Poetry in the City of Liverpool, UK
Liverpool Peoples Poet – 2009.
Can you write a poem that captures the essence of Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture?
If so you could become the Liverpool Peoples Poet!
There are two categories:
the winner in each category will win a prize of £500
Starting date: Monday 16th March 09
Closing date: Tuesday 7th April 09 @ Midnight
Award Ceremony:
Liverpool Town Hall, Wednesday 29th of April 09
more details here…
Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2009
Are you the young voice of Poetry in the UK?
February 8th 2009
Open to young people aged 11-17, The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2009 launches at the Sage Gateshead, 3rd March. Time to get writing!
The Poetry Society is proud to announce the launch of The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2009 and to
introduce this year’s judges, top poets Lemn Sissay and Selima Hill.
This exciting scheme is the only national poetry prize of its kind that seeks to unearth, promote and support young poetic talent from across the UK. To enter all you need is to be someone who questions, explores, delights in, or is just simply inspired by the world around you.
Continue reading ‘Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2009 Launch’
The Tree2mydoor Valentines Poetry Competition 2009 is open for entries!
Now in its third year, tree2mydoor.com is holding its annual online poetry competition, giving entrants the chance to win £100 in gift vouchers. 50 runners up will each win 50% off Valentine’s Day purchases.
This is part of an overall campaign, ‘Grow Your Love’, which has launched in time for the romantic period and features activity on YouTube, with videos of entrants reciting poetry to their loved ones, people proposing to their lovers, and other ‘love’ themed fun clips.
Enter the poetry competition now in writing or submit a video of you reciting your poem.
Tree2mydoor.com is a Manchester based gift company that specialises in sending trees as gifts to UK and Irish addresses.
Enter the poetry competition HERE
Find out more tree2mydoor.com/grow-your-love.asp
Visit the Grow Your Love Youtube Channel
In partnership with The Poetry Society, Wow proudly presents…
SLAMbassadors UK
The UK’s only professional development ONLINE slam
Listening to last year’s respect poets reinforced my belief in the power of the word. These poems were
more powerful than any political speech, they were more honest than any lecture, they spoke of history, they spoke of now, they spoke of the future…
Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet
Page fright? Stage fright? Got a mobile phone with video recording, or a camcorder?
Working with spoken word artist Curtis Watt (aka C Zero), young people in Liverpool will be given the opportunity to express themselves and deliver powerful and captivating performances. As he explains
“Poetry is a celebration of language and its power to change the world. When we find the poet in ourselves, what changes will we bring?” Curtis Watt (aka C Zero)
SLAMbassadors UK online slam is open to all 12-18 year olds living in either London or Liverpool.
If you’re keen to develop your writing and stage skills, this is the competition for you.
What: Original poem or rap (with or without beatbox – no music) written by you.
How: Film your performance piece using your mobile or a camcorder. Email Writing on the Wall for an entry form info@writingonthewall.org.uk or call Madeline or Jess on 0151 703 0020
Length: 3 minutes max
Theme: Respect / Identity
All entries will be vetted by a team of professional spoken word artists, and uploaded to our website, where
the general public will be allowed to vote on each of the videos. Professional judges will have the final say,
selecting winners from both London and Liverpool. These winners will be mentored by professional artists
before having the opportunity to perform on stage in front of a live audience.
Closing date for entries: 19 December 2008
Liverpool slammers – contact:
Madeline or Jess info@writingonthewall.org.uk 0151 703 0020
London slammers – contact:
Joelle Taylor jtaylor@poetrysociety.org.uk 0207 420 9893 / 07847 372892
Visit: http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/rise
Notes for Teachers and Youth Leaders
If you want to increase your understanding of performance poetry and the slam arena, or even just to look at creative entry points into the curriculum, there will be a FREE INSET Workshop. For more details contact Writing on the Wall.
The SLAMbassadors Online Slam is an excellent and innovative way of getting your students involved in the art of performance poetry, and helps improve standards of literacy, as well as raising confidence and developing communication skills.
As the theme of the slam is ‘Respect’ and involves the discussion of socio-political issues, it is also a great way of provoking debate in the classroom. So, whether you teach English, Drama, EAL, History or Citizenship, the slam can be relevant. Please note that all entries are vetted and will contain no offensive language.
Liverpool Young Writers 08/09
An innovative local project for Merseyside’s budding young writers, poets, M.C.s and performers begins this month.
Liverpool Young Writers Project, in partnership with Connexions, is currently looking for young people aged 11 – 19 interested in developing their skills in writing and/or performing poetry and other forms of literature.
We will be delivering weekly evening workshops that aim to develop young people’s skills and confidence; culminating in a major live show next spring and the possibility of having their work in print. We offer one-to-one support for all participants. We will also be taking the group to various writing-based events in the city.
