A city of 300,000 and no sign of any gigs. Does anyone know if there has ever been any here or do I find myself in a poetry desert and the closest being 120 miles away in Bristol.

Sam K

Hi Sam,

if you read this in time I'd highly recommend going to the Barbican Theatre for 'Forked' at 8pm on 15th Jan 09.
Their publicity says it'll be ; "A new night of spoken word to inspire, delight and provoke! Featuring wicked words from Salena Godden, whose witty and wonderful performances bring a punk spirit to the poetry scene; beautiful, affecting lyricism courtesy of Aoife Mannix and "a brilliant confusion of words and images" from Paul Marshall.
As if that wasn't enough we also have a warm welcome from resident host and soul jazz floozy Mama Tokus."

This event is run by Apples and Snakes who have a Southwest division based in Plymouth. They are primarily a performance poetry and spoken word promoting organisation, but they are 'poetry' and are in Plymouth.
You can get in touch with them at this email address:
mel(at)applesandsnakes.org

The Poetry Can website (www.poetrycan.co.uk) has an events page where we try and include poetry events around the South West (if we're informed about them) so that may be a place to find out if any poetry's happening in Plymouth. The site also has a 'poetry writing groups' section in the directory, that includes 'Plymouth Writing Circle'.

But as Cayn says: If you can't find what you want, start a group yourself.

cheers

Hi Sam

Pete beat me to it. Mel at Apples and Snakes is great and would love to hear from you.

I think she's based in Plymouth but her patch is huge. It's her job to support poets and new nights etc. There's the event on the 15th and John Berkavitch (check him out) is there on the 16th . I think she's looking to book regular events.

Cheers

Tony

Hi Sam (and thanks Pete and Tony!)

I'm South West Programmer for Apples & Snakes and am actually based in Plymouth, turning it from a poetry desert into a glorious oasis of words one gig at a time (!)

We have another event coming up on Thursday 19 March, 8pm: Forked at the B-Bar (Barbican Theatre) featuring Chris 'Ventriloquist' Redmond, Phil Bowen and Rosy Carrick. If you want more information please do give me a shout through the Apples & Snakes website. Hope to see you soon!

Mel