After taking a break in 2021 due to the pandemic, VERVE returned to the Birmingham Hippodrome for our fifth edition, with our most ambitious festival yet. An extra day added to the programme meant we kicked off with the Birmingham School Slam Final, marking a return of young people’s events to VERVE, and we featured more brilliant poetry shows like Jasmine Gardosi’s Dancing to Music You Hate and extracts from Kat Lyons’ Dry Season. Our VERVE Poetry Performance Lecture in collaboration with the Poetry School returned, this time hosted by Stephanie Sy-Quia and we were proud to host showcases from Youthful Cities Exchange in the form of Transnational Lag Express and the One-off Online Poetry Festival, disproving two of their title words by putting on a second-edition of their festival on the VERVE stage. The staple brilliant workshops, glorious readings and boisterous poetry nights returned, this time with added accessibility in the form of high-quality streaming and remote options for performing and attending.