The legacy of Nottingham’s literary history runs deep, but as poetry collectives have come and gone post-pandemic, it’s important to keep up. We meet some of the local champions who are bringing live poetry back to Nottingham…
We wrote an article four years ago detailing the plethora of poetry nights that Nottingham had to offer, but there’s just one problem, now - all of those are gone. Covid forced us apart, but we’ve been hearing rumblings of new poetry projects, so we set out on a quest: Following a trail of poetic breadcrumbs to find those who’ve been bringing the verse back to Notts.
First we drop in on marvellous young poet Abi Hutchison, who together with Connor Brown created ‘Speak Easy’ in 2021. It’s now a regular live poetry event for young people, housed upstairs in the Playhouse’s Ustinov room.
“During lockdown I began thinking of the years I had missed in the industry due to the pandemic. I was sixteen when it began. Young people my age were entering the creative world again and expecting to take up space in very different circles… I was struck by the number of groups that had, understandably, succumbed to the pressures and longevity of the pandemic.”
Abi and Connor threw the first Speak Easy as a ‘festive one-off’ and were surprised when it sold out. They’re now partnered with UNESCO City of Literature, Writing East Midlands and Bad Betty Press.
“It still doesn't feel real to me how far this collective has come…,” Abi tells us. “I am forever thankful that poetry found me when I needed it most.”
Poetry has that power to build people up. From the Playhouse, we head to Beeston and catch Dave Wood, who’s been running a group every Friday at Middle Street Resource Centre. Dave recalls asking questions to a man who’d had a stroke, trying to bring words into being from someone who could barely speak. They worked together for an hour, using the garden as inspiration to bring the man’s experience into a poem.
From Beeston to the Lace Market. Leanne Moden, spinner of many of the city’s poetic plates, has also seen poetry’s regenerative power firsthand. This year the National Justice Museum asked her poetry workshop Paper Cranes to work with C2C Social Action, responding to art made mainly by women in vulnerable situations: “The Justice Museum showcased the artworks and a tea apothecary, celebrating local wild flora and its positive impact on human well-being,” Leanne tells us. “We all wrote poems about the restorative power of tea! Each poet wrote their favourite line from their poems onto a neon sticky note, and I arranged the lines to form a collaborative poem… there's been a real poetry renaissance in Nottingham.”
Poetry has that power to build people up
We find a renaissance figure at Sneinton’s King Billy pub: Caetano Capurro is teacher by day, DJ by night, and writes and performs poetry somewhere in-between. He started running his own monthly night at the King Billy this summer, called ‘Free Your Mind’, so bustling that the applause recently made a painting fall off the wall in the bar downstairs. Between tiramisu stouts we asked what had drawn Cae to the poetry scene…
“There’s been an explosion of expression in the city… every artist I’ve met in my time has been unbelievably keen to get involved and help where they can, as I have, throwing myself at any project that needs the hands. It’s one of the things I love most about our community, the love for each other’s work and the love of seeing each other succeed. We need to be together again.”
From Sneinton we wobble to the train station. Grace Reeves is a stylish social media guru and events planner at Hopkinson’s, a threads-and-trinkets showroom down by the train station. This summer she started running a new monthly session there called ‘Poetry Kitchen’, on the third Wednesday of each month.
“I hosted my first poetry event for the Nottingham Poetry Festival,” she tells us. “Live poetry is an intimate insight into someone’s inner world… it’s refreshing to absorb someone else’s perspective, whether it’s light-hearted and comedic, or steeped in symbolism.” What had brought her into reviving live poetry? “There’s nothing like the real deal.”
Like a tipsy Odysseus, we’re knackered after our poetic quest. We feel like apologising for the many nights like Invoke and Notts Poetry that we haven’t managed to fit in, but thankfully Leanne’s got our back: “We have collectives like GOBs, DIY Poets and World Jam, and events like Nott Another Poetry Night, Speech Therapy, SMUT, and Full Circle,” she tells us.
“Bad Betty Press are on our doorstep too, as well as the WRAP events at NTU… And the new Central Library is opening up soon, which will have its own programme… If I listed them all, we’d be here all day!”
Once again, Notts has an embarrassment of lyrical riches, and not the chin-stroking kind. Everyone we spoke to was done with sitting around.
“It truly is a beautiful time to be a poet in Nottingham,” says Leanne.
Speak Easy is at the Playhouse on 15 December, Dave Wood’s poetry group is held at Middle Street Resource Centre every Friday, Free Your Mind is at the King William IV on 13 December, Paper Cranes meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month at Beeston Library, and Poetry Kitchen is at Hopkinson’s on 20 December
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