During this year’s Nottingham Poetry Festival, Henry Normal came to Beeston Library for his touring ‘Poetry Hour with Henry Normal’ events, and told a room full of people that Beeston used to be a poetry hotspot.
Beeston was one of the places that gigging poets would have to go to, and it was a place firmly on the poetry map. Henry said that he’d like that back, so after an initial post in Beeston Updated, lots of interest, a few messages pinged back and forth, meetings had and calendars scribbled in…Beeston is set to have a regular poetry open mic!
The wonderful Jen Pottle, of the micropub Pottle of Blues on Stoney Street, will be hosting the monthly event, which is planned to take place on the first Sunday of every month.
Jen, who is a former English teacher, recently performed poetry for the very first time at Jam Cafe in Nottingham. “I was quite amazed at the sheer number of young people at a poetry night, but it was such a nice supportive group,” she says.
Putting herself forward to perform poetry is what has driven her to want to host a poetry night at Pottle, and she’s encouraged by the interest it’s received on the Facebook event page so far. For anyone thinking of coming to the event, Jen says: “It will be a cosy atmosphere because it’s not a huge venue, and it’s open to anyone who wants to come and join in.”
She’s purposely picked a time frame that’s fairly quiet anyway, so there’s no chance of a bunch of poets disrupting the regulars! And you don’t even have to be a poet: if you’re interested in finding out ‘performance poetry’ is and hearing what the poets of Beeston have to offer, then come down and see what it’s all about.
Jen is no stranger to hosting these sort of events either, as Pottle already has a regular live music open mic/karaoke night which takes place on the first Wednesday of every month, and is quite popular among students.
She’s also planning on setting up a stand-up comedy night, as she’s currently doing a training course in comedy.
The first Pottle Poetry event takes place this Sunday 1 July, from 4-6pm and is free to attend. There will be five to ten minute open mic slots available, depending on how many people turn up and put their name down to perform.
You can find the event page here: Pottle Poetry
Follow Pottle of Blues on Facebook, and Twitter.
JM