Live and Uncensored - Poetry and Song at the Craft Inn in Bearwood has all of the hallmarks of the Stones' 68 Rock'n'Roll Circus event. With Poetry! In Bearwood! Curated by critically acclaimed poets, Pixievic & Louise Hart, Live and Uncensored has drawn a cavalcade of all-stars from the world of grown up (V-E-R-Y) poetry and is alive with the excitement wrought by the possibility of the unpredictable. Very.
Co-hosts, Pixievic and Louise Hart had been planning to do something together for a while. They knew the Craft Inn and it seemed like a great space to generate a cool atmosphere over poems, songs and beers. "In the end, the show came together pretty quickly," Pixievic tells me when we meet at Bearwood's Why Not Coffee shop. "When I approached them, they really wanted to get something going, and it all came together in about three weeks."
This, despite her hectic schedule of poetry, parenting, percussion for a popular ceilidh band and stage managing two national touring theatrical shows... Pixievic seems undaunted by amount of ground she covers... "There's definitely a vibe in Bearwood now," she says, "there's something happening in Bearwood and the Craft Inn is part of that." Pixievic says, "Along with Why Not, The Outsideleft Night's Out and the music at the Midland and the Bear Tavern... I used to live in Moseley and it feels a bit like that here now, how Moseley felt maybe 10 years ago."
Pixicvic
Headlining Live and Uncensored, will be the award winning Wolverhampton poet laureate, Emma Purshouse. But the whole evening is packed with great entertainers. Emma is charismatic, incisive and funny and doesn't see the world the way you see it...
Bringing back
the bingo babes
from planet Mecca
in the faraway galaxy
of Wednesbury
Star Taxis - Captain's Log
If only you could get into a decent game of bingo this side of Rolfe Street these days...
Emma Purshouse
While Emma closes the show, the night will also feature performances by March's aforementioned Pixievic, whose sweetly acerbic chapters on life and relationships never cease to entertain and in some instances shock audiences too. Her presence, and the immediate power of her performance belies the fragility present of our carefully constructed personal bomb shelter shacks we refuge in. Maybe, baby, that's not you. I don't know. Come along and find out.
Co-host, Louise Hart has recently published Frogs For Patti Smith, a collection of some of the favorite poems she has written in the past few years. If you've ever found yourself on a strangers' living room floor, late at night, doing anything to stay there, to stay warm. You won't doubt the authenticity of what she says. Frogs for Patti Smith is available from Plastic Brain Press. Some pages can be read here. Find it for yourself.
Louise Hart reads...
It would be remiss to fail to mention the men in the room, acclaimed poets Glyn Philips & Patrick B Deenihan will be there, while Dik Guru will be the lone fellow with a guitar. We love his songs of not such loveable losers... The last time we saw him, at the Chaos Acoustic Club, oh man, he brought the house down.
Essential Info:
Live & Uncensored - Poetry & Song
Thursday, March 12th
Craft Inn
Bearwood Road, Bearwood
on Facebook
Emma Purshouse's website
Frogs for Patti Smith at Amazon
Pixievic in Outsideleft