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Ever-Changing Detail

A guest post from Naomi Woddis about ‘Picture This’, a photography-poetry project.

If you had asked me last year about the connections to be made between photography and poetry I would have happily reeled off a list including the imagistic quality of both, that they share a distinct and recognisable language as well as requiring some sort of formal skill and technique. My current photo-poetry project, Picture This, did not arrive with a lightbulb moment in the middle of the night; instead it was the constriction of illness that gave…

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Professions and Confessions Workshop with Patience Agbabi

A post from Zakia Carpenter-Hall, who recently took part in our Professions and Confessions Masterclass with Patience Agbabi.

Sometimes characters aren’t meant to be confined to the page.  Sometimes they’d rather live and breathe.

Patience Agbabi asked participants to not only write in their character’s voice, but for the sake of the end performance, to become them. I likened this to the way a recipe is merely a blueprint for a meal or similar to DNA being the formula for life. The workshop was like a skeleton and through…

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An extract from May’s South East Snakebasket

This is an extract from May’s South East Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

Hello all,

May blossom is represented in the Apples and Snakes South East by an exciting new event series blooming in Margate on Friday 25 May. Big Talk will be a mix of performance poetry with open mic, feature guests and poetry films. It’ll all take place in the small, but perfectly formed, Tom Thumb Theatre. Details of the launch event can be found below in the events section.

May…

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An extract from May’s South West Snakebasket

This is an extract from May’s South West Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

Welcome! This month – Tuesday 29 May, to be precise – I will be hosting Gallery Sessions, but I need your help! I need to compose a piece to read – do you want to donate a line of text? I’d like your words, song lyrics and quotes to build a Snakebasket inspired masterpiece! Possible themes and writing rules also welcome, e-mail me before the end of the month with…

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An extract from May’s West Midlands Snakebasket

This is an extract from May’s West Midlands Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

Hello all!

Ah, spring. My friends from back home keep complaining about the heat wave that has engulfed Eastern Europe. The poor things, how they must suffer, with their cloudless skies and 30 degrees in the shade. A glance through the Custard Factory window reveals sensible clouds and reliable rain, which combined with the wind-blown cold on the walk here in the morning convince me yet again that the Midlands have the superior…

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This is an extract from May’s North East Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

Hello, hello, hello, what have we here then?

A round up of some mightily fun stuff, of course, if you like that kind of thing. Which I’m assuming you do, what with being on my mailing list and all!

First up – this is what I’m doing, and it would be great to have you along in the audience: Scratch Tyne returns on Sunday 20 May in our new, permanent home…

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An extract from May’s London Snakebasket

This is an extract from May’s London Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

Hello again. OK, we’ll keep it brief. Things are picking up with our Shake The Dust project at the moment and the London shows are thinning out for a month or so. Ah, but feel the quality.

We start off this very Friday with John Hegley & Some Other Poets (that’s one from the Ronseal School of Titling, there). John is a known quantity. And yet – is he?…

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SLAMbassadors UK Final Showcase

“We play with words, and we fly like birds”…it’s Thursday afternoon in the Apples and Snakes office and lines from Sunday evening’s SLAMbassadors UK Final Showcase at the 100 Club are still floating in to my head.

The Poetry Society’s SLAMbassadors UK is now in its 10th year and the programme’s heart and soul, Joelle Taylor, was on fine form on Sunday. She warmed up the audience with her moving and compelling poem Last Poet Standing – a call to arms (or to pens) for all writers –…

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An extract from April’s North East Snakebasket

This is an extract from April’s North East Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

April! Is it wrong to get so excited by cherry blossom? Answers in a haiku to…

So, would you like some intimate, innovative, site-specific, warm and welcoming, thought-provoking, participative poetry? Would you like a glass of wine with that? Then come to Home Cooking on Tuesday 17 April. This is the first in a series of occasional close-up gigs. The award-winning Hannah Jane Walker will perform two sittings of This Is Just To Say, a show about apologies…

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An extract from April’s South West Snakebasket

This is an extract from April’s South West Snakebasket, to view the full version, click here.

Hello beautiful readers, here we are in sunny spring ready to indulge in some sumptuous spoken word shenanigans.

The Daffodils have sprouted, the parks are full and the beach too, isn’t the South West of England beautiful this time of year?  Whether you live near the rolling hills and valleys, by the golden coast or in the hustle of a creative city, here’s to embracing the inspiration all around us.

Just one…

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