Interest area: Literature

Margaret Atwood

Spend an illuminating evening with the bestselling, double Booker Prize-winning phenomenon that is Margaret Atwood, as she celebrates the publication of her new book, Old Babes in the Wood.

Live in conversation at this exclusive Liverpool event, Atwood will discuss her latest collection of stories, which explore the full warp and weft of experience – from two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, to the right way to stop someone from choking; from a daughter determining if her mother really is a witch, to what to do with inherited relics such as World War II parade swords.

Atwood will share the glorious range of her creativity and humanity, uncovering previously unpublished works about beloved cats, a confused snail, Martha Gellhorn, George Orwell, philosopher-astronomer-mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, a cabal of elderly female academics, and an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales.

With the opportunity to ask one of the most gifted storytellers in the world your own searching questions, this promises to be an unmissable and intimate evening with all of Atwood’s signature insight and razor-sharp wit.

The 2022 Lowry Lounge

75 years since Wirral-born Malcolm Lowry’s acclaimed Under the Volcano was published, and 65 years since his death, this year’s Lounge explores his continuing relevance.

The Lounge comprises presentations, discussions, films and sound recordings, including research project Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place, led by artist Alan Dunn that reimagines Lowry through the climate crisis; a recorded conversation with Alberto Rebollo from the annual Malcolm Lowry Colloquium held in Cuernavaca, Mexico; writer Helen Tookey’s reflection on Lowry’s ‘last notebook’, written in the Lake District; and a Lowry audience Q&A.

Tickets: £6/£5

The Third House – poetry reading...

The Third House: heartbreaker between love-mates of Yemeni and British identities, bilingual tongues and musical accents alive in a football fanatic terrace home of Liverpool, Toxteth.

Amina Atiq’s photogenic live-performance anthology lives between houses; inherited and existing national anthems; exploring her Arabness of fragmented memories in a dark-tender migration journey from a colonised Aden to 1960s Liverpool port.

This passage is a reimagination between her war-torn child- home and her conflicting Muslim identity in a western society after the heightened events of 9/11; shaping her adolescent political life. Underpinned by biographical key events and intergenerational exchanges, Amina impersonates a lifeguard to save her third house from drowning.

Accompanied by captioned short film of building bricks & henna fingertips. Film produced by Screen writer Eman Diab & Videographer Abdullrhman Hassona. Show supported & directed by Saphena Aziz.

Show duration
45 minutes

Ticket price
Pay What You Decide

Access
BSL, Captions, Creative audio description,

Age Guidance
14+

Orlam: A Spoken Word Event

Orlam is a remarkable coming-of-age tale, and the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades. 

Orlam reveals PJ Harvey as not only one of the most talented songwriters of the age, but a gifted poet – whose formal skill, transforming eye and ear for the lyric line have produced a strange and moving poem like no other.

Deryn Rees-Jones won an Eric Gregory award in 1993, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 1995. In 2004 she was named as one of Mslexia’s ‘top ten’ women poets of the decade, and chosen as one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation.

Ticket link: www.pjharvey.lnk.to/OrlamUKtourPR

Free Creative Writing Workshop

Free Creative Writing Workshop for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creatives with Claire Beerjeraz and Tmesis Theatre.

This workshop is part of an R&D process for Tmesis’ new show, SealSkin and will explore themes around this myth and self-identity with poet and writer Claire.

Where- Everyman Theatre

When- Wed 5th October 6.30-8pm

To book a place email- claire@tmesistheatre.com

A Lovely Word featuring The Repeat Bea...

A Lovely Word is Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry night, featuring two halves of open mic poets, and a headliner beginning the first half.

Hosted by Alex Ferguson, this free event is a fun, relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry.

Headliner

Peter deGraft-Johnson is a British-born Ghanaian poet, broadcaster, and Hip Hop artist known by The Repeat Beat Poet. His debut pamphlet, ‘A Testament To Life And Death’ was published in February 2022 by Verve Poetry Press.

Peter co-founded the Rap & Poetry open mic Pen-Ting and hosts the multi-award nominated Lunar Poetry Podcast, which is archived in the British Library. He appears regularly on radio with Hip Hop collective Imaginary Millions on Soho Radio, and his solo show #TheRepeatBeatBroadcast. His broadcast work has also been featured on BBC Radio 4xtra, BBC Essex, and BBC Radio London.

