No The Oxford Lit Fest

Poetikness of Me at The Not The Oxford Literary Festival

On March 30th I headed to Oxford to read some of my up coming collection Political Converse. Earlier that day I died my hair what was supposed to be purple – it came out not but that didn’t matter. I had a weekend then week then month of readings and workshops, it was time to get rid of the four inch roots plus I was nervous and this sort of thing helps me cope and actually go and perform.

Then there was the issue that due to scare mongering there was no fuel to be had so we had which set up a panic but was quickly solved and we were on our way.

We arrived in plenty of time and then spent an hour trying to find somewhere to park – we didn’t use the park and ride as our experience with it have not been good and as I’m still struggling with walking we need to be somewhere relatively near the event.

But we arrived in time to catch the end of an interesting session on self publishing and small indie presses. Including a talk from Dennis Hamley who I remembered from my school days! Though this didn’t stop me saying that if he ever met my dad and drink was involved – they would never stop discussing the war (as in WWII).

We then had some fantastic music.

Funky Music at Not The Oxford Literary Festival Cute guy playing the guitar at Not The Oxford Literary Festival

And no I don’t remember anyones names 🙁 And that goes for the poets too!

UnCut Dude

This guy had been involved in the UnCut protests and got himself arrested for being in a shop and reading poetry which is menacing behaviour – if I understood it correctly.

War Veteran reading about the homeless etc...

This guy is an ex-solider and has PTSD – his poetry was powerful and I also found out that Westminster is trying to make it illegal to help the homeless to get rid of the problem before the Olympics which makes me sick. I shall be looking into that one a bit more – the guy is involved with various charities.

Dan Holloway Reading at Not The Oxford Literary Festival 2012

Dan Holloway the organiser and runner of Eight Cuts Gallery.

I’d bought a posse:

Alaric being forced to listen to poetry Nim being forced to listen to poetry

And then sang my Shit Creek I was very nervous and struggled to get my voice out – Alaric said it was just quiet at the beginning but I still did it 🙂 I then read my poetry.

Me preparing to read at the Albion Beatnik Me Singing at the Albion Beatnik Poetikness of Me at The Not The Oxford Literary Festival

More Poets:

Occupy Poet Bird Eating Your Spin Poet Prison Underware Poet

The whole thing was run in the loveliest book shop in the world (that I have found so far). The Albion Beatnik in Oxford – it is almost what me and Alaric wanted to ran our Salaric Emporium (books, gifts, tea, think), back in my uni days.

Word Roses Visual Poetry VisPo as Ceiling Art Tea! At the Albion Beatnik

The night ended on a high with much laughter and deep thought. People left to put poetry to the public – stringing it on fences and what nots. We left to grab a veggie kebab and drive back to Gloucestershire.

Poetry Out and About

Posted: Friday, September 7th, 2012 @ 10:11 pm
Categories: Festivals and Events.
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