Hear fast-paced and high energy poetry at festival event
It promises to be a fast-paced, frenetic and entertaining evening of poetry to bring a city's literature festival to a close.
The Wolverhampton Literature Festival Poetry Slam returns for a fifth year and sees 15 poets go head-to-head in an evening of fast-paced live poetry as part of Wolverhampton Literature Festival.
The event, which has been a feature of the festival for more than five years, sees each participant perform a three-minute piece, which are then scored by judges in the audience and sees six go through to the semi-finals and then three to the final.
Taking place on Friday, February 9 at the Arena Theatre, the slam will be the final event of the festival and is being organised by poetry group Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists.
Group member Emma Purshouse said the event was a competitive and fun event and a great way to bring poetry to new audiences.
She said: "It's fun and fast moving and a lovely way of packaging poetry for an audience because it's a public performance for three minutes, so even if an audience member doesn't like that particular style, it's only for three minutes and then you've got the next performer on, which could be completely different.
"It's a good way of making poetry accessible and entertaining and what we do on the night is pick the judges from the audience at the start of the show, then we get five marks out of 100 and knock off the top and bottom scores and give an average from the three other scores."
Ms Purshouse said the idea of performance poetry was a great one as it was a vehicle for self-expression, with no limitations on what people can say, and said it was a pleasure to be able to close the Literature Festival.
She said: "It's the week after the main festival and it's a really nice way to round things off with a high-energy event and a supportive audience at the Arena Theatre.
"If there's one thing I would like people to take away from this event, it's that poetry is out there for everyone and even if you don't like one type of poetry, it's like music where there's something for everyone."
The Wolverhampton Literature Festival Poetry Slam starts at 7.30pm on Friday, February 9 at the Arena Theatre and on livestream, with tickets costing £12 per person and an age restriction of 16 and older.
To find out more and to buy tickets, go to wolvesliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/poetry-slam.html
