Poetry-Mic Shack – 19th Apr 2018

Date: Thursday 19 Apr 2017 (3rd Thursday of every 3 months)

Time: Doors open 7.30 pm

Cost: £3.00 pay at the door.

Something new opening up at the Creative Innovation Centre? Not unusual, it’s a dynamic place – but this one may be a little different. It’s The Mic Shack. You may know about Fire River Poets and their monthly poetry events (first Thursday of every month). That’s been going for 10 years, now. Why another poetry event? Well, it’s not really a poetry event. The Mic Shack will include poetry but covers a broader spectrum. It will be a performance oriented space that we hope will attract other spoken word writers/performers too. If your chosen genre demands performance skills or you would like to build the performance aspect of your work, The Mic Shack could be for you.

To be clear, we think you’ll enjoy The Mic Shack if you’re a poet, certainly, and a poet from any of the different specialisations (traditional, modern, experimental, performance) but in addition, we’re looking for rap artists, singer/songwriters, and stand-up artists, all of any standard, whether established, up-and-coming or beginners, who would like to help build a place where we can all get together and make our thing happen. That would make a change in Taunton, wouldn’t it?

You will be among friends in The Mic Shack. Like minded people. You can present new material, experiment with different techniques or just dazzle us with your skill. All good. Each year since it began, Taunton Live has raised the profile of the arts considerably. The Mic Shack wasn’t there this year but there were poets on Castle Green – and in the Winchester Arms. And at Somerfest, earlier in the year, there was a poetry slam. That’s new this year! Slams have been tried before – many years ago – but not got very far in stale old Taunton. If we want to encourage our established performers and develop the new talent coming up from the schools and universities and heaven knows from where else, we can’t stay stale old Taunton. I hear Somerfest plan to organise an annual Poetry Slam. That might be something to look out for.

And have you got younger siblings, or children yourself, or grandchildren? Did you know about the Somerset Young Poets Competition? It’s been going for three years now. Children enjoy writing poetry and there’s nothing like a competition to spark their interest. That’s a good way of encouraging the next generation to develop their skills and start performing. I suppose I might say The Mic Shack is about the celebratory nature of performance which it is but that sounds a bit over the top. Even so, it’s not just about learning and developing and entertaining people. Performing is always something more.

Down to the details: The Mic Shack is set to have regular evenings (once a quarter we hope to start with) essentially for performers and would be performers to get together, perform and see each other perform, have a good time. And if you don’t write and perform, you can come along and listen. Maybe learn something. Maybe get inspired …

The Mic Shack is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/974074172662052/ so join us and spread the word.

Join the Facebook group; come along; and lets get this show on the road!