Project News

In the second episode, PhD researcher Claire Palzer explores poetry performances at contemporary festivals, focusing on Lingo, Ireland’s spoken word festival (2014-2016). Claire talks about Lingo’s lasting impact and how the festival shaped the poetry that was performed there. The episode incorporates extracts from the poets/performers Kalle Ryan, Felicia Olusanya (aka Felispeaks), Aindrais de Staic, Karl Parkinson and Colin Hassard, as well as excerpts from interviews with Kalle Ryan, Mel Bradley, Abby Oliveira, and Phil Lynch, conducted by the host. Listen now on Spotify!

In the first PoP podcast episode, PhD researcher Shefali Banerji explores the various artforms that poets incorporate in their long form spoken word shows. Shefali particularly focuses on the oral and aural artistic innovations that feature in these shows, which are also called spoken word plays. The episode incorporates poem extracts from Jasmine Gardosi, Malaika Kegode, Hannah Silva and Roger Robinson, as well as excerpts from interviews with Jasmine Gardosi and Roger Robinson conducted by the host. Listen now on Spotify!

Following the two-day academic conference, ‘All Borders Blur: Mapping Intersections and Genre-Crossings in UK Spoken-Word Poetries since 1965’ at Queen Mary University of London in partnership with the University of Vienna (11-12 November 2023), Poetry Off the Page is pleased to announce the launch of a ‘Call for Submissions’ for a special collection of articles on ‘Poetry off the Page: Intersecting Practices and Traditions in British Poetry Performance“. The collection will be published by the open access, peer-reviewed, Open Library of the Humanities Journal. Under the editorship of Prof. Andrea Brady (Queen Mary London), Prof. Peter Howarth (Queen Mary London) and Dr. Helen Thomas (University of Vienna), this special collection focuses upon the ways in which spoken word practices have intersected with, crossed genres and transformed established forms of British performance practice and traditions. Here you can find the Call for Submissions.

Great news! Our Poetry Off the Page Blog, which focuses on theory and methodology, has just gone live with a post written by Claire Palzer on the role of interviewing in poetry performance research! Guest contributions cordially invited.

The first post on the Poetry Off the Page blog is out now! It was written by our PhD researcher Claire Palzer and is concerned with the vital role of interviews in poetry performance research. Access it here!

Marie Krebs has produced a Podcast trailer for us, which Spotify has already picked up – for more information on the PoP podcast and to listen to the trailer, visit our Podcast page!

We are happy to report that our second project conference “All Borders Blur: Mapping Intersections and Genre Crossings in UK Spoken Word Poetries since 1965” successfully took place from 11-12 November at Queen Mary University London. Here you can find the conference report with the cover design by Shefali Banerji.