of open mic slots. The Blue Cap, Sandiway, Cheshire.

Friday 11th @7.30pm: An Evening of Poetry with Micheal O’Siadhail
“Love in a Shifting Globe”, Elm Hall Drive Methodist Church, Elm Hall Drive, Off Allerton Road, Liverpool L18 www.osiadhail.com.

Monday 14th December @ 8pm: Zest! Poetry at Alexander’s Jazz Bar, Rufus Court, Chester. Really friendly open mic poetry event hosted by the Zest! Team.

Wednesday 16th @8pm: DEAD GOOD POETS SOCIETY CHRISTMAS PARTY!
(And Annual General Meeting). Join us for a quick report of what we’ve been up to as an organisation this year and then fun and festive frolics. All welcome!

Thursday 17th @ 8.30pm : Wirral Ode Show. Open Mic hosted by Shell Wright and Jason Richardson (with regular appearances by Oscar Wilde!) The Stork Hotel, Price Street, Birkenhead.

And don’t forget to check out the calendar on www.writeoutloud.net for details of the many events WOL organise in the North West – from Manchester to Wigan, Bolton to Hebden Bridge, no place is immune to the Power of Poetry!

And www.clarekirwan.co.uk/scene.htm for Wirral-based events

Dead Good Poets – November 2009 Diary

Published on November 2, 2009 in Dead Good Poets and Events. Closed Tags: .

* Monday 2nd November @ 8pm – Come Strut Your Stuff! Poetry and Music Open Mic at The Egg Café, Newington, Liverpool (opposite New Quiggins). http://www.comestrutyourstuff.co.uk/

* Wednesday 4th @ 8pm – DEAD GOOD POETS SOCIETY OPEN FLOOR. 24 slots of 5 minutes over three sets for you to perform your own poetry. New poets always welcome – come early to book a reading slot. The 3rd Room, The Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool. £2 / £1 pay on the door.

* Thursday 5th @ 7.30 pm FIRST THURSDAY POETRY EVENING at Linghams Bookshop, 248 Telegraph Road, Heswall, Wirral. The programme will include: Stephen Spender’s centenary – celebrated by Gill Curry and Guest Poet: Kit Jackson. 1poem open mic £4.
Continue reading ‘Dead Good Poets – November 2009 Diary’

Alice Lenkiewicz: ‘Men Hate Blondes’. Poems and Drawings

Published on October 25, 2009 in News. Closed

AL-BookCoverAlice Lenkiewicz : Men Hate Blondes
coming soon!

Alice Lenkiewicz’s first collection of poems and drawings, ‘Men Hate Blondes’   ISBN 978-0-9562433-4-8  £8.00
or contact the author for a signed copy poetshideout@yahoo.com

Alice Lenkiewicz’s inaugural collection of poems, Men Hate Blondes, is  a tight exploration of the political as seen through the personal. Her frequent line enjambments, startling images and sometimes deceptively nonsensical-seeming word combinations will make this book a challenge for some readers, but what makes these poems worth reading is the author’s refreshing trust in her audience, that they do not need to be led by the hand.’   Joanne Merriam

‘Alice Lenkiewicz, a modern alchemist, effects the transmutation of lived experience via the intimate crucible of her rare, poetic imagination – informed by an artist’s visual sensibility. ‘  A C Evans

‘Men Hate Blondes is a kind of poetic bildungsroman, it offers up its insights in a savvy use of montage, dreamscapes, cityscapes and fantasias all matched with Lenkiewicz’s dispassionate itinerant observation; this is a refreshing, developing new voice testing out its boundaries in a world still forming and reforming around us.’  Chris Hamilton Emery

http://thesamsmith.webs.com/originalpluscollections.htm#463291876

Nathan Jones – Chapter and Verse PERFORMANCE line-up

Published on October 9, 2009 in Events. Closed Tags: , .

Chapter and Verse PERFORMANCE line-up « Poet in Residence at the Bluecoat.

I am delighted to reveal the line-up for my show at the Chapter and Verse Literature Festival.  This is one of the most impressive list of performers I have ever had the pleasure of putting together.

The idea is that I’ll be able to present lots of different takes on what poetry is – for instance, the picture above is of Mark Greenwood beating a chicken to pieces – and what it means to be moved by a performance.  All the acts have revolutionary takes on their attitudes to poetry in performance – it should make for a thrilling night!

