Author: Dave Pitt

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Caldmore Open Mic

This afternoon, as part of our series of events bringing poetry to Caldmore Community Gardens, we held an open mic event for anyone who wanted to share their poems (especially ones on the theme of nature). It was a cold, grey October day, but we had twenty-five people turn up. Not too shabby!

Our thanks to MC Gracey Bee, to Jane Flint Bridgwater for some wonderfully atmospheric harp music, to Anna, Anna, and Estelle for the coffee, cakes, and samosas, and to everyone who shared their work. It was great to hear so many different voices – and to have people say how much our series of workshops has helped build their confidence in their writing. That’s a huge result in our book!

The next Caldmore workshop? Sunday 20th October, when we’ll be writing poems and doing a seed swap. Bring seeds from your garden, take some new ones back with you. See you there!

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PASTA September 2024

Whenever you return to a gig after a bit of a break for the Summer you always wonder if it will have a negative impact. Will everyone have suddenly discovered a new poetry night which is split into two halves with the first half being on a theme and the second half being on any subject and all held together with shambolic professionalism? It’s possible. We imagine there are thousands out there. Somewhere.

If there are, it didn’t have a negative effect. What a night! As always a wide mix of voices took their turns to entertain what we’re sure is one of our biggest PASTA audiences ever. It didn’t matter if it was juxtaposing football with a new term at Uni, talking about a dream world where writing is financially viable or expert use of the word “protozoa” – we had big laughs, rich language and provoked thoughts. 

Now I don’t want to bring the vibe down, but you know the Pandemic? It was bonkers, wasn’t it? So it was nice to not only see some new faces trying their hand but also seeing some old faces us PPPers hadn’t seen since the “before times” of a pre-pandemic world. We miss your faces. We hope you’ll be back.

As always, seeing those people who trust the event enough to make it the first time they read their work in front of an audience proves we’re doing something right. And it also shows how nice and supportive you all are as an audience. 

Thinking about it, it’s amazing there aren’t thousands of nights like this. People obviously want this stuff. Then again, maybe it’s because in that place, with these people, there’s a bit of magic happening you can’t get elsewhere. 

Whatever makes the magic next month will be worth a punt. If you want to pop along it’s 15th October at The Arena Theatre and the theme is “BUSES” or maybe “BUZZES” if you’re Black Country.

Dave Pitt
18th September 2024

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Ironbridge Slam – September 2024

It was an incredible Ironbridge Slam 2024 yesterday. A lovely venue and an almost impossible job for the judges. Top notch poetry and performance all afternoon until we finally crowned our winner Brenda Read-Brown. With David Braziel in 2nd place and Ryan Kenny in 3rd. Thanks to everyone who joined us, to the venue for being such wonderful hosts and the techs who made everything go seamlessly.

See you next year.

And if you enjoyed the music played before the event and during the interval…

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Scary PASTA

When the theme was choosen for PASTA in March and it came out as “Scary Panda” I can’t have been the only one who thought, “Oh! That will be tough.” But one thing PASTA always brings out is a level of creativity which is varied, sublime and astonishing.

A close up of a microphone with theatre seats in the background blurred out. Text at the top reads, "PASTA. Poets and Storytellers Assemble" On the right, next to the microphone are the words "This month's theme: SCARY PANDA " At the bottom are the words, "Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton. wlv.ac.uk/arena Tuesday 19th March 2024. 7.30pm. Free Entry" Also in the bottom right is an AI generated image of a scary panda. The prompt was "A scary panda but in a fun and cartoony style. if you can have them chasing a poet through a bamboo field then even better." It's done a pretty good job to be fair but that was down to the quality of the prompt.

So yes we had work on scary pandas, and scary Panda-monialists and creatures in general. Then in the second half everyone stretched their wings (or would a more suitable metaphor be “puffed up their fur”) and the mix of subjects, voices and emotions was immense.

It’s great to see how PASTA has grown over time and the variety of faces and experiences which are coming through our little night.

The truth is, when you dare to assemble poets and storytellers you shouldn’t really be surprised at the magic which comes out and it always does. We’ll see you in June.

