Due to an enormous amount of other non-poetry related work in the pipeline, I've been very quiet on the live circuit of late. But...
I have two live appearances coming up very soon, and I'd be grateful if some of you could take this opportunity to drop by. Firstly, I'm doing a Feature spot at the Torriano on Torriano Avenue, Kentish Town, London, NW5 2SG on 19th April at 7:30pm. I'll be appearing with the excellent Amy Acre and Helen Moore, and floor spots will also be available. Facebook details, for those of you who do Facebook, are here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1550853345194825/ Everyone else, get your diaries out.
I'll also be helping Clare Saponia to launch her new book "The Oranges of Revolution" on 10th April at the Poetry Cafe, Betterton Street, WC2H 9BX, again at 7:30pm (https://www.facebook.com/events/942151585802826/) Both I and a number of other contributors will be reading from her book as well as delivering some poems of our own. You can also expect appearances from Helen Moore, Graham Buchan, Fatemeh Shams, SJ Fowler, Fran Lock, Wendy French, Benedict Newbery, Ceri May, Graham Bendel and Caroline Teague.
Clare says: "The collection addresses the Arab Spring, UK riots of 2011 and beyond. Above all, it’s about opening communication channels, vital to society's progression – hence the crew: their varied styles, voices, themes, thoughts and energies."
See you there. And hopefully this is the start of my gig diary starting to fill up a bit more again as I actually give it the focus it needs. Not many poets have agents, you know, and I'm no exception…
Incidentally, a question I get asked frequently by people who like what I do is "Why don't you do more readings/ performances?" The answer to that is "Well, I would if I was asked". I probably only turn down about 10% of the gigs I'm offered, and that's usually due to unavoidable clashes with other things in my diary. If you want to encourage bookings and support what I do, or indeed what any artist does, the simple answer is to do what all modern people have to do - talk about it online, tell people about it, spread the word. That's the way good promotion works these days - word of mouth. So if you like that struggling band, writer, comedian, artist or publication, talk about them. We need a campaign in this respect, I swear. Everyone is tweeting or talking about the same bloody things. If just 1% of everyone who tweeted about Jeremy Clarkson or Kanye West also tweeted about a poet each, we'd all be up and away.
