Every now and then, we get to meet people who are doing incredible and important work, and making a real difference to people’s lives. Last Wednesday was one of those times. Why? Because we visited Base 25 in Wolverhampton city centre.
Base 25 is a remarkable space offering much-needed support to young people across Wolverhampton, and their Head of Service, Alan Jarvis, had invited us along to see what he and his team do. In any calendar year, they work with and support up to 9000 young people, helping them shape their lives and reach their potential. As we say, it’s vital, life-changing, important work, and it was both a pleasure and a privilege to meet the team who are so dedicated to it.
The visit also gave us the opportunity to tick another item off our collective bucket list – because of the generosity of those people who came along to our events in 2024, we’d been able to donate £355.27 to Base 25, and one of the reasons we’d been asked to visit was so that we could have our photo taken to mark this. Not just any photo, either. A photo with a giant cheque, because who doesn’t love a giant cheque? Achievement level unlocked. Thanks, Alan and team. Get in!
Yesterday we headed over to Walsall, and went to our first ever wassail, at Caldmore Community Garden. If you’re wondering what a wassail is – and we had only the vaguest idea before yesterday – it’s a traditional event held at this time of year during which apple trees are ceremonially awoken, and bad spirits scared away, after which everyone gathers round a campfire to warm up, possibly by drinking mulled cider because January can be bitterly cold (and in this case, was).
We were also in Caldmore to celebrate the launch of the garden’s poetry trail. Over the autumn, we’ve led a series of workshops – funded by Black Country Touring – encouraging people to visit the gardens and have a go at writing poems about the natural world they see around them. It’s been a lot of fun, which prompted the creation of some truly beautiful work. Job done. Or, as it turned out, not quite done. Inspired by the poems they’d seen created, the staff at the garden decided that some of the pieces should be displayed in a poetry trail and become a permanent feature in this urban oasis.
There are now more than seventy poems squirrelled around Caldmore Community Garden, and everybody who participated in the workshops will see their work represented there. If that doesn’t warm your cockles on a cold January evening, we don’t know what will.
Last night, just five days into the year, we held our first poetry event of 2025. Yes We Cant, on Zoom. And because we were still stumbling out of the festive season, stuffed with mince pies and awash with Baileys and mulled wine, we had a collective read-around, with everyone getting the opportunity to read a piece of their work. That meant twenty-four different voices, all sharing their words to an appreciative audience. It’s the beauty of poetry. It’s what we love about what we do.
It also gave us the opportunity to share some good news. Each calendar year, PPP chooses a local charity to support. We do this because we believe poetry doesn’t – and shouldn’t – exist in a bubble, but needs to be involved in its local community. Over the course of the year, we raise money for the charity by putting a small self-imposed tax on our own work, but also by pooling all the shrapnel left from our events over the course of the year once our feature poets have been paid. The generosity of the folk who attend our nights is key to this scheme’s success.
In 2024, our chosen charity was Base 25, and we’re delighted that we raised a total of £355.27 to support their work with young people in Wolverhampton. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who came along to our events last year and threw money in the virtual hat – you made this possible. You’re stars, every one of you.
Our charity for this year is going to be Hands 2 Help U, which is a food bank, clothing bank, and one-stop resource doing incredible work in our part of the Black Country. Thank you in advance for helping us to help them.
Ten days till 2024 bids us farewell, and it only seems like yesterday that we were making grand plans about what we’d do this year…. The other night, over a few beers, we scribbled down a list of everything we actually managed to do over the past twelve months. It’s pretty impressive (if we say so ourselves).
Yes We Cant (that’s our monthly poetry night, if you didn’t know) celebrated its 7th birthday in June – Liz Berry headlined! – and is still an online event. One of our priorities in 2025 is finding a venue with full disabled access and excellent wi-fi so we can start running in-person hybrid events. Watch this space for more news on that.
We’ve also kept serving regular helpings of PASTA (our open-mic night) at Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton. Between that and Yes We Cant, we reckon we’ve provided at least two hundred open-mic opportunities over the year. You couldn’t ask for a better snapshot of the health of our local grass-roots poetry scene!
