Hi everyone my name is Christi, I am a final year English and Creative Writing student
at the Univeristy of Birmingham. Today I will be talking about how Birmingham is such a
rich city in terms of arts and culture and I will be focusing on the Verve Poetry Festival.
Verve Poetry Festival is a four day long festival dedicated to poetry. So there are a lot of
events there, starting from open mic nights, poetry readings, performance poetry, musical
gigs and also multiple workshops. Its held in Birmingham Hippodrome which is only a 5
minute walk from the New Street station. Some of them are free but some of them you have
to book them online or buy them on the door. Tickets range in terms of price and as students
you can get a discounted price.
So the first poetry festival is actually my first literature festival and this is because
I only found my passion back to writing and the arts during the pandemic so there wasn't
very much opportunity for me to explore ever since then. Verve Poetry Festival has being
going on for, I think, 5 years. It didn't do one in 2021 but they started their first
one in 2017. I am really excited to go and see my first poetry festival, even though
it is a four day event with so many opportunities going on, I will only be going to three of
them.
So Verve Poetry festival started yesterday the 16th of February and it ends this Sunday
which is the 20th of February. So the first one I will be going to is the one that is
on tonight, its going to be performance poetry by Jasmine Gardosi, which im really looking
forward to. This is because I've seen Jasmine Gardosi perform live in grizzly pear an it
was amazing so I cannot wait to see them perform live once more. Tickets costs about £4.5
for students and £6.5 if you are not a student.
For the one tonight I will actually be going with Writer's Bloc which is the university's
creative writing society. Writer's Bloc hosts lots of creative writing workshops and also
socials and the trip to Verve poetry festival tonight is one of their socials. I'm really
excited to be going with everyone else.
So the next one I'll be going to is the one that's on tomorrow. Its a Friday night headline
event, which includes poetry reading by three different poets. Nina Mingya-Powles, Jack
Underwood and also Phoebe Stuckes. The event will be hosted by Emma Wright who is the founder
and publisher in the Birmingham Indie Press, the Emma Press. I love the Emma Press because
it helps me discover lots of writer's that I've come to love. I am so excited to be seeing
these poets reading their poetry live. For the tickets the one for Friday night is also
£4.5 for students and £6.5 for standard tickets.
The last one I'll be going is the one on Sunday afternoon. Unlike the previous two that I'm
going to be going, its a workshop. So its a workshop by Cat alliance that focuses on
reconnecting with the body. As I am on my final year I am doing a a Creative Writing
dissertation or I like to say it, my final year project. Im working on a poetry collection
on embodiment so I think this workshop will be very beneficial in terms of helping me
write my dissertation. Thats a lot of exciting events and opportunities going on and I cannot
wait to film and show you what it is going to be like.
For me being in University isn't only about studying in the classroom and that's why I
like to get involved in other opportunities that are outside seminars and lectures, such
as being involved in activities around campus or looking for arts going on around Birmingham.
I am so grateful that Birmingham is such a diverse and rich city in terms of its culture
arts and heritage cites. So yeah, I am going to be showing a little bit about whats going
on with this event and I hope you enjoy them.
Hello again, today is Monday so yesterday was the last day of the Verve Poetry Festival
so yay! That concludes my first poetry festival. It was a very interesting experience and out
of the three events that I've been I think its safe to say that I enjoyed every single
one of them and I would really recommend everyone to go to like the the Verve Poetry Festival,
next year probably, if they are having it again. I think they should have it again.
But yeah because I know there aren't too many clips of the events themselves, I didn't take
as many footage, especially during the workshop just because it was meant to be a safe space
for everyone working with their writing, so I sort of forgot to take more footage and
at the Friday night just because I was listening to the poets reading but I though ti would
talk you through the events that I've been to.
The first one was Thursday night event that I went to with Writers Bloc. So that one was
Jasmine Gardosi's 'Dancing to Music you Hate' and I think that is my favourite out of the
three that I've been to. The performance was just unreal, that is one word to describe
it. I think what makes it so interesting and new to me is the fact that jass performed
her poetry with a band and there were two guest poets and also three open mice's that
night as well and I can tell how incredibly talented the band is because obviously they
haven't rehearsed with the guest poets and also the open miccers. Still they managed
to accompany the pieces so beautifully. It was like they were playing lots of improvised
pieces and they just went very well. So the performance itself, the highlight of the night,
well Jasmine Gardosi is a tie performance, it was just incredibly. It was very touching
and very raw. I felt like it was really new and completely different to everything that
I've have seen.
So Friday night event was a poetry reading by Nina Mingya-Powles, Phoebe Stuckes, and
Jack Underwood. Really interesting seeing the poets reading. They sound so different
compared to how I would read their poems in my head. It really helped me understand their
poetry better.
The last even that I've been to is the workshop by it is a creative writing working on reconnecting
with the body. As I mentioned before I am working on a poetry collection for my dissertation
and its around the theme of embodiment and I found the workshop to be really helpful.
Eye-opening, refreshing workshop that helped me get ideas about different way I can approach
embodiment and I think it is going to enrich my work. It's also a small workshop comprising
of less than ten people in the room and there other people on zoom. So that's todays about
Verve poetry festival, if you love poetry and creative writing I hope one day you can
attend one of the events of Verve Poetry Festival. They are such incredible events. So thank
you so much for watching till the end and have a nice day bye.