-

REVOLUTIONS IN FORM

8.00pm – 10.30pm, Sunday 18th October.

Produced by Poet in Residence at the Bluecoat, Nathan Jones, specially for the Chapter & Verse Literature Festival, in partnership with Mercy, Revolutions in Form presents some of the most innovative writer/performers at work today, alongside artistic contemporaries and musicians… Redefining the territory for poetry in performance.

**Poetry & Performance from**
Lorena Rivero De Beer, Mark Greenwood, Kate Tempest, Ross Sutherland, Tim Clare and Nathan Jones

**Music from**
Lizzie Nunnery and guests from the Almanac folk collective

**Projections, Live Visuals & Music from**
Sketchybeast, Sam Meech, Neil Keeting and Markus Soukup

While the world of arts and literature has moved forward in perceptions of itself during the last century – through innovations in forms, definition, technologies and concepts of authorship, ownership and value – the perception of the poem in performance has changed very little since the days of Dada and the Beat ‘happening’.

However, revolutions of considerable ambition have been taking place beneath the hype-radar – typified by a tendency towards interdisciplinary production, re-editing and processing, and a distorting of the roles of performer and audience. Revolutions in Form is a showcase of these culturally important, entertaining and powerful works.

HIGHLIGHTS:

* special sets from Tim Clare and Ross Sutherland, whose work blurs the boundaries between poet, film-maker, animator, musician, lecturer and stand-up comic

* innovative new live-drawing commissions to accompany new poetry performances from poet in residence at the Bluecoat, Nathan Jones

*contemporary and traditional revolution songs from renowned playwright and songstress, Lizzie Nunnery

* an improvisation-based finale contrasting the whirlwind of rebellion and energy that is Kate Tempest against the visceral, unpredictable and often controversial work of Mark Greenwood.

Tickets £5/£3

Poetry news and events for October 2009

Published on October 7, 2009 in Dead Good Poets, Events and News. Closed Tags: , .

Poetry news for October 2009 from Sarah MacLennan of DGPS

* Wednesday 7th October @ 8pm: Dead Good Poets Society Open Floor. 24 slots of 5 mins for you to perform your own poetry. The 3rd Room, Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool. £2/£1 pay on the door. A Dead Good welcome guaranteed!

* Thursday 8th October: 10 am – 5 pm National Poetry Day: Liverpool Poetry Marathon. For the 4th year running North End Writers, the creative writing charity serving the people of Liverpool, is holding an all day event on National Poetry Day. We are inviting the people and poets of Merseyside and the North West to come along to The Hornby Room in Liverpool Central Library to celebrate the theme, Heroes & Heroines.

For a reading slot of approximately 5 minutes please contact our organiser, Anna-Maria Parry, who will add you to our list of readers.

If you have a piece of work longer than 5 minutes and want to use this day as a show case please e-mail Anna with a brief outline including reading time and we’ll try and accommodate your work. Or just come to listen to the poetry! Audience members always welcome!Contact: Anna at info@northendwriters.co.uk

* Wednesday 14th October @ 7.30pm – The Return of the Superheroes of Slam. In celebration of Black History Month, Writing on the Wall, in association with Commonword, is hosting the Liverpool heat of the North West ‘Super Heroes of Slam’ competition – the quest for the ultimate ‘slam poet’. This exciting event takes place on at the Casa.
To enter, please contact Madeline Heneghan by email or telephone. There are a few places left but they’re going fast so don’t miss out! Tel: 0151 703 0020Email: info@writingonthewall.org.uk

* Thursday 15th October @ 7.30-8.30pm: Speed Date a Book. For this event, The Reader Organisation is asking you to come along with your favourite book or poem and all the reasons why you love it to see if you can find your perfect reading match. We’re acting as the matchmaker, hosting ‘Speed Date a Book’ to bring together literary lovers to share their favourite reads, meet fellow readers and perhaps find that all important perfect partner, be it in text or human form. Are you able to be there with your favourite read?
Join us in the bar at the Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool from 7.30pm, armed with your favourite read (be it poem or novel) and get ready to tell people why it’s so great (and hopefully find a perfect match).