On top of that, we’ve run poetry slams in Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, and Ironbridge. We’ve worked on poetry projects with Good Shepherd in Wolverhampton, and Caldmore Community Gardens in Walsall, and offered Poetry on Demand at BlackBerry Fair in Shropshire. We took Wolverhampton poets up to Morecambe Poetry Festival for a showcase (they smashed it), and this autumn we set up a new writers’ group in Willenhall which is already going from strength to strength.
Away from poetry – but very much in touch with our passion for championing our region – we ran an oral history project about the Tavern in the Town rock pub in Wolverhampton, collecting stories and anecdotes and memories, working with photographer Nicole Lovell, distributing 2000 copies of a free newspaper, and putting on an exhibition in Wolverhampton city centre. All the material we collected is now with Wolverhampton City Archives, but you can see what we did here.
We’ll be winding down a little over the festive period, but never quite stopping. We’ve entries to the Wolves Lit Fest poetry comp to log – that closes as the year ends – while on Boxing Day we’ll be drawing names out of the PPP Hat of Poetry Chance to see who’s going to be part of the Wolves Lit Fest slam. If you fancy taking part, you’ve got till midnight on Xmas Eve to get in touch. Oh, and tickets for the slam make excellent Xmas presents, if you’re in the market for last-minute shopping.
The festival itself runs from 31 Jan – 2 Feb and has a host of great events (we’re delighted that Hollie McNish gig is already sold out!). We’ll be there all weekend, running the Fringe Room, putting on Stars of Slam, and looking after the Writers’ Hub. If you pop along (and why wouldn’t you?) be sure to come and say hallo.
Wishing you all the very best over the festive season, however you (do or don’t) celebrate it. And may 2025 be good to every last one of you. You deserve it.
December. We’re racing toward the fag end of 2024, so we kicked off the final month of the year with a burst of poetic activity. Well, why wouldn’t you?
The day started with two workshops at Wolves Art Gallery, in conjunction with their incredible ‘Painted Dreams’ exhibition. This recreates the original and groundbreaking 1907 exhibition of paintings and pastel drawings by artist Evelyn de Morgan – which was the first ever UK solo exhibition by a female artist – and it’s absolutely magnificent. If you haven’t already been to see it, you’ve got until early March, but don’t hang about, because you’ll want to visit more than once.
Our workshops invited participants to each create a piece of ekphrastic poetry in response to Evelyn de Morgan’s work, and we’re delighted to say that the poems they drafted clearly showed how much of an impact her paintings had on them. Our hope is that the finished poems will be available for visitors to the exhibition to read – hopefully by the time Wolves Lit Fest rolls around at the end of January. More news on that when we have it.
A quick dash home in the last of the daylight, a bite to eat, and it was time for our last Yes We Cant of the year. Reader, what a belter it was! Our open mic poets excelled themselves; ‘Alf Ender Sarah L Dixon entertained with poems in praise of 90s indie music; and our headliner Kim Moore presented us with the gift of new and astounding poems from her forthcoming book. Yes We Cant is always a highlight of our month, but this one was exceptional. We couldn’t have asked to finish the year on a better note.
Now, we’ll be putting our feet up for a well-earned (and much-needed) rest. Our huge thanks and appreciation to everyone who’s supported and enjoyed our work over the course of 2024. We’ll be back again in 2025. If you need a poetry fix in the meantime, the Wolves Lit Fest poetry competition is open to entries until the end of the year (details on our website), and if you’re looking for a unique present for friends and family, then tickets for the 2025 Wolves Lit Fest poetry slam (trumpet-blowing alert: this is undoubtedly one of the best poetry slams around, so ignore it at your peril) are now on sale. You can get yours here.
From here on, we’ll be living the festive dream with lebkuchen, mistletoe, and mulled wine. What could possibly go wrong?
With Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists (PPP) I put on a lot of events, work with a lot of poets and therefore am always on the lookout for people that will be a good fit for the things that we do. We also suggest acts to organisations and festivals we work with (usually the ones we can’t afford to put on ourselves, but would like to see perform where we live ☺). So a good festival, with lots going on in one place, is always attractive. And my goodness, Morecambe is a good festival. It’s the second year that PPP have been in attendance.
