This summer, A Lovely Word in association with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse bring a brand new poetry festival to the city for everyone!
At the Everyman Theatre from 1 – 9 July, it will celebrate writing, different voices and showcase the wonderful creative community of Liverpool. Liverpool is a poetry city. A Lovely Poetry Festival celebrates this, uniting, inspiring and galvanising the spoken word scene and creativity of the city through a week of headline poetry events, industry talks, a poetry slam, radio poetry competitions and a poetry factory. The festival will also include working with local poets such as Lyndsay Price, Gerry Clarkson and Olive Yoxall, as well as A Lovely Word artist-in-residence Amina Atiq. Together with nationally recognised “Poet Factory” Beth Calverley, the festival will gather and build a body of poetry on the ground floor of the Everyman, as local residents and visitors are encouraged to simply walk up and write a poem. A Lovely Poetry Festival 2022 Lineup Friday 1 July – Bistro A Lovely Poetry Slam Come and watch the first Poetry Slam from A Lovely Word, with £300 up for grabs, expect the best of Merseyside up and coming poetry talent, all with just 3 minutes on the mic! Saturday 2 July 2pm – 4pm – Amina Atiq Workshop – Ev1 Artist-in-Residence Amina Atiq leads a fab performance workshop. Tuesday 5 July 10am-7pm – The Poetry Factory! – Street Café 7.30pm – Hollie McNish and Michael Pedersen – Main Stage The poetry factory opens, for everyone to come along and be able to write a poem, and display it in the street café! The sensational Hollie and Michael take it away with a rip roaring set in the evening. Wednesday 6 July 10am-7pm – The Poetry Factory! – Street Café 6.30pm – Panel Discussion: Publishing Poetry – Bistro Write poems in the day, and come and learn all about the publishing industry in the evening, with expert panelists who know their stuff. Thursday 7 July 10am-7pm – The Poetry Factory! – Street Café 5.30pm – 7pm – Workshop with Gerry & Lyndsay – Ev1 7.30pm – Cheeky Poetry Bingo – Bistro More poetry writing for all, with Beth Calverley’s Poetry Machine arriving to generate poems for eagerly awaiting ‘customers’. Learn all about writing and performing with Lyndsay and Gerry, and then in the evening settle down to some cheeky bingo, with all sorts of whacky poetry games and prizes. Friday 8 July 10am-7pm – The Poetry Factory! – Street Café 5.30pm – 7pm – Workshop with Queer Bodies – Ev1 7.30pm – Lemn Sissay: My Name Is Why – Main Stage Following more poetry writing in the café, there’s a workshop with famous QueerBodies and a headline slot by 2012 Olympic Poet Laurette Lemn Sissay with a fab array of local support. Saturday 9 July 10am-7pm – The Poetry Factory! – Street Café 11am – 12am – Family Poetry Workshop – Bistro 11am – 4.30pm – Young Person’s Poetry School – Ev1 3pm – Liverpool Arab Arts Festival x A Lovely Word – Bistro (details TBA) 7.30pm – Nymphs & Thugs: LIVEwire – Main Stage A busy, day with loads of workshops for young people taking over, a collab events with LAAF, and settle in for an evening of 4 mindblowing poets plus music, presented by record label Nymphs & Thugs.Interest area: Literature
Courtyard Poetry
Bluecoat will be hosting live poetry, spoken word and music in the Bluecoat’s garden.
The event will feature a variety of Liverpool-based poets and performances from their Colonial Legacies young events coordinators.
This will form part of the Bluecoat’s contribution to the Liverpool Against Racism festival.
Storybarn Holiday Activity – Du ...
Discover the world of Du Iz Tak? at The Reader’s Storybarn.
The event is held Mansion House, Calderstones Park, 12 – 24 April, various times.
This school holiday The Reader are taking you on a magical mini-beast adventure as we explore the beautiful picture book Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis which is written in a made-up language.
You’ll build bug forts, learn about the language of these teeny-tiny creatures, and use our imaginations to bring to life the enormous potential of a single seed.
Children can enjoy critter-themed crafts and take home a copy of the book to read again and again!
Tickets are £6.50 per child, £4 per adult (under 1’s are free but places still need to be booked). Sessions last approximately 1.5 hours and are best suited for children aged 4 – 9 but all ages are welcome!
Du Iz Tak? © 2016 Carson Ellis. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ
Spoken Word 14
Spoken Word events encompass a huge variety of writing and performance styles, from the intimately personal and heart-breaking to the uproariously funny and celebratory.
Poetry in all its forms will be the main feature, along with memoirs, stories, monologues and any number of almost-indefinable types of prose.
