I helped to form Milton Keynes-based collective Bardcore (don’t Google that unless you’re prepared for getting some seriously adult hits before finding us), helped to run the Milton Keynes-based event series Poetry Kapow!
, and subsequently helped to run (then hosted solo) the Cambridge branch of the Hammer & Tongue slam series after moving away, and set up nebulous poetry concept
Allographic a couple of years later. I am the slightly intermittent Spoken Word Artistic Director for PBH’s Free Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe, have run cabarets at Edinburgh Fringe and in Cambridge, and set up the dedicated spoken word stage at Cambridge’s Strawberry Fair (Wild Strawberries). And before all that I ran several small choirs in Cardiff and in workplaces in Cranfield and Cambridge. I’ve been doing this since my late teens!
I run events which are renowned for being friendly and warm, while also demonstrably safe places to be experimental or talk about difficult topics. I’m a firm and vocal proponent of no kicking down in my performance spaces, which includes encouraging artists to be kinder to themselves. If you’d like to hire me as an in-venue or virtual host for your event, you’ll be getting someone who’s been hosting successful events since the 90s.
