What do you do when you retire from being a full-time swords swallower?
Cabaret meets theatre meets spoken-word poetry – by one of the UK’s most exciting and innovative performing artists. ‘Black Sheep’ is an autobiographical story about learning to love yourself.
Part of Homotopia 2023
The Spare Rib Burlesque and Cabaret invites you to join them Downstairs at the Everyman for their Christmas Winter Wonderland.
Who are The Spare Rib? The team consists of Minxie Coquette and Tilly Mint who have been working together since 2015 to bring you extravagant entertainment and uncompromising inclusion.
They strive to provide spaces that are safer and accessible for all. They are pro LGBTQIA+, Black, POC, d/Deaf and disabled, fat, immigrant, women, sex worker and other marginalised identities; and they will always be political until there is no longer a need to be.
18+ event
A Lovely Word, downstairs at the Everyman, is Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry night.
It features two halves of open mic poets, and a headliner beginning the first half. Hosted by Alex Ferguson and team, this free event is a fun, relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry.
HEADLINER
Claire Beerjeraz is a Liverpool based freelance Spoken Word Artist, Workshop Facilitator, and Creative Psychotherapist. Her writing focuses on the intersections of her own identity and issues placed within our society, combing creativity with activism. She strives to use her creative mediums for positive change, discourse, and healing.
Socials: @Clairebeerjeraz
A Lovely Word, downstairs at the Everyman, is Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry night.
It features two halves of open mic poets, and a headliner beginning the first half. Hosted by Alex Ferguson and team, this free event is a fun, relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry.
HEADLINER
Leilah King is a half-Iranian queer footballer and coach, mental health advocate, and stand-up poet.
She grew up in a rural town in Wales and started writing poetry in her teens. She enjoyed writing as an escape from her feelings of loneliness. She was not open about her sexuality, and her family were one of the few dual heritage families in the area, which compounded her sense of estrangement. Through her writing she could be authentic, sharing romantic poems about women. Leilah’s poetry evolved as she was inspired by her Iranian heritage and her time spent in Tehran and Shiraz, her mother’s home city. Leilah’s recent work is informed by her dual heritage and her experiences as a gender non-conforming queer woman. She examines how these identities intersect, balancing the expectations of her family of origin with her gender and sexuality.
Her debut poetry collection Midnight Picnics in Tehran was published by Burning Eye Books. Her new collection We Are Hungry for Androgyny is recently out with Polari Press.
She is the co-founder and host of an open mic night in Bristol called Time of the Month Open Mic, a performance space for female/trans/nonbinary/GNC performers.
“Politically in-your-face, but always authentic, always original, Leilah writes with intelligence, wit and nuance in precise and vivid language.”
Melanie Branton
“You never know what’s coming next, but you really, really want to take the leap and find out. A brilliant performer and sparky poet to fall in love with”
Malaika Kegode
TAKE PART
Whether you are a new poet performing for the first time or a seasoned poet who wants to try out some new stuff, sign up to perform by
I) emailing alovelywordpodcast@gmail.com with a confirmation of your full name, mobile number
II) turning up to the Bistro at 7.30pm for an 8pm start (slots are VERY limited so emailing is a preference)
When signing up to perform, you are signing up to these principles of the open mic.
Join award-winning comedian Sophie McCartney as she ventures into the perilous world of parenthood in this rollicking new stand-up show.
Sophie thought by the time she became a ‘proper’ grown up (someone who likes olives) life would all be figured out. How very wrong she was. Feeling like an out-of-depth-teen trapped in the slightly sagging skin suit of a 30-something mum-of-three, why did no one tell her what to really expect after she was expecting? Why do you need a degree in collapsing travel cots? And does she have what it takes to stop her current cereal eaters from becoming future serial killers?
Sophie is a comedy writer and performer from Liverpool. Her debut book Tired and Tested: The Wild Ride into Parenthood topped the Sunday Times’ bestseller list. She’s dubbed as Instagram’s funniest mum by Mother & Baby, won a prestigious Funny Women award, has racked up more than 250 million views on her social media channels, and is about to launch her debut fiction comedy novel Mother Hens.
The Spare Rib Burlesque and Cabaret invites you to join them Downstairs at the Everyman for a Halloween Hex-travaganza, featuring scarily good performances to keep you on the edge of your seats! Please note: This is an 18+ event.