I got there on the Thursday evening for the opening event, a low-key event in a brewery tap house. It was a chance to catch up with familiar faces and listen to Sarah L Dixon read from her new collection, based on a music fan’s experience of growing up in an indie music scene. We’re delighted that Sarah will be joining us as ’Alf Ender for our Christmas online Yes, We Cant. We haven’t announced our headliner for that evening as yet…but we’re very excited about who it is…suffice to say it’ll be a belter.
Friday daytime I attended a symposium on spoken word. It’s always useful to find out how people from other parts of the country are dealing with similar things to you. It seems the post-pandemic scene is not as it was in the before times, in part it’s due to lack of money, getting free accessible venues etc. There was agreement that lack of money to book headliners was impoverishing the scene and that though open mics are wonderful and necessary, so are events where people get to see established or emerging artists and are opened up to a wider understanding of what spoken word can be. The increasing costs of rail travel – and the unreliability of said travel – is prohibitive to getting headliners in when nights only have a small budget. How do we address that? Answers on a postcard, please.
Next up was Rowan McCabe, who performed his Door-to-Door Poet show. It was exceptional. I loved it from start to finish. It was upbeat and funny, moving too. Rowan is a fantastic performer and a very likeable character. It’s definitely a show/performer that PPP would like to book somewhere down the line.
In the evening, I watched Mike Harding in The Winter Gardens. This was a good event, very enjoyable, in an incredible venue which is in the process of being restored. The Friday night shenanigans carried on with Henry Normal and then Attila the Stockbroker in the Kings Arms, where the party went on until 2am.
Like most festivals, it’s hard to do everything you want to. There aren’t clashes as such, just wall to wall poetry, so I recommend scheduling breaks, and picking and choosing what you’re going to see – even if you’re a complete poetry party animal.
Saturday started at noon with an open mic. Another chance to see new faces, folk who are just starting out, and I’m always on the lookout for someone who’ll be the perfect fit for something we’re planning. Open mic finished, next up was Robin Ince. He was absolutely great. Which is a relief, as PPP have booked Robin for Wolves Lit Fest Fringe Room in 2025 (February 1st – put the date in your diary!)
One of our roles at Morecambe was to bring Midlands poets to the festival. We were delighted to give a platform to Kenton Samuels, Gracie Bee, and Priyanka Joshi. Three very different poets with very different styles, who were all brilliant. The audience was very receptive, there was a bit of dancing (courtesy of Gracey!), and there were whoops and cheers at the end of the hour. All three poets are featured in Offa’s Press ‘New Voices’ anthology, and the books sold out.
After that excitement I had a bit of a wander around – there are some lovely views and fantastic sculptures along the seafront – and got some food. It’s great to walk out of a venue and have Morecambe Bay to marvel at. Then it was back into the poetry fray once more…
I watched Donna Ashworth, currently the best-selling poet in the UK. Her brand of popular poetry took off on social media over lockdown. She was warm, consummately professional, held the audience in the Winter Gardens, and – judging by the queue of people buying books – Donna will have been very popular with her publishers since she appeared on the scene.
Next it was the turn of Alistair McGowan. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. What I got was a massively entertaining mix of impressions, anecdotes, and bloody good poetry. There was a sort of contemporary Betjeman quality to the work. He’d be on my wish list to book…although I imagine we’d need to whisper into the ears of festival directors to make that one happen. But you know…nothing ventured and all that.
Then I watched Raymond Antrobus over at the King’s Arms before heading back to the B&B. I’d never seen him before but had heard a lot about him. The room was rapt.
Sunday. Another open mic start to the day, which I enjoyed. But I was really there for Helen Ivory and Martin Figura. Martin is one of my favourite poets. I’ve seen him perform three times now, twice in person and once online (for Yes, We Cant). He was even better than I remembered. On fire, he was.
Helen read from her new book ‘Constructing a Witch’ published by Bloodaxe. The poems are beautifully crafted. They’re the kind of poems that you need to hear more than once. I bought one of the pre-launch copies, and I’ve been reading it ever since. It’s very, very good. Layers. Lots to think about. A very unique style.
I watched a few more poets during the afternoon, with a range of varied styles. It’s the great thing about a festival. There’s something for everyone. Kate Fox’s show was really interesting…so much to take in. I really, really want to see it again. Notes were made in the PPP notebook.
