The tenth of our Insta sessions features Camille McCawley. Camille is a British poet currently living in Derby. She won the Hidden Voices competition for National Poetry Day and is Slam of the North and Derby Poetry Festival slam champion 2019.
She has featured at numerous events and festivals across the country, including Ilkley Fringe Festival and Strawberry Fair. She has supported Matt Abbott, The Unsung with Genevieve Carver and Joelle Taylor. Her poems have appeared on BBC Radio Sheffield and Derby.
Insta sessions #10: Camille McCawley on Tuesday 4 August
These sessions welcome guests to join us for relaxed conversations and performances. They’re broadcast live on our Instagram account from 7.30-8pm (BST) on Tuesdays, and then uploaded to Facebook, YouTube and IGTV shortly afterwards.
Find more information and share the event over on Facebook. Our latest session with Casey Bailey is available to view below.
To mark this year’s Yorkshire Day, Matt’s August column for The State of the Arts champions five Yorkshire poets: Toria Garbutt, Kirsty Taylor, Andrew McMillan, Nadine Aisha Jassat and Helen Mort. Click here to read it!
Well, it was supposed to draw to its grand conclusion at Colchester Arts Centre on 29 April. A stunning church conversion with hundreds of punters packed in to see us perform in the flesh.
As it happens, it drew to a conclusion on Facebook Live: with me hosting from my one-bed flat in East London, with only a hazy distant memory of what it’s like to attend a live performance in person.
Regardless of how the pandemic stream-rolled our plans, I’m still immensely proud of what we achieved with this series of ‘LIVEwire’ events. It was our most ambitious live project to date and it couldn’t have gone better (apart from… well, you know…)
LIVEwire Manchester highlights by Northern Heart films
Our aim has always been to provide top quality spoken word poetry to the masses. Engaging, accessible, political, and unapologetic: that’s what we’re about.
This series featured four regional events in large (for us) theatres and arts centres – in Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham and Colchester – plus four residency nights at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds.
The responses that we received from audiences around the country were overwhelming, and backstage, the camaraderie between the performers was a joy to behold.
In short, we smashed it, and I couldn’t be happier. Obviously, we do plan on producing more of these ‘LIVEwire’ events at some stage, and work is tentatively taking place behind the scenes.
Our next project will be digital and, subject to a funding bid, we’re hoping to be making our announcement by the end of September. But for now, check out the video highlights and photo galleries on our events page.
We worked with local film-makers and photographers to produce top quality content for those of you who weren’t there in person, and to showcase what we do.
Huge thanks to Arts Council England to the funding, to everybody who attended, to the venues and co-promoters, and of course, to the performers.
This is one of my favourite projects I’ve ever worked on. See you all again when it’s safe. Matt x
Our final LIVEwire event of this series takes place on Thursday 30 July, with Nymphs & Thugs heavyweights Toria Garbutt and Kevin P. Gilday bringing it to a close with a special online gig.
July’s episode was recorded whilst socially distancing around Salena‘s kitchen table, and we tried to create a festival on the radio as we roared about our favourite art, culture, books, poetry and activism.
Roaring 20s Radio episode 8
The episode is available to stream back in full as a podcast in most of the usual places, or via this page. We’ll be back in August on Soho Radio. Enjoy!
Our final regional LIVEwire date was originally scheduled to take place at Colchester Arts Centre on 29 April. But we all know what happened. So, we’ve decided to take it online instead. It’ll be streamed live on our Facebook page from 8-9.30pm UK time on Thursday 23 July.
The ninth of our Insta sessions features Casey Bailey. Casey is a writer, performer and educator, born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham. Casey released his debut collection ‘Adjusted‘ in 2018 with Verve Poetry Press and had his play ‘GrimeBoy’ commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Casey’s poetry has featured in a number of anthologies and he was commissioned by the BBC to write ‘The Ballad of The Peaky Blinders’ in 2019. Casey has performed his poetry nationally and internationally.
The eighth of our Insta sessions features Genevieve Carver. Genevieve is a writer and performer based in Sheffield. Her poetry has been published in journals including Iota, Envoi and The North, and her first collection, ‘A Beautiful Way to be Crazy‘, was published by Verve Poetry Press in 2020.
This month, Matt Abbott uses his The State of the Arts column to look at how poetry can help us to understand and navigate privilege, and in particular, white privilege. Have a read of it here.