With performers, Mx Cyanide, Miss Cocoa Amore, Shardeazy Afrodesiak, Lola Supernova, Fraulein Freyja, Ava Distraction, Ember Orchid, Minxie Coquette, and host Tilly Mint
Who are The Spare Rib?
The team consists of Minxie Coquette and Tilly Mint who have been working together since 2015 to bring you extravagant entertainment and uncompromising inclusion. They strive to provide spaces that are safer and accessible for all.
“We strive to provide spaces that are safer and accessible for all. We are pro LGBTQIA+, Black, POC, d/Deaf and disabled, fat, immigrant, women, sex worker and other marginalised identities; and we will always be political until there is no longer a need to be.”
Who are the performers?
Lola Supernova
Lola is an emerging burlesque artist that trained under the internationally acclaimed Lady Wildflower. She made her debut at Lady Wildflower’s ‘The Frou Frou club’ in March 2022 and has performed in various shows since. Lola is a trained dancer in variety of styles including contemporary, street and jazz and fire performance. By day she is a professional dance teacher with a BA honours degree in dance. She loves to step into the spotlight to enthral, entice and seduce her audience. @lolasupernova_
Miss Cocoa Amore
Erotic, hypnotic and just a little bit chaotic, Miss Cocoa Amore is sure to be your favourite tonic! Bringing you a mix of classical and neo burlesque, this chocolate temptress is a captivating sizzling ecdysiast sensation! Get ready to be lured in! @misscocoaamore
Ava Distraction
Fresh out of the burlesque womb after graduating House of Burlesque in 2022, Ava Distraction has taken her killer curves and quirky sense of humour to perform on some iconic UK stages. Burlesque Idol 2023 finalist after being crowned in January’s heat, sure to leave audiences on the edge of their seat and begging for more! Everyone needs a little distraction in their lives…. @ava_distraction
Fraulein Freyja
Dark as night and twice as dangerous, Fraulein Freyja’s tongue-in-cheek performances are the perfect outlet for this Satanic sl*t! @frauleinfreyja
Shardeazy Afrodesiak
Busting into the drag scene with no apologies, Shardeazy Afrodesiak uses their platform to express and deconstruct topics of race, gender and sexuality through music, dance, and fierce AF lip syncing! The mixed heritage, thicc, King n Ting is a powerful entity defying the rules of social and hetero norms!
First Runner up of Man Up! – Europe’s largest Drag King Competition – Shardeazy has exploded on stages all over the UK and internationally. @shardeazy_afrodesiak
Mx Cyanide
Mx Cyanide rose from the filth and showbiz of Soho’s underground burlesque scene and since then has been twisting the sexual with the perverse, political and painful for audiences across the world. Mx Cyanide is a proud transgender performer and lives to subvert what sensual burlesque ‘is’ and push it towards what it ‘can be’. They like to give the audience space to leave all preconceptions at the door. Creating intense ritualistic experiences with thought provoking twists and turns, their performance style is like no other. @mxcyanideifyourenasty
Please note: This is an 18+ event.
A Lovely Word, downstairs at the Everyman, is Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry night.
It features two halves of open mic poets, and a headliner beginning the first half. Hosted by Alex Ferguson and team, this free event is a fun, relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry.
HEADLINER
Reece Williams is a Mancunian recording artist of Jamaican and Trinidadian heritage. For over 10 years, Reece has been bringing his inimitable, no-holds-barred brand of wordsmithery to stages up and down the country (including Band On The Wall and The Southbank Centre) and internationally too (with performances in New York City’s Nuyorican Poets Café -the ‘temple’ of spoken word and the prestigious Schaubuehne in Berlin). His work has been played on BBC Radio 1, Radio 4 and 1 Xtra and he programmed an entire stage for Manchester International Festival’s Music lineup in 2021.
In November 2023, he will premiere ‘This Kind of Black’ his solo show at HOME, which is adapted from his upcoming debut collection of the same name.
TAKE PART
Whether you are a new poet performing for the first time or a seasoned poet who wants to try out some new stuff, sign up to perform by
I) emailing alovelywordpodcast@gmail.com with a confirmation of your full name, mobile number
II) turning up to the Bistro at 7.30pm for an 8pm start (slots are VERY limited so emailing is a preference)
When signing up to perform, you are signing up to these principles of the open mic.