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Wolves Lit Fest

As a new year races into our vision like an excitable puppy it’s time for PPP to start preparing for Wolverhampton Lit Fest. Since its inception we’ve run events as part of the festival and this year is no exception.

It all starts for us on Saturday 3rd February 2024 when we curate the Fringe Room taking placein the Arena Theatre. All five performances are pay-as-you-feel and it starts off with a trio you might have heard of. Yes, we kick off the event with our Pass the Poetry Parcel show.

Then, rather than rest and go to the pub we instead bring you another four shows from Tina
Sederholm, Dan Webber, Rose Condo and duo Willis the Poet and Ben Moore. We also have the Poetry Competition Winners Showcase event at 4.30pm in the same building. If you get there early you technically don’t need to leave the building for six hours so bring your slippers.

After a quick break we then run (well, amble gracefully) over the road to the Art Gallery for the Stars of the Slam event. Jemima Hughes, Matt Jones, Kieren King, Chloe Jacquet and Colin Wells have all earned their place in poetry folklore by winning slams somewhere on this isle and we’re putting them in a single place, at a single time for your enjoyment. All for a fiver. It’s like inflation never happened.

Then the poetry Gods allow us to sleep for a few hours before returning to the Art Gallery on Sunday for the Writers’ Hub. From 11am to 6pm a bevy of local writers’ groups have some time to share their work. All the events are free. Jonathan Davidson from Writing West Midlands will also have a stall at the event for you to find out more about the work WWM do in the region. It’s yet another day you might want to bring your slippers.

And finally on Friday 9th February we have the now legendary Wolverhampton Lit Fest Poetry Slam. Again we’re at the Arena. Tickets are £12 and you can even watch on the livestream if you want to sit in your own home in your slippers. PPP Slams are always special events and the Wolves Lit Fest slam is the specialest of the special. Our hometown slam, in what is usually a packed theatre. Get your tickets sharpish because this can sell out.

With all that buzz, it’s no wonder the puppy is so excited. We hope to see you at one or more (or all!) of the events.

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Ironbridge Festival poetry competition results

The results for this year’s Ironbridge Festival poetry competition are now out. Congratulations to our winner, Helen Kay, and all other winning and shortlisted poets. Our thanks to our judge, Pat Edwards, and to every single poet who entered. We wish you all the very best with your submissions to other competitions in future. You can read the full list of winners and shortlisted poets here: https://pandemonialists.co.uk/ironbridge-poetry-competition-2023/

If you’re in and around Ironbridge next Sunday (October 15th) we’re holding a prizewinners’ event at Coalbrookdale Community Centre, from 11.30am, where some of the winning poets will be reading their poems, Pat Edwards will say a few words about the judging process, and poets who submitted to the TF postcode part of the competition will also have the opportunity to read. Entry is free, and everyone is welcome to come along and listen. We hope to see you there!

best wishes
PPP

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October Yes We Cant

We are excited to announce the news that on Sunday October 1st we’ll be having our first ever hybrid Yes We Cant. Our flagship poetry night has been a purely online event since the pandemic, but we’re dipping our toes back into the real-world water, and heading back to Walsall to for an evening which will be both online and in the delightful physical space that is Asgard Games.

Whether you want to join us via Zoom or be with us at Asgard, we’d love you to come along and be part of this. Our headliner for the night will be the outrageously hilarious Ben Davis, while our ‘Alf Ender will be Tina Cole. There’ll be ten open mic places, there’s good ales, and the night remains – as ever – a pay-as-you-feel event.

With this being our first-ever  attempt at running a hybrid event, we need to run through a bit of housekeeping so we all know what to expect….

1. At this event, Zoom attendees will purely be able to watch and listen to what’s happening, as well as interact with PPP via the chat function. We know this isn’t ideal, but we’re learning how to do this as we go along, and hope to build on what we can do over time. We’re also going to find out just how easy/difficult it is to work an event which is online and in a physical space, so if there are any hiccups, do please bear with us.
2. This means that on October 1st all ten open-mic spaces will be available to folk who are physically present at Asgard Games. Again, this is something we hope to be able to change as we learn what’s involved, and what tech we might need, but it’s baby steps for now.
3. We promise you great poetry, a range of voices, and a top night’s entertainment. Yes We Cant at Asgard will be just as good as ever. If you want a Zoom space, get in touch. If you’re coming along to the venue on the night, just turn up. And whichever you’re doing, please tell your friends. Thank you.

