For this edition of Spoken Word Spotlight, we find ourselves in Coventry at Fire & Dust.
Fire & Dust originally started back in 2014 as a one-off peace poetry event, to mark 100 years since the start of World War One. It proved to be successful, so the organisers decided to make it a regular event.
It’s currently run by Ann Atkins & Raef Boylan, so I recently caught up with Ann to find out a bit more about their event.
What inspired you to start the event?
Raef was there from the beginning as an audience member and poet, and when Adam moved away he took it over, so that Coventry would hold onto its only regular poetry event. I came as an audience member early in 2018 my debut open mic was the start of a spoken word / poetry addiction.
Ann joined the hosting team in 2020 as Zoom tech co-host, and has continued to run Fire & Dust Poets Zoom Around the World as a separate event, on the second Thursday of every month.
What makes this event stand out/special?
The variety of poets on the open mic and the outstanding feature poets make the event special. We’ve created a community of poets in Coventry and the surrounding areas who are supportive and encouraging. We have fresh new voices alongside seasoned performers each month and the events are welcoming and inclusive, we get a mix of ages, backgrounds and our venue is wheelchair accessible. Our gigs are free to enter / pay as you feel so we don’t exclude anyone on the basis of income.
What would you like to see/encourage in the local poetry/spoken word scene?
We’d like to see more of our poets go on to greater things, already both the past and present Coventry Poet Laureates have been Fire & Dust poets and several of our open mic poets have gone to feature at other gigs, and have had poems, pamphlets and collections published. We also have the Spirit of Fire & Dust Anthology (Allographic Press 2022) featuring a wide range of poets from both our Coventry and online events.
What are your hopes & plans for the future?
We are waiting for confirmation of a venue when the LTB closes (currently scheduled for the end of September). So far, Fire & Dust has been hosted in a canal-side pub, a converted church spire, a bookshop, a cafe/bar and in the art galleries of The LTB… we’re intrigued to see where we’ll go next! We have other ideas in early stages subject to funding and time, we rely on donations and our hosts do this for the love alongside other commitments.
Regularity: Monthly
When: 1st Thursday of every month at 7:30pm
Where: Ground floor of LTB Showrooms, 1 Warwick Row, CV1 1EX (w3w = ///squad.trial.voices)
Approx 7 minutes walk from Coventry rail station, or 10 minutes walk from Pool Meadow buss station.
Approx 2 minutes walk from Barracks Multi-Storey car park.
Disabled access: All areas of ground floor except stage.
Bar: On ground floor – open during events.
Cost: Free entry – pay what you feel in donations jar.
Further details/Social Media: Via Fire & Dust Poetry’s Linktree. Also, you can read interviews with previous Fire & Dust headliners, plus other poetry news, on the Here Comes Everyone Blog.
LTB is a not for profit diy Arts, Music & Community venue, aiming to provide a showcase for Coventry’s grassroots culture.
You can discover more about them and other events on the LTB Showrooms website
Ann Atkins’s debut collection Not A Robot (Allographic Press) 2023 and other information including where she’s performing and how to book her for gigs are available by visiting her linktree
Raef Boylan is the editor of upcoming Comma Press anthology ‘The Book of Coventry‘ and has been working on other projects. He’s also an editor at Here Comes Everyone magazine.
Whilst you’re here, why not read Spoken Word Spotlight May 2024 – Get Mouthy, Leicester
Image Credits: Spoken Word Spotlight banner: Scott Coe. Other images courtesy of Fire & Dust/Here Comes Everyone Magazine and LTB Showrooms.
Click here for a full list with links to all the 2024 spotlights
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