SpokenWord Paris

Walt Whitman said to have great poets, you must have great audiences.

And with the temporary closure of the Chat Noir’s basement ours has been dropping. And no wonder! Not everyone wants to battle to be heard in a noisy bar nor strain to hear the poetry. We lost something of what made SpokenWord at the Chat Noir special – the quiet, the attention of all those people listening to each poet, listening like what they said was vital. We lost the ‘safe enough’ space that those walls and door provided that allowed anyone to step up and wear their heart on their sleeve and risk being vulnerable or take a chance trying out something new.

We lost, in short, something that made SpokenWord Paris magical.

So.

As the news is that the Chat Noir’s basement will stay closed for up to 4 months…

We’re moving on Monday to try out SpokenWord in a similar space… the ‘cave’ of the Hirondelle bar, 25 rue de l’Hirondelle 75006 just near Métro Saint Michel.

Come out and support SpokenWord!

Siobhán “Shiv” Hickey is a Dublin-based actor, poet and Artistic Director of After Midnight Theatre.With over 20 years experience in performance, Shiv has been involved in all aspects of the stage from writing to directing to producing to marketing. In 2018,  Shiv developed and performed her one woman comedy show ‘Dear Diary… and other notions of a romantic nature’ which was also performed at Dublin’s FRAYED fringe Festival in 2019. Shiv wrote ‘Voices’ and ‘Dear Death’ both of which were performed as part of the Smock Allies Scene+Heard Festival in Smock Alley, 2020 and 2022 respectively. Both shows received top reviews describing her work as “honest”, “evocative”, and “pure poetry”. This year she directed and produced the first full length production for After Midnight Theatre, ‘Reasons to be Pretty’ which sold out 5 nights in the Teachers’ Club and received some amazing feedback. Shiv has published two collections of poetry ‘After Midnight’ (2020) and ‘Scribbles from an Anxious Mind’ (2022) – some of which she has performed in venues around Dublin and on The Word Stage at Electric Picnic 2022. Her work is influenced by the works of Leonard Cohen, Jim Morrison, and Emily Dickinson, as well as by modern Irish spoken word artists Vagabond Queen and Emmet O’Brien and the music of Paddy Dennehy and MILCK.

More details to follow

Ann Condron, ”The Vagabond Queen”, is a mysterious, hat-wearing Spoken Word Artist and Writer from Dublin, Ireland. Showcasing her work since October 2021, she has since established a name for herself within a creative community in Dublin. Performing at various shows, Vagabond has shared her story at many guest appearances, and has also performed her pieces at Electric Picnic this year. Her work is heavily influenced by the inner and outer journey we encounter through growth and healing, while also encouraging the listener to find strength and light through developing a healthy relationship with the demons and shadows who walk beside us on our paths. Captivating an audience with words and rhymes that delve deep into the conscious of human existence, her writings speak of wrong roads travelled, the power of death and rebirth, and urban esoteric symbolism found in the places she has roamed. The Vagabond Queen also hosts and organizes behind the scenes at one of Dublin’s most beloved cultural nights, The Smithfield Creatives, every Wednesday. With much more to come in 2023, she is enjoying the process of this poetic journey.

Trudie Gorman is a working-class writer whose work explores the personal and political interplaybetween class, gender, and the body. She has performed her poetry across Ireland and theUK and has published pieces in The Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry NI, Two Metre Review and The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices. Her work has also been broadcast on BBC Radio London. She was selected for Poetry Ireland Versify Series 2019 and has been awarded a writing residency at the Centro Culturel Irlandais in December 2022. Trudie believes in the revolutionary power of poetry and community.

Emmet O’Brien is not your generic poet, bursting into the scene in March 2017, Emmet has done more than your average 24 year old. Within the first 3 years alone he released a book, entitled “A Perspective From The Corrupt Mind Of The Youth” where he discusses various taboo subjects such as substance abuse, religion, and everything to do with the session. The poet was one of the first poets to be published in “District” magazines newsletter, aswell as various videos reaching tens of thousands of views. O’Brien, best known for his video “the North side” is also an event organiser, starting his poetry and music event “Vybrations” in June 2017. it saw incredible success, with amazing artists such as Colm Keegan and Hazel Hogan prefoming at it. The poet extraordinaire then moved on to run a second regular night, called “Phat Cones” which showcased Ireland’s best poets and rappers while educating people on the benefits and positives of medicinal cannabis. The magical wordsmith released his second book, entitled “Yup Ouveh” in May 2018, where copies were sold in both Ireland and the UK, aswell as copies being sold in Nigeria. O’Briens third book, entitled “The Illusion Of Perception ” released in March 2019. A play adaptation of the book was launched in March 19, and the event sold out in less than 12 hours. If that isn’t prolific enough, O’Brien has had many festival shows, playing Electric Picinc, Knockanstockan, Body & Soul, and All Together Now. In 2022, O’Brien had his latest poem “Story bud?” muralised onto the walls of temple bar in Dublin city centre. Most recently, O’Brien has played 2 shows in the Gate Theatre, supporting BAC’s beat boxing adaptation of Frankenstein.

