7:30pm - 10:00pm Poetry. Beatbox. Celtic dubstep. Dancing To Music you Hate is Jasmine Gardosi’s debut show about gender identity, coming to terms with queerness, and finding the words. 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, […]
6:30pm - 8:00pm Our regular Friday evening poetry headline event features three incredible contemporary UK poets. Nina Mingya Powles’ debut collection, Magnolia (Nine Arches Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Book of Poetry in 2020. Phoebe Stuckes, four times winner of the Foyles Young Poets Award, released her debut collection, […]
8:30pm - 10:30pm The UK’s freshest hip hop & poetry night is coming to Birmingham and featuring Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan & Otis Mensah! Join us as Pen-Ting brings you the best of UK-based poetry and hip hop with vibes higher than London rent and tastier bars than the Cadbury factory, all wrapped up in a […]
12:30pm - 1:25pm In this year’s Performance-Lecture, Stephanie Sy-Quia will use poetry to think through mixed race identity, female embodiment, and how 'structures of faith' abide in contemporary life – exploring nation states, heteronormative family ideals, and museums as shrines to colonialism. Through a diverse range of poetic and cultural touchpoints – including George Herbert's […]
2:00pm - 3:25pm Jake Wild Hall founded digital festival OOIPP in 2021 with the aim of showcasing work from the best indie publishers from across the UK. We loved it so much, we asked them to come and be in our physical space! This VERVE special event will feature Bad Betty Press, The Poetry Business […]
4:00pm - 5:00pm Twelve young writers and artists embark on a fictional train ride from Coventry to Beirut (and back again!) exploring personal and collective journeys through poetry, dance, spoken word, live performance and video. Created in partnership with Coventry City of Culture, Youthful Cities, the British Council and originally performed at the BBC’s Contains […]
5:30pm - 6:55pm Our regular Saturday evening poetry headline is always a festival highlight. This year we feature three incredible poets who are contributing ground breaking new work to the contemporary UK poetry scene. Fiona Benson's third collection, Ephemeron (Jonathan Cape, 2022) is brand new for VERVE 2022. Her previous collection, Vertigo & Ghost, […]
7:30pm - 9:30pm For Books’ Sake presents: That’s What We Said, a queer feminist poetry night led by non-binary and women performers. We aim to curate live poetry events that celebrate the power of queer identities, resilience and joy. Join us for a long-overdue party at VERVE this year, with very special guests Rosie Garland, […]
11:00am - 12:25pm The VERVE Competition on the Theme of Beginnings was open for entries in the Summer of 2021, and judged by the wonderful Caroline Bird. This FREE to attend event will feature all the winners and commended poets, as well as four commissioned poets, who will read their poems on our subject and […]
1:00pm - 2:00pm Menopause? Seriously? WTF? Join Kat for a performance of poetry from their debut collection from Verve Poetry Press and low-tech excerpts from Dry Season to launch the show’s UK tour. Expect honest explorations of perimenopausal chaos and musings on societal ideas of age and gender, as well as poems about love, grief […]
2:30pm - 3:55pm Join Argentinian poet Diana Bellessi and translator Leo Boix to celebrate the publication of To Love A Woman with Poetry Translation Centre. Bellessi is a groundbreaking writer who is been credited as the godmother of lesbian poetry in Latin America. Over the decades she has championed feminist and LGBTQI+ issues and […]
4:30pm - 6:30pm In 2001, Malika Booker and Roger Robinson were young, black poets being overlooked by the poetry establishment, but serious about their work and dedicated to their craft. They invited other poets to join them around Malika’s kitchen table in Brixton every Friday night to inspire and encourage each other, share ideas and […]
7:00pm - 8:30pm Our final headline event of the weekend brings three vital poets together to read and talk about their work. Pascale Petit's eighth collection, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe Books, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. A poem from the book won the Keats-Shelley Prize. Her seventh […]