April 28th saw the first chapter of what we hope will be long story about the creation and performance of Spoken Word at The Stove. Stove members Sarah Indigo and Eryl Shields led a day that began with a rotation of three workshops for local school students. These were in creative writing, performing your words and words inspired by thinking about the future of food (this last being run by Open Jar Collective).

The evening saw the arrival of three poets from the Glasgow and Edinburgh Bram E Gieben, Mark McGhee and Emily Elver. Together with Sindigo, these three led a group workshop for emerging writers and poets in Dumfries. The workshop then followed into an evening of performance. An gathering of 20+ audience and performers sat rapt for almost 3 hours of performances from an age group ranging from 12 to 80+…….many who stood on the Open Mouth stage were performing their work in public for the first time.

Sindigo declared it ‘one of the best days of her working life’!