Head along, grab yourself a free slice of pizza and enjoy some of the best poetry and spoken word artists from around the North West.
They recommend this event for adults 18+. Doors 7pm. The Mansion House is wheelchair accessible, for access enquiries please contact us at tickets@thereader.org.uk.
Don’t Fear Shakespeare: Julius C...
Think Shakespeare is long, boring and complicated? Think again!
This workshop will help you sort your soliloquys from your silly sayings in no time. The friendly team will tell you everything you need to know ahead of Globe on Tour’s performance of Julius Caesar this June, leaving you to sit back and enjoy the show happy in the knowledge that you won’t miss a single pun or plot twist.
No experience of Shakespeare necessary.
This is an online Shared Reading Workshop, which will take place over Zoom.
‘Things done well,
and with care, exempt themselves from fear’
– from Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
Shared Reading Against Racism – At H...
Shared Reading is for everyone – whether you love books or have never read before.
In this online interactive taster session, they’ll explore great literature by writers of colour and share meaningful conversations about racism. There’s no pressure for anyone to read out loud, you can simply sit back and listen.
Over the past year, staff at The Reader have been involved in a project called “Just Us” where black literature is read together as a way to spark thoughts, feelings and a different conversation about racism, as the start of a long term commitment to contribute through our work to a world that is free of racism. Olu Alake, a Trustee of The Reader will join the session to share his perspective on this work.
This session runs from 6.30pm – 8.00pm and will take place on Zoom. To make this event as accessible as possible, tickets are pay what you feel. If you do book a ticket and can no longer make it, please let them know so they can release the space for someone else to enjoy.
If you have any access requirements or if you need any more information you can get in touch by emailing tickets@thereader.org.uk.
Ways To Grieve
In this friendly and relaxed exploration, they’ll open up the conversation about grief – in all its forms – by delving into literature’s rich tradition of writing about loss.
The team at The Reader invite you to share in this supportive and relaxed session where the subjects of grief and loss aren’t taboo.
The grief that follows loss is one of the more challenging problems of life. We naturally grieve for the loss of a person or a pet we have loved, but are there other more hidden forms of grief – the loss of an idea about the future or the past, for example, or the sense of ourselves as we change. What can grief give us, if anything? How can we best negotiate our way through it?
All are welcome. Join via Zoom from the comfort of your own surroundings. You choose whether you want to read, talk or just listen along.
…any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project. I refuse to rush. The pain that is thrust upon us let no man slow or speed or fix.’ – from Grief is the thing with Feathers by Max Porter.
Shared Reading Against Racism
Shared Reading is for everyone – whether you love books or have never read before.
In this interactive taster session they’ll explore great literature by writers of colour and share meaningful conversations about racism. There’s no pressure for anyone to read out loud, you can simply sit back and listen.
Over the past year, staff at The Reader have been involved in a project called “Just Us” where black literature is read together as a way to spark thoughts, feelings and a different conversation about racism, as the start of a long term commitment to contribute through our work to a world that is free of racism.
Join them at the Mansion House in Calderstones Park for either a morning or afternoon Shared Reading taster session as well as lunch and further discussion about their work to explore racism through reading literature together.
To make this event as accessible as possible, tickets are ‘pay what you feel’ which means you can choose to pay as little or as much as you’d like. If you do book a ticket and can no longer make it, please let them know so they can release the space for someone else to enjoy.
If you have any access or dietary requirements or if you need any more information you can get in touch by emailing tickets@thereader.org.uk.
10.30am – 12noon – Shared Reading
12noon – 1pm – Free lunch provided
1pm – 2pm – Drop in session to discuss our work around reading and racism with founder and director of The Reader, Jane Davis, and director of impact, Geetha Rabindrakumar.
2pm – 3.30pm – Shared Reading
Concrete Thoughts: Lynsey Hanley, John...
Two acclaimed writers on architecture and society, John Grindrod and Owen Hatherley, will join author and journalist Lynsey Hanley, at this in conversation event exploring the legacy of modernist architecture.
The writers will explore and compare modernism and some of the more recent architectural movements of the last 20 years and what effect these ideas have on how we use and feel in the built environments around us.
Grindrod’s Iconicon and Hatherley’s Modern Buildings in Britain are new key texts exploring some of Britain’s most iconic and distinctive modern and contemporary buildings.
SMOKE – Open Mic Poetry Night
The Windows Project presents a special open mic poetry night.
The event is free and held at Liverpool’s Phase One, it’s sure to be an entertaining and lively evening.
If you would like to book a five minute performance slot, please email: windowsproject@btinternet.com
Phase One, Seel Street, 23 March, 7-10pm.