DATE: Wednesday 16th July
TIME: 7 - 9pm
LOCATION: East Quay Kitchen
FREE to attend and no need to book

All are welcome to join us for our informal spoken word evenings, held once a month in the East Quay Kitchen, hosted by Elaoise Benson. You are invited to share your words and thoughts in response to the invitational theme, or just come along to listen and enjoy a cup of tea in good company. The bar will be open for drinks and snacks

This month's guest speaker will be Georgie Jones. The invitational theme is Ripening and Reverie.

We are approaching high summer, a time that farmers refer toas the period when crops are at their highest point of growth. It is a time when fields are lush with greenery and fruits and vegetables ripen. This is a season to embrace warmth, joy and a bit of playfulness. How will you embrace the reverie? Is it lazing around on a long summer afternoon, is it beach trips, cream teas, pimms with your favourite people? And how are you ripening or growing? If this period is not joyful for you, how might we let the sun heal us? Have fun with your writing this month!

Poetry Prompt: 

From Blossoms
‍BY LI-YOUNG LEE

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward  
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into  
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Introducing Georgie:

Georgie Jones is a London based poet and performer known forher humour and heart. Praised for her ‘formidable stage presence and compellingway with words,' Georgie’s work captures the exquisite messiness of modernexistence and makes the chaos feel, somehow, like home.
Whether on stage or the page, her poetry invites audiences into a world that isboth deeply personal and universally relatable; a little bit chaotic, a littlebit vulnerable and absolutely brimming with warmth. You can find Georgie on Instagram: @georgie_jonez

‍How the evening works:
- Open Mic Sign Up opens from 6:45pm for a 7pm start.
- MC Introduction and Guest Set
- Open Mic - 2 poems each (but bring a 3rd in case we have time for more)
- Please give trigger warnings for any topics that listeners may find upsetting.
- Elaoise will close the evening and tell you what’s happening next month.

We hope to see you there!