Ledbury Poetry Festival 2022
Tickets are only available from the Festival Box Office (phone 01531-636232) or www.poetry-festival.co.uk.
They are not available from the Theatre box office or phone.
Tuesday 5th July
Polar Bear 7:30pm to 8:30pm £10
Steven Camden aka Polar Bear is an award winning poet, novelist, playwright and collaborator, as well as being an internationally acclaimed spoken word artist. In that guise, Polar Bear will be performing a retrospective of his work, best loved pieces, prior to the release of a ‘Time Capsule’ of his work called The Lost Chronicle later in the year. Alongside writing for stage, page and screen, Steven teaches storytelling and leads creative projects all over the place. He has performed and taught all around the world from Manchester to Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur to California. Google him.
Wednesday 6th July
Dancing to Music You Hate with Jasmine Gardosi 7pm to 9:30pm £13
Jasmine Gardosi is an award-winning spoken word poet, beatboxer and multiple slam champion of national and international renown. This is her brand new, debut show about gender identity, coming to terms with queerness, and finding the words. Commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre, it has received standing ovations since premièring in October. Prepare for an hour of explosive dubstep bass-lines and soaring folk violin, which blow apart the boundaries of gender and musical genre alike. Watch Jasmine converse, argue and compete with a live band of instrumentalists as she cracks open the binary with boldness, humour and celebration.
Joining her are Alternative Dubstep Orchestra’s Damo Wilding (drums) and DJ C@ in the H@, trumpeter/techno artist Sam Wooster and Ire-Ish’s multi-instrumentalist Jobe Baker-Sullivan.
Apply to participate in the open mic by emailing the Poetry Festival Box Office with a brief bio. (8 open mic places available.)
This is an opportunity to experience performing your work alongside improvised musical accompaniment.
Open mic performers still need to purchase a ticket for the event.
Saturday 9th July
The Ledbury Poetry Slam 8:30pm £10
Join the Master and Mistress of Ceremonies, suave raconteur Steve Rooney and heavenly host Sara-Jane Arbury, for an energetic evening of good verbal vibrations as worldly wordsmiths take the page onto the stage to compete for points that lead to prizes! In this popular contest, brave bards will air their own poems in a bid to reach the hearts and hearing parts of the public. Selected judges award points for the quality of writing, performance and warmth of the applaudience, so who will fire on all syllables into the final and become Ledbury's Slam Star? Come and show your support with ecstatic cheering and Mexican waves for those taking a stanza on stage! To enter the Slam as a competitor, please contact Sara-Jane on 07814 830031 or by email
The Slam will be live streamed (tickets from the Festival): two contestant places will be reserved for remotely streamed poets.
Be warned! The Slam may contain adult language and subject matter.
Sunday 10th July
Another Time This Time 5pm to 6pm (includes Q&A) £5
Directed by John London and Karen Morash.
Another Time This Time is a collaborative performance drawing on existing texts and images from other times of pandemic and panic as well as contributions from the present. It is part of a wider, cross-disciplinary project titled Experiential Translation and is linked to the exhibition taking place at Ledbury Poetry House.
Some of the performance material will be generated during public workshops conducted in the exhibition on the afternoon of the show. See also the Poetry Festival brochure ‘Finding Words for the Pandemic’ workshop.
Funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and SLLF Catalyst Fund at Queen Mary University of London.
Tickets are only available from the Festival Box Office (phone 01531-636232) or www.poetry-festival.co.uk.
They are not available from the Theatre box office or phone.