* Sunday 18th October @ 7.30-8.30pm: The Reading Cure: Chapter and Verse at the Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool – free!
Join staff from The Reader Organisation for this free clinic, to solve your problems with the help of some of our greatest writers. Are you worried about your job? Are you always getting into relationships with ‘that man’ or ‘that woman’ who’s just no good for you? Are you desperate to share something joyful? Come along to The Reading Cure clinic and discover how fiction really can help reality.

* Wednesday 21st October@ 8pm. Dead Good Poets Society Guest Night: Angela France plus Open Floor.
Born in Cheltenham in 1955, Angela France feels a deep connection to the land and people of Gloucestershire, where she organised and now runs Cheltenham’s only regular live poetry event: “Buzzwords at The Beehive”.
She has had work accepted by a number of magazines including Iota, Acumen, The Frogmore Papers, Rain Dog, Obsessed with Pipework, Orbis and Envoi. Her poems have also appeared in the anthologies The White Car, When Pigs Chew Stones (Ragged Raven Press) and Mind Mutations (Sun Rising Books).
“Angela writes with passion and clarity; here is a meticulous sensuous imagination, richly structured and musical” – Penelope Shuttle

* * * Links * * *

* Chapter and Verse Literature Festival
From Wednesday, 14 October 2009 to Sunday, 18 October 2009: 10:00am – 10:00pm
www.thebluecoat.org.uk

* Sefton Celebrates Writing 2009
http://www.literaturenorthwest.co.uk/event/1444

* Kudos Writing Magazine
http://www.kudoswritingcompetitions.com/

* For literature opportunities – jobs, calls for submissions, competitions

http://www.literaturetraining.com/metadot/index.pl?id=2382

http://www.blankmediacollective.org/news/blankpages/

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/index.php

SPECIAL EVENT!

A quick plug for a event that has been dear to Dead Good Poets’ hearts in the past. And a message direct from actor, writer and workshop leader Adam McGuigan:
“I am organising a small event to perform/exhibit/share some of the work from Zambia and show a short film documenting the experiences of 15 young Zambians as they travelled to Liverpool, Poland and Ireland for the first time last year. It’s beautifully truthful, innocent and full of fun, with first times on flights, escalators, trains and seeing the sea for the first time.
Since being in Liverpool, I have been joined by one of the Barefeet members from Zambia who has come over to be involved in the Hope Street apprenticeship programme. Mosten will be talking a little about his experiences whilst being here (ranging from being detained at Heathrow to visa problems to short skirts and a growing respect for Simon Cowell).
Please come along after work on Monday 19th October at 5:30pm in the Novas Centre, Greenland Street, Liverpool (bring a friend). It will be a short affair (no more than an hour) and will be a really lovely opportunity for me to share something very special in the middle of Africa and to show what I have been doing for the past 4 years.
It would be great if you could join us for a glass of wine afterwards, and a chance to say ‘twalamonana-see you soon’.”

National Poetry Day Events. 8 Oct 09

Published on October 7, 2009 in Events. Closed

National Poetry Day Events. 8 Oct 09 | Liverpool Art and Culture Blog.

Get inspired … at the Walker – Poetry competition

What sort of paintings inspire you? Those with flame-haired Pre-Raphaelite muses or striking 20th century works? National Poetry Day is on Thursday 8 October 2009 and we want you to be involved. Get inspired by a painting at the Walker Art Gallery, write a poem about it and send it to us. We’ll publish a selection of them on the website and pick one winning poem. The winner can choose one poetry book from this selection:

•           ‘Rapture’ by Carol Ann Duffy (hardback)
•           ‘The Mersey Sound’ by Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (paperback)
•           ‘Andraste’s Hair’ by Eleanor Rees (hardback)

The theme for this year’s National Poetry Day is ‘heroes and heroines’, so we have put together a selection of paintings that we think fit in with this idea on the website. So now it’s your turn to look through our paintings and get inspired!

How to enter:
•           Browse the paintings on the link below and find something that inspires you.
•           Write your poem.
•           Send it to us by Monday 2 November using the online form.

Full details online: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/getinspired.aspx

And at the Bluecoat


Illustration of Nathan Jones

Date: Thursday, 08 October 2009 | 12:00pm – 4:00pm

Location: Various

Ticket Prices: Free
The Bluecoat’s  poet-in-residence explores the Bluecoat’s hidden poetry.
Come and be inspired by the beautiful surroundings.