In the Playhouse Studio.
A one-person comedy-cabaret based on interviews from drag performers in the local community. After falling into drag 5 years ago, gender bending performance art took Andrew on a path he never thought existed. After struggling with the rejection on the musical theatre audition circuit, he gave up, but found drag.
Performing in drag offered space to sing / say / wear what he wants, an empowering move giving the middle finger to casting brackets, but the journey has also been one of self-discovery. And as the world of drag comes under attack from false narratives in the media, he feels now is the time to tell the true struggles of being a drag performer.
With a script based on personal experience, mixed with real interviews from the local drag community, and entwined with original music, Andrews new show explores the highs and lows of a profession in which product comes before person, being forced to think harder about gender identity, navigating the world of dating when your job becomes your identity, toxic attitudes towards drag within the gay community and the journey of self-discovery as a man, a man who is only visible when he’s in a dress.
A fan of RuPauls Drag Race? Come and spend an hour observing the real vulnerabilities in a drag queens dressing room.
18+ | A post-show discussion will follow the performance.
Title photography by Luke Bryant.
Traces, Impressions and Digressions with Kerry Morrison
Saturday 23rd September, 10am – 4pm, Colliers Moss, Free
Artist Kerry Morrison investigates the landscape through drawing in this durational performance.
Regular Heart of Glass contributor, social-ecological artist Kerry Morrison invites you to join her for a day of performative drawing investigation in the landscape of ‘the Moss’. Kerry, equipped with scrolls of paper, charcoal and graphite will walk Colliers Moss, slowly and intently seeking out stories as left through impressions from the past and traces of the more-than-human.
Kerry’s actions, although performed with intent, will also be random and directed by her observations, conversations and people she meets along the way. Kerry welcomes visitors to watch her as she moves through the Moss and draws. She also welcomes conversations about the Moss with passers by. Snippets of these conversations might find their way into her drawings.
Peatland Walks
11am – 11.45am and 2pm – 3pm
Guided by the Peat Restoration group and Mersey Forest Ranger Dave McAleavy. We will interact with Kerry Morrison’s live performance en route.
About the Moss
Colliers Moss in St Helens features 130 hectares of developing and developed habitats on the spoil and waste heaps of Bold Colliery and Bold Power Station. Formerly known as Bold Moss, the site has a fascinating history, having for thousands of years been a raised bog that grew sphagnum moss, as well as heather and cotton grass.
Dead, compacted mossland forms peat and an industry was created in which turf cutters dug long trenches to remove the peat. The extracted turf blocks were then built into an array of thousands of pyramids – each measuring between three and twelve feet tall – in order for them to dry out. This was required as sphagnum mosses behave like sponges, holding an enormous amount of water.
In between the trench rows were tramlines that allowed ponies to pull slatted trams of peat turf to nearby sheds where ‘pressing’ took place. Once this process had been completed, the peat was sold as firelighters or animal bedding litter. This industry largely ended around WW1 and for forty years the site was a fertile natural habitat for wildlife.
Part of A Sense of Green. In partnership with The Mersey Forest.
We aim to create safe, welcoming and accessible spaces for all. If you’d like to discuss your access needs, please get in touch by contacting Heart of Glass via info@heartofglass.org.uk or call Anna on 07529224271.
Access information for Colliers Moss:
Accessible by car and train (nearest station St Helens Junction – 20 minutes walk) with no parking on site*
Please note there are no toilets on site at Colliers Moss. The nearest toilets are a 15 minute walk away at Derbyshire Hill Family Centre
*For those with access needs, please let us know before 23rd September, and we can arrange for parking on site.
Luverly! Stephen K Amos is back with a brand new show, after treading the boards of London’s West End in the smash hit musical My Fair Lady, playing the iconic role of Alfred P. Doolittle.
What a mad couple of years it’s been! How did you get through it all? Stephen’s solution… find the funny. The opportunity in the crisis, the joy in the sadness, the wisdom of fools, after all comedy equals tragedy.
Join him for an hour of solid jokes and guaranteed belly laughs. Fresh from a sell-out tour in Australia and the US and as seen on BBC2’s QI and Pilgrimage: The Road to Rome, ABC TV’s The Project and BBC1’s Live at the Apollo. So what are you waiting for? He’s awfully good!