What a magical night! Managed to get 21 open mic-ers on the stage, and managed not to cry too much. Thank you so much to everyone who came out last night. It was the best poetry send off I could have imagined.
@poetryatsweeneys will be back on the 3rd Wednesday of the month with wonderful new host @sarahthebeaverwritesstuff ! But next time you’ll get 5 whole mins on the stage and not just one poem 😈
We’re back on the 18th of March!
Come on down to read some poems. Doors at 7pm, for a 7.30pm start!
If you haven’t managed to make it yet, this’ll be the night to do it! @meronshea (me!) is heading back to New Zealand a week later. So I want to see as many poets as possible up on that stage 🌻
The night will keep running as usual after I’m gone, but we’ll give you more information about that closer to the time. For now, send me a dm if you’re keen to do some poems 🕺🌻👻🐉💕🚂
It was such a pleasure to perform at @queertheoryglasgow on Valentine’s Day! 💖
It was particularly special to be there because on my second day in Glasgow I turned up to Queer Theory having no idea what to expect. At that point I was only just starting to write poetry and I’d never performed it before. The poet that night was Sofia Siren, an incredibly talented writer and performer (who has since become one of my best friends in Glasgow) and met @gabriel.starr one of my other best friends here. It was a deeply inspiring night of wildly talented artists - drag performers, comedians, burlesque dancers etc. While I was enjoying the spectacle, there was this part of me that wondered - could I ever be good enough to be booked here?
So to be standing on that stage less than two years later was pretty fucking cool. I was also brave enough to perform a WIP poem that is maybe the most unhinged thing I’ve ever written and tried to perform (also maybe my favourite), and it went down so well. Which was such strong validation of my skills as a writer and performer.
I’m so proud of myself for getting to where I am. For working so hard and throwing myself into this world I knew nothing about. For taking risks and not letting my fear of failure stop me from just trying shit out. It’s been one of the greatest joys my life.
With things in my life changing quite drastically very soon, I feel like it’s important for me to reflect on everything I’ve achieved. And this feels like the perfect moment for that 🌻
Thank you so much to @dumivisuals for these wonderful pictures!
Thank you so much to everyone who came down last night! Was wonderful to have such a bustling room for our first time back 🕺💖🌻
We’re back again on Wednesday the 18th of March!
Image description: slides show four different poets standing on a stage, speaking into a microphone. Blue light shines in their faces.
The open mic is back, baby!!!
Sign ups are open for Wednesday the 18th of Feb.
☀️ 7.30 - 9.30pm
☀️Sweeney’s on the Park
☀️5 minute slots
☀️Beginner friendly
☀️Prose and storytelling also welcome!
☀️Every 3rd Wednesday of the month
See you there! Or see you square!
“𝙄𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚...𝙖 𝙫𝙞𝙗𝙚?”
Was a pleasure capturing @meronshea during the Bravehearts fundraiser, their work is so profound and has honestly been bouncing in my head for weeks💭
#freelancer #freelancephotographer #scottishphotographer #eventphotographers #eventphotographyservices #lightroom #transrights #transfundraiser #stereoglasgow #glasgowpride #prideevent #LGBTQ #queerphotographer #poet #nonbinarypoet #slampoetry #spokenword #newzelandpoet
✨Come see me at the Edinburgh Fringe, baby ✨
“Questions for my ancestors” is a 45 minute, solo, spoken word poetry show that I worked my wee ass off on.
The show weaves between irreverence and deep earnestness as I reflect on setting up a life in Scotland and what brought me here. I explore what it means to be in a place where I have ancestral connections to the land for the first time in my life.
I started seriously writing and performing poetry a little over a year ago so embarking on writing a 45 minute show was fucking terrifying. But it’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done - and I’ve not even performed it yet! It would mean the world to see you there 🌻😈🕺
It’s at @kafekweer from 12.10pm to 12.55pm on the 2nd - 9th of August! I’m performing with @pbhspokenword@thefreefringe so entry is completely freeeee 💖
🎉🎉 ANNOUNCEMENT #2 🎉🎉
Join us on July 14th at The Old Toll Bar for a preview of Spoken Word at this year's PBH Free Fringe.
10 poets with solo shows at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August will be performing 10 minute tasters of their show.
Up next for you, we have:
Dean Tsang
Dean Tsang is a critically acclaimed spoken word poet based in Edinburgh. From soft dollops and light reflections to heart pounding arrhythmias and fierce flows, Our Anxious Measurements is a trilogy exploring anxiety as a wheel, as a search for answers and as a collective response. Over 40 different metrics work to bring laughter, calm, hope, anger, sadness and proof that anxiety is its own spectrum and not simply a weakness. Dean’s work has been featured twice in Loud Poet’s Best of Fringe series and has won the Bay Fringe Critics Choice Award.
Meron McCardle
What does it mean to be known? To know a person? To know a place? In this high-energy poetry show, Meron McCardle uses their move from Aotearoa, NZ to Scotland to explore ancestral connection to land, and the messiness of building a life as a queer, neuro-divergent 30 year old. Both irreverent and deeply earnest, expect to laugh and maybe cry.
From @meronshea , a poem about where imagination takes us - and where it lingers.
We're so grateful to @paisleybookfest for partnering with us on this event! PBF is a festival that foregrounds bold ideas and radical thinking, showcasing the best in Scottish writing, platforming the voices and stories of everyday people.
Thank you to @creativescots and the National Lottery for supporting the Loud Poets 2024-25 Season.
#Performancepoetry #Spokenword #ScottishPoetry #PoetrySlam #SlamPoetry #Poetry #Poetrycommunity #Poet #Poems #Poem #LoudPoets #Iamloud #PoeticLicence #arspoetica #Imagination #MeronMcCardle
I dance
I dance for your dollars
I dance for your eyes
I dance for your attention
For your distraction
For your pleasure and for mine
I dance so you’ll see me
And I’ll feel me
And so that you will take this moment to be with me and my worries
I dance so you will consider giving even if you haven’t yet or even if you have before
————
I dance so you will consider donating to Hazem’s family, stuck in G@za . Thanks to many of you Hazem was able to escape but his family, the Balousha’s are still stuck in G@za . Hazem left his parents and his four younger siblings behind when he left.
He is a 23 year old separated from his family. Please donate today. Go to the link in my bio.
#poetry #nzpoetry #dance #mutualaid
Bye NZ 👋
Here’s a poem I wrote about leaving Wellington
—————
A still life
The golden, molten light inside me leaves blazing trails across the city, illuminating my life in this place and all the paths I have tread and retread.
It’s a crisscross of vibrance, some routes are deep rivers of gold and others shallow streams.
Bells ring across the city from each moment of conversation. They create cacophony down the streets I’ve lived and in the buildings I’ve worked. The sound peels across roads, ricocheting off the structures that make up this place.
They’ll fade. They’ve reached a crescendo, but they’ll fade. The gold will begin to dry up. This vast network of brilliance no longer living and changing, but a picture of what used to be. An artwork. A still life of my years here.
#nzpoetry #poetry #queerpoetry
