Friends, roamers, festivalgoers! Lend your ears and wend your way wordwards to the Poetry&Words Tent, a Glastonbury tradition heard first in a yurt in 1992, nurtured fifteen years in the Green Futures Field, where it now blossoms into a non-stop performance platform for all manner of mouthy poets, from the emerging & exciting to the esteemed & established.
Poets are travelling here from Ireland, Scotland and all countries in between for an oral extravaganza introduced this year by legendary Stroud printer-poet Dennis Gould, who long ago inspired & accompanied Poetry&Words' behind-the-scenes guru PVT West, wandering Worthy Farm's fields together as Riff Raff Poets, creating audiences here and there and everywhere.
Will Andy Craven Griffiths (Urbanian Quarter) win back his 2005 Slam Champion title?
Not since the 1995 Slam! has anyone won two years running. Come along and help decide the outcome.
Will you be able to resist the street theatre wiles of the Poetry Controllers on our frontage?
AMONG THOSE PERFORMING FOR YOUR AURAL DELIGHT ARE:
JIM CARRUTH
Based in: Renfrewshire.
The man who wanted to hug cows! Scotland's leading rural poet, an activist and farmer whose poems are "moving testaments to a fragile way of life".
DENNIS JUST DENNIS
Commissioned to cover the premiership, FA and World Cup for BBC radio since 2005; granted permission to perform a poetic political protest outside No. 10
''
"The best football poet I have ever heard" - John Cooper Clarke
"Reminds me of The Scaffold" - David Plat (BBC 5 Live)
__http://myspace.com/dennisjustdennis__
EBELE
Based in: London
Earthy, quirky, surreal, playful Nigerian-brown Londoner who loves hugs, rainbows & mangoes that go "Oh", & in her 7th lifetime would like to be a dancer, a tree or a seahorse
CLAIRE FAUSET of CORPORATE WATCH
Based in: Leeds
Claire: radical supergirly, two parts fizz to one part fury, firing sharp inspiring poetry drawn from her life as an activist and sure to make you want to join her on the barricades
Corporate Watch's radical, ranty and irreverent new poetry anthology 'This Poem is Sponsored By..Poems in the Face of Corporate Power' described by George Monbiot as "dark, subversive, thrilling and transgressional poems".
__http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk__
AIME HANSEN
Based in: London
Calls herself "a theatrical poet", because she likes to use acting skills, story telling and characterisation to present her poetry. Different characters hide in her handbag. Originally from Estonia, which she describes as "a tiny country near Sweden, half-surrounded by the Baltic sea", adding "Perhaps this is why (she) also loves to write poetry about the sea as she finds that sea is one of the most mysterious and fascinating elements of nature"
"chases the mysteries of life and admires the marvels of the universe"
BOB HARDING-JONES
Comedian, Poet, Storyteller, Writer who has entertained villages countrywide with his one-man show "Laughter in the Village"
"excels with hilarious town and country everyday-life observations ... crackles with wit, sparkles with humour and guarantees to lift your spirits"
__http://www.bobharding-jones.co.uk__
OZ HARDWICK
Based in: York
Writer, photographer and occasional musician
"A strong and articulate voice with compassion and humour ... (his) ear for rhythm is consistently persuasive" - Envoi
"poems which beautifully capture life's little moments" - The Talk
__http://www.ozhardwick.co.uk__
THE HONEY TONGUES
Based in : Devon
Lucy Lepchani & Mim Darlington are two rising, prize-wining poets who invite you to let languid language lull you into lush landscapes and hear rhymes to raise or rip your heart. Lucy's Ballad of Chelsea Flower Show won first prize in that event's poetry competition in 2005
"Wonderful - as good as Kipling!" - Alan Titchmarsh, celebrity gardener, author and TV presenter
"sensual, exciting performers" - Caroline Wilson, chair of Moor Poets, Devon community poetry network
"life-affirming, vibrant poetry" - Matt Harvey, poet and broadcaster
ELVIS McGONAGALL - “one man and his doggerel”
Based: near Dundee
Stand-up poet, armchair revolutionary and recumbent rocker, Elvis McGonagall is the sole resident of The Graceland Caravan Park somewhere near Dundee where he scribbles verse whilst drinking malt whisky, listening to Johnny Cash and throwing heavy objects at his portable telly. Elvis is the 2006 World Slam Champion, the compere of the notorious Blue Suede Sporran Club and one of the poets occasionally in residence on BBC Radio 4’s “Saturday Live”.
Elvis is the Festival’s first Website Poet in Residence. He will be giving progress reports and treating us to some of his poems composed on site.
