A lot of you who know me know that in November 2010 I started running a monthly spoken word and poetry night in Worcester. It takes place in an Italian restaurant in Little Venice on the first Thursday of each month hence the name “Parole Parlate”, which is Italian for “The Spoken Word”.
Ever since it started the night has always had incredible support and I have had no shortage of performers wanting to take part with slots booked up to a few months in advance on some occasions. The premise is that participants can have up to 10 minutes to perform their work be it poetry, prose, short stories, monologues, a chapter of a novel or anything else that they have written. Every month a wide variety of performers take part and there is always a willing audience there to listen and give feedback.
Last night was the first Parole Parlate to take place in 2012 and I figured as it was just after Christmas it wasn’t going to be that well attended, that folk wouldn’t come out the week after Christmas and they would have less money in their pockets. So when I arrived at the venue and set up the PA with Martin Driscoll, imagine my surprise when the room filled up and was packed out – people were even sitting at the sides it was so busy! I couldn’t believe it.
The buzz in the room was one of the best I’ve ever encountered at a Parole Parlate event so far and all the performers were fantastic – from my best friend Owen Fleet’s debut poetry performance reading “Ode To A Cad” (dedicated to a guy we both once knew who fits this description perfectly) and his “Bucket List” poem which ended “I would like to learn karate, but most of all I would like to read at Parole Parlate” (pure genious from Owen there!), to Nick Munro Turner’s tale about getting on the wrong aeroplane flight in Washington DC, to Parole Parlate favourite Tony Judge reading more hilarious extracts from the Littlehope Parish Magazine (who knew that gardening could be so funny) and Polly Robinson’s take on “Let’s Do it (Let’s Fall In Love)” by Ella Fitzgerald, appropriately re-named “Let’s Do It (Let’s Write A Blog)“, the night was one sparkling performance after another. Other performers who took part last night included Suz Winspear (another favourite of mine and a very good friend), Shabz Ahmed, Richard Hatch, Ruth Stacey, Bobby Parker and David Calcutt.
But the piece de resistance performance last night came from headliners “The Decadent Diva’s”, led by Maggie Doyle. For half an hour they entertained us with their take on the ageing process, as only women can. I can’t wait to see them again and I hope to have them perform during the Worcestershire Literary Festival next June.
All in all it was an amazing night which proved that spoken word does have a place in the world next to music and that it is a valid art form. I’m so pleased and proud to have started this night and my huge thanks goes out to all those involved including Deputy Worcestershire Literary Festival Director Martin Driscoll, Geoff Robinson for taking photographs, Little Venice Restaurant in Worcester for hosting the event and being a venue, and all the performers and audience members who braved a windy and stormy night in January to come along.
See you all at the next one which is on Thursday 2nd February 2012, 7.30pm upstairs in Little Venice Restaurant in Worcester and includes performances by Michael R Brush, Catherine Crosswell, Michelle Crosby, Tim Cranmore, Heather Wastie, Ian Ward, Chris Kingsley, Jilly and Richard Tyrone Jones who will be headlining.
For more information nip over to the Parole Parlate Facebook Page or visit www.worcslitfest.com
Above: The Decadent Diva’s
Above: Parole Parlate: The Audience Is Listening
Both photographs are copyright (c) Geoff Robinson – www.2020zoom.com.
sounds like you have a lively community