Dublin's Finest Performance Poets @...

Poetry Place
at
Central Library
(Conference Room, 2nd floor)

Foyle Street, Derry
(opposite the Bus Depot)

in association with

BBC RaW
on

Thursday 11 October

7pm - 8:30pm

Featuring

Some of Dublin's Finest Performance Poets:

Desmond Swords

Desmond Swords is a poet from Ormskirk in Lancashire, whose parents are from Mayo. Poetry Director of the Monster Truck Art Gallery, Desmond’s main research area is the four cycles of Irish myth. He is one of the country's most gifted live poets, is a Cuírt Poetry SLAM finalist and the catalyst responsible for initiating the Inaugural All Ireland SLAM Poetry Championship in 2007. His work has appeared in numerous mainstream and avant-garde print and internet publications throughout Europe and America, including Blazevox, Aesthetica, Neon Highway, X Magazine and West 47. His practice is at the cutting edge of internet technology and he is currently number one of the 17 poets and 37 poems showcased in the Ó Bhéal "youtube" Irish poetry charts. A regular at the Open Mics of Dublin, he has a honed live skill and his work appears all over the internet in poetry and prose.

Nicholas 'Birch' Jackman

Wicklow-born poet Birch performs his work in Dublin and was a popular and compelling performer at this year's Electric Picnic. His work straddles the border between poetry and song and is a very charasmatic entertainer. Flawless in his intonation, he is part of the new wave of live poets throwing off the shackles of the page in Ireland and was one of the original SLAM poets at Dublin's infamous weekly Write & Recite nights since in began in 2004.
"My work does tend to come close to the brink of a very fine line of song, comedy, spoken word and beats. Political diatribe wrapped up in snappy little pieces and one or two epics is how I'd sum up my work. I aim to please. I aim to entertain. I don't write for me; I write for 'you' - the audience (but feel free to boo me if you like, I have a very hard neck!)"
Original pieces to be performed on the night include Roma Gypsies, Mortgages, Scoring Big Ladies and many more.

Raven
Originally from San Francisco, now residing in Dublin, Raven is one of Ireland's most prolific, entralling and exciting live poets with a rare gift of passion, power and sincerity in both his words and delivery. Runner-up at the Inaugural Electric Picnic Poetry SLAM 2007, he performs at many poetry events and Open Mics in and around Dublin. He is also a regular visitor to the North-West.
"I found my orphaned voice one day, living in the ruins of a house collapsed years ago beneath the weight of what was unspoken. I sculpted diction like pulp fiction and gifted it the colloquial violence of a gun. I lifted glib scriptures from a street preacher's passions to fashion misspelled gospels from its own fears, while the illegible heart left the tracts of its tears untranslated - but the word got out."

PJ Brady

Cavan Poet, actor and Patrick Kavanagh expert, PJ Brady and former Director of the Dry Bread Theatre Company (1987-2002) is the current Director of the Arts Organisation Phoenix Dawn. He has played the role of the Monaghan poet for over twenty years in five one and two men shows, including the acclaimed theatrical piece Heart Laid Bare by Hugh Carr, whereby 95 per cent of the script was culled from Kavanagh's own prose. He has also played the poet on the hundredth anniversary of his birth in the Church where Kavanagh was finally laid to rest and works with victims of state and church abuse, helping them heal with the poetry of the Monaghan Magus. Other credits include numerous TV and screen appearances plus radio broadcasts, namely RTE's Music of Words co-hosted with Des Gerrathy, and alongside Pat Boran on The Enchanted Way as the Leaving Cert Kavanagh expert. His poetry has appeared in various publications including the Anglo Celt and Drumlin; the latter a magazine published by Cavan Arts Council.

Jessica Peart

Jessica Peart is a PHD student and English lecturer at Maynooth College, Dublin, and is currently working on a dissertation on Contemporary Irish Poetry which includes the Belfast Poets Ciaran Carson and Medbh McGuckian. Jessica lives in Dublin and is a regular reciter at the various Open Mics. Her work is evocative, unique and intelligent, with a linguistic valency of a very high order. She recently performed at this year's Patrick Kavanagh Celebration in Dublin.

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Poetry Place is a newly-formed open poetry appreciation group based in Derry's Central Library, in Foyle Street, who meet up once a month to listen to, discuss and appreciate poetry of all kinds. Featuring guest readers and followed by open readings from the floor, it is held in a relaxed, informal setting where everyone is welcome.

Admission is FREE and light refreshments are available.

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Past Poetry Place guests have included:

Citizen 32 Company of Poets from Manchester: Chloe Poems, Rosie Lugosi, John G Hall, Conor A and Jackie Hagan): from Belfast (Brian Bailey, Gerard McKeown and Mark Cooper); from Derry (the Poetry Chicks, the Derry Playhouse Writers' Group and the Derry Scriptwriters' Group) plus poets from Limavady and Magilligan; the Roe Valley Writers' Group, the Ballycastle Writers’ Group, Co Antrim and from Co Donegal: the Inch Island Writers' Group and best-selling Culdaff-author Hazel McIntyre, including performances and readings from many other local and visiting writers.

For more details please contact the Central Library, Derry tel: 02871-272300

or Jenni Doherty email: irishpenjen@yahoo.co.uk