“If poetry is the new rock ‘n roll then Elvis….is Elvis” - Steve Larkin, Hammer & Tongue
MILBURGA
__http://www.milburga.co.uk__
MILO
Based in: Bristol
Black English actor and writer - of short stories, speeches and screenplays as well as poems - with a personal, unorthodox, visual style and direct postmodern appeal. Frequently invited in to BBC Radio Bristol to perform his latest ideas, he's a regular slam poetry performer, and the Empire & Commonwealth Museum's current Breaking the Chains exhibition features a film of his poem 'Me Da Ya'.
MARTY MULLIGAN
Based in: Mullingar
One of Ireland's most high-profile and highly-rated poets, and an award-winning slam performer
"show stopper, jaw dropper, funny fecker, head wrecker, inspiration bringer, straight-talking word slinger"
with CHELLEY McCLEAR
a founder member and secretary of the Belfast poets and instigator of "Love Poetry Hate Reason"
PJ (POETRY JACK)
Based in: Bristol
Takes a gritty & lyrical, witty & satirical look at the realities of dyke life
SHAGUFTA K. IQBAL
Based in: Bristol
She's a fluent speaker of Punjabi & Urdu, a Bath Uni graduate English & Creative Studies in English, working as
a Research Assistant for live performance organisation Poeticize. Last year she was not only Poet in Residence for Asian Arts Agency, Poetry Can and City Academy, but also organiser of the Lyrical Miracles arts showcase.
HELEN SHAY
Based in: Yorkshire
Northern soul meets Yorkshire grit in this "pint sized poet with a good head". Solicitor, poet and dramatist, legal eagle turned poetry hawk ... comic twists and moving poetry with a raunchy kick.
"brings a pungent scent of ancient magic to the telling moments of ordinary life" - Joolz Denby
TALKING TEKLA THE NARRATA
Based in: Trowbridge, Wiltshire
"Talking Tekla the Narrata
The performing story-teller
Want a story to be told
Send for Talking Tekla
Words tender and bold
Here comes the Narrata
Words of Pleasure
Talking Tekla"
TEAM VAGINA with Eve Ensler's award-winning play The Vagina Monologues
Let Bristol's Team Vagina take you on a bold, hilarious and deeply moving journey into the world of female sexuality. Janie Digby writes:
"We are a tight-knit and devoted group who approach life and art with a smile and wild enthusiasm!"
__http://www.vday.org__
__http://www.myspace.com/vdaybristol__
THICK RICHARD
As seen at The Big Chill 2005, The Latitude Festival 2006, and The Wicker Man Festival 2005-06, Matthew Duffy & Bob Moyler were last on stage at Glastonbury in 2004, going on to win a 4-star Scotsman review at Edinburgh, to be the first poets to perform at the Reading Festival in 2006, and to be heard on national radio.
THE URBANIAN QUARTER
The self-proclaimed A Team of performance poetry, a quartet formed at Glastonbury's Poetry&Words Tent in 2005.
Andy Craven-Griffiths
Current Glastonbury Slam champion
__http://www.andycraven-griffiths.com__
Polar Bear
"Birmingham's own lyrical arctic carnivore ... rhymical tales from a no-nonsense perspective"
__http://www.polarbearpoet.com__
Inua 'Phaze' Ellams
"Currently trying to riff"
__http://www.phaze05.com__
John Berkavitch
breakdancer/beat-boxer/hip-hop theatre practitioner
__http://www.johnberkavitch.com__
BYRON VINCENT
Based in: Bristol
"Who'd've thought a career in literature could be spawned from a shoplifted rhyming dictionary and the necessity to pay off physically zealous debtors. With poems such as Kevin's an 'erbert and Never buy drugs at a festival amongst his repertoire, Byron's subversive brand of barking doggerel has taken the UK slam poetry scene by storm and kicked it until it's handed over its wallet."
"Byron's poetry skips effortlessly between rhythmical proletarian poignancy and cutting leftfield humour. His verse carries us through his experiences of growing up within the limitations of sink estate subculture. Whilst somehow leaving space to touch on love, hedonism and, er, giant satanic hamsters."
"A consummate performer, achingly funny. He;s the brightest new star on the block" - Heidi Stephenson, Apples and Snakes
"Like a bad ass version of Roger McGough .. he's clever, witty, a cut above your average chav" - Rosemary Dun, Big Mouth Poetry
"Looks and sounds like he could easily of stumbled off an Arctic Monkeys tour bus"'' - Bristol Evening Post
__http://scan.lusu.co.uk/index.php?a=623__
TONY WALSH
Based in: Manchester
Poetic, empathic and comedic in equal measure, a multiple slam winner with quality in variety, sharp satire and sensuous smut
MICHAEL WILSON
Bisexual, bipolar, bilingual, by accident ... his work is full of broken hearted melancholy, broken fisted rants and broken headed hedonism
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