I’d also been looking forward to seeing Big Charlie Poet, who’d got a new book out. He was struggling with a cold. Not that you’d have known. He did a lovely, warm reading. PPP like Charlie’s work, so much so we’ve booked him…he’s on at this evening’s Yes, We Cant (checks watch…in approximately 20 minutes at time of writing!). Told you we’re always on the lookout.
By the time Pam Ayres was on at the Winter Gardens I was flagging, but she is utterly brilliant and soon I was feeling energised again. A natural, gracious, entertaining raconteur. I don’t know how she does it, but you feel like a friend is nattering to you over a table rather than that you’re sitting thirty rows back in a theatre. She just draws you in. Funny and fun. And again, watching the queue for books and selfies (which she was wonderfully game for), she’s probably pleasing her publishers as well as her fans.
I sloped off knackered after that. But the poetry party continued, and this year’s festival wound up with the Manky Mates’ tribute to the rare talent that was Jackie Hagan (RIP), who had performed so wonderfully at the festival last year supporting Roger McGough.
I had a few games of pool before going to bed. I hadn’t played since before the pandemic and the sight of a pool table was too much of a draw not to. Poetry and pool, two of my favourite things. And Morecambe did not disappoint.
Tomorrow, we’re at BlackBerry Fair in Whitchurch. This is one of our favourite events of the year – we spend all day sitting on a sofa at the side of the high street, writing bespoke poems for folk who’ve come along to enjoy and take part in the festival. Over the years, we’ve written dozens: for grandparents and grandchildren, pet dogs and pirates. We can’t say how much we love this – although that love has been tested in years when the weather’s been a bit grim. We get to chat with so many fascinating people, and we never know what we’re going to be asked to write about next. It may not be every poet’s cup of tea, but it’s definitely ours! If you’re there, pop by and say hallo.
On Sunday afternoon we’re back in the West Midlands, at Caldmore Community Gardens in Walsall, running an open mic to celebrate nature (and National Poetry Day). Gracey Bee is our MC, it’s free to attend, it’ll be fun and friendly, and there may well be samosas. If you’ve a poem you want to read, or just want to come along and listen, you’ll be very welcome.
And once that’s finished, we hotfoot it over to Zoom for October’s Yes We Cant. Our headliner this month is Jonathan Humble, the man behind Dirigible Balloon, and our ‘Alf Ender is Ash Bainbridge. All the open mic spots have been filled already, but there’s still time to join our audience. Get in touch if you fancy curling up on your sofa with some great poetry to round off your weekend.
Many years ago, when the world was still young [2018: ed] we found ourselves looking for an easily accessible listing of West Midlands poetry events, with all the necessary details for folk who might be interested in going along to them, and found… nothing. So we decided to do something about it, and – being cheeky wee scraps – we created our very own Mappa Mundi, listing all the events and venues we could. We still believe that in doing so, we corrected the appalling oversight in the original Hereford map, which – for all its qualities – is next to useless for poets.
Then Covid happened, live poetry took something of a back seat, and the need for our Mappa Mundi fell away. We put it in the back of a dusty cyber-drawer, and forgot about it. Almost. Finding ourselves with a little time on our hands this summer, we unrolled it, laid it out on a table, and set about updating it. It turns out that some of the poetry nights from our 2018 map are still flourishing. Others have disappeared. And there are a fair few new kids on the block, too, as the regional poetry scene evolves and changes, ebbs and flows.
You’ll find all of them here https://pandemonialists.co.uk/mappa-mundi/ There’s the wonderful image designed by artist Catherine Pascall Moore, which tips its hat at the Hereford Mappa, while all the poetry and spoken word events are on a slightly more modern and tech-friendly Google map. We’ve included nights which lie just outside the West Mids county too, because why not? Who wouldn’t fancy a trip to Worcester, or Ironbridge, or Hinckley to listen to poetry once in a while? And if you run a regular event we don’t know of, get in touch and we’ll add it to the listing.
The poets list on the map? We know that’s not up to date. And we’ll get round to revamping that at some point. But for now, use this list of events to get out there, listen to poetry, share your own, meet people, and keep this regional, grassroots arts scene thriving.
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…
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.
