Hello all! My apologies that this site has been so quiet over the past couple of months; I've been quite busy working on several projects so I haven't had the time to post as regularly as I'd like. However, more posts on spoken word are coming! I have several drafted plus a couple guest posts … Continue reading Aiblins: New Scottish Political Poetry
Hello everyone! Just a quick post today to share details of some upcoming performances at festivals this August. This August is the third annual Loud Poets run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where we're delighted to be returning to the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile. We've written an entirely new show for this … Continue reading Summer Festivals!
Last night I had the pleasure of performing at Vineyard Arts, which is a lovely biweekly arts group taking place in a church space in Partick. That evening—a very rainy one, even for Glasgow—the attendance was fairly low, and the folks who showed up were mostly fellow spoken word artists. I realised that most of the … Continue reading Reflections on Publishing Homing
Hello everyone! I'm just catching my breath after two whirlwind tours with Loud Poets in the past three weeks, first to the Brighton Fringe, then to the Prague Fringe. Both festivals were fantastic, and I'm so grateful to the team of poets, musicians, and our videographer Perry Jonsson for working so hard to make our shows the … Continue reading Vlog with Sam Small: Regional Differences in Spoken Word
When I first began watching spoken word, it always seemed incredible to me that poets could memorise entire sets of material and perform them live what seemed like effortlessly (same goes for actors and musicians). I wondered how they held it all in their heads, and how they could still seem like they were telling a story … Continue reading Tips for Memorising Spoken Word Poems
Hello folks! So in late March/early April three of the four Loud Poets organisers went to the U.S., myself included, and participated in the spoken word scene there. I was back on the East Coast for a visit home, during which I took part in two poetry events and taught two spoken word workshops on my undergraduate … Continue reading Comparing the U.S. & U.K. Spoken Word Scenes
Hello all! This week I'm delighted to feature a guest piece by my dear friend Freddie Alexander on this site. I met Freddie the first time I moved to Edinburgh, in 2012, and was blown away by his tight writing and his energetic, intense performance style. Freddie currently organises the monthly Edinburgh Open Mic Inky Fingers, and has … Continue reading Guest Post: Freddie Alexander on Crowdfunding
Hello, everyone! I'm very excited to finally share a project I've been developing for a while. Last year, Sarah Hamlin and I co-organised a conference called Poetic Politics: Culture and the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum, One Year On which took place at the National Library of Scotland in September 2015. The conference focused on the cultural … Continue reading Poetic Politics: A Selection of Contemporary Scottish Political Poetry
Update: there's a great discussion going around this post where I linked it on my Facebook artist page - check it out here and please do join in! -K Yesterday the Scottish Poetry Library released its annual list of the Best Scottish Poems of 2015, a selection curated this year by novelist and poet … Continue reading Best Scottish Poems of 2015: A Response
Hi, everyone! A bit of a more personal post today. This year Loud Poets is working with the great folks at Fathers Network Scotland to make poetry about dads and widen the conversation about contemporary fatherhood. In January I filmed a poetry video and interview with them about my experience of being a donor-conceived child. I've performed … Continue reading New poetry video: “Dear”