See you there!

best wishes
PPP

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PPP Poetry Competition Winners Announced

We’re pleased to announce the winners, shortlisted poets and commended poets in the PPP Poetry Competition 2023. The standard was exceptionally high and praise needs to go to everyone who submitted but particularly those who made the shortlist. All the details are on the competition webpage along with the top three poems.

On top of that we have raised a fantastic £851.77 to help support the work of The Good Shepherd in Wolverhampton.

Well done everyone.

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Not Quite So Bost.

So after yesterday’s catastrophic server collapse we seem to be kind of back up and running. We can’t guarantee everything will be fine until another 36 hours have passed while the Internet does its thing but if you’re seeing this then the news is good.

I (Pitt) am trying to get content back on the site as we need it but I’m keen to use this disaster to either have a spring clean or do a full redesign of the site. When PPP meet next week a decision will be made.

For a laugh I went onto ChatGPT and gave it a break from writing everyone’s essays and asked it this:

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My website blew up because of a freak lion related incident in Norway of all places. Can you write me a short blog post explaining to the four people who use our site (hello Mom by the way) about what happened and how we’ll be fully back up and running soon.

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What it produced was this:

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Title: Unexpected Lion Incident in Norway Causes Temporary Website Disruption

Hey there, loyal readers and dear Mom! We wanted to take a moment to explain the recent unexpected turn of events that temporarily disrupted our beloved website. Brace yourselves because this story takes an unexpected twist involving lions—yes, lions in Norway!

So, picture this: Norway, a picturesque country known for its stunning fjords, breathtaking landscapes, and charming culture. It’s not exactly the place you’d expect to encounter a lion, right? Well, neither did we!

On a seemingly ordinary day, a group of circus performers was transporting a traveling circus through Norway. Unbeknownst to anyone, one of the lion cages accidentally opened during transit, releasing a rather startled and probably equally confused lion into the wild Norwegian countryside.

You might be wondering, what on earth does a Norwegian lion have to do with our website? Well, as luck would have it, the lion, being a modern and tech-savvy feline, stumbled upon a satellite dish, which happened to be the primary source of internet connectivity for our website. In an unexpected twist of fate, the curious lion’s curiosity led to a series of unfortunate events that resulted in our website going offline temporarily.

We know what you’re thinking: “How does a lion cause a website to go offline?” Well, dear readers, we pondered over that question too. As it turns out, the lion’s mighty paws caused a chain reaction, leading to a cascading series of mishaps involving cables, power lines, and, of course, the satellite dish. The end result? Our website was temporarily left in the digital darkness.

But fear not, dear readers! We’re happy to inform you that our dedicated team of web experts, together with local authorities and some truly brave lion tamers, successfully resolved the situation. The adventurous lion has been safely recaptured and returned to its rightful place in the circus.

As we speak, our web development team is working tirelessly to get our website back up and running at full speed. We understand that you, our dear readers (especially you, Mom), have eagerly awaited our content, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused during this unexpected downtime.

We promise you that we’ll be back stronger than ever. Our team is implementing robust measures to prevent any future lion-related incidents from impacting our online presence. Soon, you’ll once again be able to enjoy our engaging articles, helpful guides, and entertaining stories that have made our website a favorite among the four of you.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all our readers for their patience and understanding during this unusual circumstance. Your unwavering support means the world to us, and we can’t wait to resume delivering the content you love.

Thank you, dear readers, and thank you, Mom, for your continuous support. Stay tuned for more exciting updates and get ready to dive back into our website very soon!

Yours faithfully,

[Your Name] The Dedicated Team at [Your Website Name]

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Now while you might be impressed I’d like to point out I said “short” blog post. That’s not short. That’s long.

Stupid ChatGPT.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, website. Up. Kind of. More stuff coming. Soon. Might look different. Might not. Lions.

Much love

Pitt