Our previous project proved to be a success, leading to a concert last May in which young people had the opportunity to perform their own material alongside famous MCs and poets as part of the Writing on The Wall Festival.
We know that Merseyside has a massive talent pool of young writers and performers. With this project we hope to hone that raw talent and provide a platform for them to build confidence, creativity, citizenship, and the chance present their work alongside professionals to a large audience.
We are particularly interested in any youth or community organisations that would like to be involved. We aim to engage young people ‘at risk’ from a number of factors, including:
* Bullying
* Social exclusion
* Anti-social behaviour/previous convictions
* Care/looked after child
* School exclusion (temporary or permanent)
* Not in education, employment or training
* Learning difficulties/physical disabilities
* Family difficulties
* Risk of homelessness
If you would like any further information, you can call us on 0151 703 0020 or email info@writingonthewall.org.uk.
http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk
Wayne Blackledge (Liverpool Young Writers Project Manager)
Madeline Heneghan (W.O.W. Coordinator)
Writing on The Wall
Mission hall
36 Windsor St.
Liverpool
L8 1XE
As part of our third Phrased & Confused outing, the hub is looking to commission four spoken word artists to create new material for our Phrased & Confused festival tent, which will be part of this year’s Summer Sundae Weekender in Leicester between 8-10th August. As many of you know, Phrased & Confused (www.phrasedandconfused.co.uk) explores the creative common ground between lyrics and spoken word, so we’re very excited to be part of one of the UK’s best boutique music festivals.
Each commission is worth £1000. In addition all our commissioned artists will receive a weekend pass for themselves and a guest plus camping space in the artist field and travel expenses to and from the festival. You’ll also receive a stand-alone video of your commissioned festival performance for you to use in your own promotional activity after the festival and the chance to workshop their material at a creative sharing day, facilitated by Stuart Silver, one half of Perrier Award winners, Noble and Silver. The artists we commission will be asked to create at least 15 minutes of new material, and be given the opportunity to perform it at least once at the festival.
We hope that these commissions will be provide a real professional development opportunity for the artists we select. One of Phrased & Confused’s primary aims is to develop audiences for spoken word, and we anticipate that around 2000 people – most of them new to spoken word – will visit the tent during the Festival. As such, the commissions will open up a whole new audience to our commissioned artists.
We’re hoping to get the word out about these commissions to as many interested people as possible – both artists themselves and other individuals who can maybe pass this information on to artists in their networks. Hopefully, you’re one such person, and can either make use of this information yourself, or forward it to artists you know.
The deadline for applications is the 11th June 2008 and you can find out more by either visiting our website or by downloading the Commission Pack by clicking here. If you have any questions or get stuck, please email us: info@phrasedandconfused.co.uk
Please see below calls for poets from Cat Davies from Re:Verberate, a
Manchester-based non-profit literature organisation. If you need further
info, please contact Cat directly at reverberatelit@hotmail.co.uk
“How Many Poets Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?
Myself and Tony Kinsella are looking for poets/comedians for a comedic
poetry record-setting attempt in order to raise money for the Teenage Cancer
Trust. To take place as part of the Manchester Comedy Festival this coming
October, the show will gather as many comedians and poets as possible
together to read for around 3 minutes each, though this will depend on the
final number of participants.
We want to set a new Guinness record for the most comedic poets to read in
one continuous performance in order to raise as much money as we can for the
charity. We need to get a sense of numbers of people who’d be up for it.
Even if you only perform a brief poem or do some part of your set that
includes one, or of you are in fact a poet, please get in touch. The only
pre-requisite is that you have read or performed before.
Every day in the UK, up to 6 teenagers or young adults (between the ages of
13 and 24) will find out they have cancer – that is approximately 2,100 new
cases a year. TCT do excellent work and is charity devoted to improving the
lives of teenagers and young adults with cancer. Their main focus is
building units in NHS hospitals specifically for teenagers with cancer that
provide an environment for them to meet others in a similar situation,
allowing them to build friendships and coping mechanisms. Each unit costs
upwards of £2 million each, and they want to build at least another fifteen
in order to offer access to every teenager. One of their aims is to
refurbish the local unit at The Christie.
Please email me at reverberatelit@hotmail.co.uk with your name and a contact
number, and any MySpace page links you have (as I’m setting up a MySpace
page a Facebook group for it) so that I can add you to the database. I will
get back to you, I promise.
Once we have a clearer picture of numbers, we’ll announce more info about
the date, venue, times, press, etc and keep you fully informed.
Please note, due to the nature of the venue, participant must be 18 or over.
Please spread the word.
Thanks
Cat Davies x