Peter is a graduate of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, BBC 1xtra Words First, and the Obsidian Foundation programmes, and in 2021 he was a writer-in-residence at the Library of Africa & The African Diaspora in Accra, Ghana.

He has toured across the UK and internationally, performing everywhere from Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club to multiple festivals and jam nights, and alongside writers like Joelle Taylor (TS Eliot), Roger Robinson (TS Eliot Prize) and Salena Godden (FRSL).

His debut single This That was released in 2020. His work has been anthologised by Penguin Random House, Bad Betty Press, Magma Poetry, and #PoetryOnThePicketLine, and he regularly works with leading UK Poetry organisation Apples & Snakes.

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 EITHER;

I) turning up at 7.30pm

II) emailing alovelywordpodcast@gmail.com with a confirmation of your full name, mobile number

Spoken Word 15

Fabulous Poetry from Flu Jabs, Saint Vespaluus and their compere Louise Evans.

The night will be Spoken Word’s first venture into stand-up with the brilliant Claire Berry! The headliner is the amazing Anna Jane Houghton who’ll be bringing her beautiful, French-influenced dreampop to the Mansion House.

A brilliant night out – and free pizza!

A Lovely Word featuring Elle Dillon-Re...

A Lovely Word is Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry night, featuring two halves of open mic poets, and a headliner beginning the first half. Hosted by Alex Ferguson, this free event is a fun, relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry.

Elle Dillon-Reams is a performer and spoken word artist, with two self written, sell out, spoken word shows under her belt.

Her debut poetry collection ‘Maladptive’ was published in January 2022 with Verve Poetry Publishers.

After winning the Imperial College Nature Slam, the Genesis Slam, and Hammer and Tongue Hackney Slam, Elle will be competing in the Hammer and Tongue National finals at The Royal Albert Hall later this year.

She has worked with the award winning Handlebards, Gecko, and recently performed as a dancer and cabaret artist at both Glastonbury and Latitude festival.

Her debut spoken word solo show ‘HoneyBEE’ won both the Three weeks Editors award for excellence and ‘Best Newcomer’ from the Scotsman.

A Lovely Word featuring Gerry Clarkson

A Lovely Word is back, downstairs at the Everyman on the first Thursday of every month.

A Lovely Word is Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry night, featuring two halves of open mic poets, and a headliner beginning the first half. Hosted by Alex Ferguson, this free event is a fun, relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry.

Gerry Clarkson (AKA Guerrilla Lips) has become a leading stalwart of Liverpool’s poetry scene over the past five years, and has performed as guest poet at numerous venues and events across the North West and London.

He has headlined the Everyman’s Christmas Cabaret show 2020 and has performed poetry on BBC Radio.  A recent recipient of the Everyman’s Artists Back2Back writers’ grant and a graduate in International Journalism, Gerry describes himself as a grass roots poet who offers a very personal global perspective.

Influenced by his Black African and Caribbean heritage and growing up in Liverpool, Gerry’s writing covers issues of race, ethnicity and perceptions of masculinity, as well as our ever changing political and social climate.

Keen to encourage others to find their voice, Gerry has recently began delivering performance poetry workshops. His aim is to use his experience to help others gain a platform for expression through spoken word and enable them to use it as a means of cathartic release as performance artists.

His performances have been described as “the authentic voice of the lived experience,” which he delivers with a “relentless conviction.” His words hitting like “searing bullets of truth.”  “He is funny witty and wise… He is on your side… He understands the pressures of reality…  He doesn’t condemn you, he reminds you that you are human.” (Last Stop Sounds)

George Melling (AKA The O’wd Chap) described Gerry as; “an exciting new breed of poet who will raise you to the rafters, then slowly bring you back down to earth, before delivering his coup-de-grace.”

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 EITHER;

I) turning up at 7.30pm

II) emailing alovelywordpodcast@gmail.com with a confirmation of your full name, mobile number

When signing up to perform, you are signing up to these principles of the open mic.

BLAST! (7)

BLAST! (7), a Spoken Word and Comedy night at The Old Bank Ale House, Aigburth Road.

Spoken Word and comedy with talented people, great beer and a lovely setting. Hosted by Eve Howlett – The Queen of Heartbreak!

Times: 7.30 – 9.30pm, free entry.