https://www.hotpress.com/music/emmet-obrien-releases-new-spoken-wordrap-fusion-dreams-22811679
https://kellydarcy.wordpress.com/2021/02/10/dublins-favourite-northsider-emmet-obrien/

Kevin P. Gilday is an award-winning poet, writer and performer from Glasgow. He is the founder of poetry performance collective The Scribbler’s Union and was co-founder of much loved spoken word cabaret night Sonnet Youth. He is a National Theatre of Scotland Breakthrough Writer, a BBC Writersroom Scottish Voice and one of Scotland’s most celebrated contemporary poets. Kevin has performed all over the world, from Hollywood to East Kilbride, including major festivals (BBC 6Music Festival, Glastonbury), Fringes (Edinburgh, Toronto, Vancouver), literary festivals (EIBF) as well as large scale tours of the UK, Europe, the US and Canada. He has supported artists and public figures such as Akala, Saul Williams, George the Poet, Jackie Kay, Liz Lochhead, Sage Francis, The Silencers and Jeremy Corbyn MP. He has published five books of poetry, with his most recent – Anxiety Music – released by Verve Press in September of 2022 to universal acclaim

Clifton Joseph is an awardwinning Antiguan born Canadian poet. He was a co-founder of De Dub Poets with Lillian Allen and Devon Haughton, the group that started Canada’s dub poetry movement. An esteemed broadcaster, journalist, writer and musical intervener, Joseph is celebrating the launch of his latest album and book, Shots On Eglinton. Joseph’s work has been included in literary anthologies such as Wheel and Come Again, edited by Kwame Dawes (Gooselane Productions 1988), Walter Rodney: Poetic Tributes by Bruce St John (Bogle-l’Ouverture Press Ltd, 1993), Verbal Rhythms: The Politics of Aesthetics of African Canadian Dub Poetry by Christian Habekost 1993, Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground by Klive Walker (Insomniac Press 2005), Black Like Who: Writing in Canada.”

You can find other photos and more info at Clifton’s website https://cliftonjoseph.com

Jeff Cottrill is a novelist, performance poet and journalist based in Toronto, Canada. He has headlined in numerous literary series throughout Canada, the U.K., the U.S., France and Ireland over the past twenty years. His performance style is influenced by slam conventions, but subverts them with wit, ironic humour and a satirical tone. Over the past year, Jeff has had poetry and flash fiction published in several international anthologies, from New York to Australia. Other short fiction and poems by him have appeared in The South Shore Review and The Dreaming Machine. In March, Jeff launched Hate Story, his seventh or eighth attempt at a first novel, and his poem “This Is Not Real Poetry” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize last year. Jeff likes movies, travel, and puppies.

Skylar J Wynter is the best-selling Author of poetry and flash fiction collection, Pieces of Humanity released in 2020 and is currently on tour to promote her most recent publication, a collaborative collection of art and poetry entitled, Shine.Travelling from Australia with artist, Neshka Turner, Skylar has spent October featuring at events in Aberdeen, Manchester, Derry, Wales, Birmingham, Worcester, Leeds, Leicester, Stamford and Peterborough. Fom Paris, she will be travelling to Derry, Belfast and Letterkenny to wrap up the tour.

Neshka Turner is an emerging Australian artist living in sunny Perth, Western Australia. Born in Poland in the 70s, she was moved to Germany at 14 then to Australia.She has studied art under her mother’s guidance since childhood. Attended Sydney College of the Arts in the 90s. Her career has taken her on a different path before rediscovering creativity in the 2020s.  She has worked in retail, IT, training, HR, adult and children education. Now she illustrates book covers, poems and more. She works in most media, including coloured pencil, charcoal, hard, soft and oil pastels, acrylic, oils. Her subjects are all and many.

Carrie Chappell is the author of Loving Tallulah Bankhead (Paris Heretics 2022) and Quarantine Daybook (Bottlecap Press 2021). Her poems have been published in Iron Horse Literary Review, Nashville Review, Redivider, SWIMM, and Yemassee, and her essays have previously appeared in DIAGRAM, Fanzine, New Delta Review, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, The Rupture, and Xavier Review. Each spring, she curates Verse of April. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans’ Creative Writing Workshop and is Instructor of English at the Sorbonne Panthéon University.