Mouthy Poets: Say Sum Thin 8

Image: Honey Williams

After going to their last Say Sum Thin show in summer 2014, the Mouthy Poets had won me over and became a group that I was eager to get myself involved in their community and work. Now that I am member of the Mouthy Poets collective, I've been able to experience first-hand just what it is that makes Mouthy Poets so great and unique.

Mouthy Poets isn't just your normal poetry group, the Mouthies are a family banded together by their mutual love of creative writing. The diverse mix of ideas that each person always comes up with every week keeps the atmosphere fresh and the creative writing process fun.

Members of Mouthy also keep active outside of the weekly sessions with ongoing contributions on their Facebook page and Wordpress blog where the members of Mouthy regularly present their ideas and give feedback to one another.

After only a few months in Mouthy's presence, as I felt myself becoming more connected with the team, our next big event came slowly looming round the corner; the Say Sum Thin show. The Say Sum Thin show provides a showcase for Mouthy for the Mouthy talents with every aspect of production handled by the team, combining their creative writing skills with their equally amazing theatrical performance. The Say Sum Thin show is split into two different shows; the scratch show and the headline show.

The scratch show gives a more intimate and relaxed atmosphere for performers, the presentations are less formal and an open mic session is included, where a handful of audience members are given the chance to perform their own poetry and feel part of the show. In the spirit of community, the scratch show also brings in members of local clubs and charities to join in. 

The headline show tries to incorporate a more theatrical presentation where the audience is larger and more themes of typical theatre are used, such as stage lighting and sometimes even full on music numbers. Headline shows also are known for bringing guest speakers that are highly influential in the world of poetry such as Patience Agbabi, John Agard and this season’s event will include the talented American slam poet Jon Sands.

Being involved in these shows takes maximum effort from Mouthy and every ounce of care and attention is put in by the whole team to make sure the show goes off. The friendly and supportive atmosphere extends to post show where every member is happy to offer feedback on each other’s performance. For anyone interested in listening to poetry or getting involved, you couldn't join a better collective of talented and people.

Mouthy's next Say Sum Thin shows will be taking place at Djangoly City Academy on Friday 27 February and Saturday 28 February. Tickets can be bought here for the scratch show and here for the headline show.

Mouthy Poets: Say Sum Thin 8 Facebook event
Mouthy Poets website