This morning the storm clouds were still hanging around, probably wondering if it was worth going anywhere when they are due back on Thursday.
Lots of spoken word and music events happening: it must be summer, even though the weather doesn’t agree. Worcestershire Lit fest is on NOW; Ledbury Poetry Festival starts at the end of June –MWC will be at Ledbury’s Seven Stars Pub on Wednesday 4 July (free!) and MWC’s Jim Denning (wot is a proper poet ‘n’ all) will be reading on Thurs 5 July, too (tickets from the Festival Box Office); plus LOADS more fantastic stuff.
My first visit to Buzzwords Poetry in Cheltenham last week and it was fantastic: a very welcoming, creative, enthusiastic atmosphere. Emma Purshouse (I have one of her poems on my fridge door) and Peter Wyton were superb guides into the world of performance. Slam tip: don’t think of winning or losing; think of it as three minutes to showcase your work. If you make it into the second round or even the final those are additional showcase minutes.
Buzzwords is organised by Angela France and I’d been eager to get there ever since meeting her at Jo Bell’s Wye workshop weekend. At Buzzwords I met Alison Brackenbury for the first time and she kindly suggested I send my Leveson parody of Belloc’s Tarantella to Snakeskin zine. The editor emailed me back within hours to say he’d enjoyed it but wouldn’t be able to put it in the mag until autumn, so might he put it on their blog now, while it’s still topical? So HERE it is.
On Wednesday this week I’m hoping to make it to Kidderminster for The Vaginellas’ first show. I shall take appropriate verse in the hope of bagging a juicy open mic slot (she says, euphemistically).
Too much going on to keep track of everything let alone manage to get to everything. Bad but in a very good way.
Fox Unkennelled - Myfanwy Fox 
I don’t spose you have any of MY poems on your fridge door…
Perhaps lining the litter pan?… :p
Heavens, no, Ron. I wound’t dream of treating your verses like that. I am gutted you might think so.
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We have a dog. She’s house trained.
Love those photos, Myfanwy, and the Belloc look-alike.
And, yes, that’s very sound advice from Emma and Peter about slams: from two leading exponents thereof.
Thank you, Marcus. Yes, it’s a good tip; thought-provoking way of thinking of slamming. I love reading/performing for an audience but I’m not convinced I could slam at all convincingly – or enjoyably. I shall leave that for the competative brave poets who are mad enough to find an adrenaline total overload pleasant. I shall try to get to the Ledbury slam to watch – such a good night’s entertainment on past expereince! See you soon.