Open Mic – The Stove Network

Brave New Words once again returned to The Stove, on Friday 30^th September, for a special night celebrating the first anniversary of this monthly platform for new writing, spoken and sung. The night consisted of an extraordinary mix of performance by local poets and songwriters, featuring film, music and a specially commissioned performance from local artists Michael Sullivan and Lee McQueen.

To celebrate their first birthday, Brave New Words teamed up with blueprint100 to create a special zine for the night. Blueprint100 held various workshops throughout the month of September, in which previous participants of the open mic night submitted their original poetry and artwork to be part of the zine. The zine is currently available in The Stove Café for a small donation, with all proceeds going towards The Sindigo Foundation.

Martin O’Neill, who runs Brave New Words, commented, “The past year has been incredible, we’ve seen people grow more confident with each month, heard some of the most inspiring poetry and played host to dynamic people, workshops and ideas. We were really pleased with the amount of people that came along to be a part of Brave New Words, and we would like to thank all the participants for contributing, as well as anyone who picked up a zine and donated money.”

The open mic night is part of our mission to bring vibrancy to evenings in the Town Centre. Through various performances, the event aims to challenge stigmas and stereotypes, whilst offering support to those willing to make a positive and impactful change in their home town and beyond. Over the past year, Brave New Words has held workshops with community groups, the general public and schools, in which they aim to celebrate diversity, and understand creative writing. They have also had the opportunity to host some of Scotland’s biggest names in the spoken word scene, voyaged to festivals, created multi-disciplinary installations and uncovered some incredible talent right here in the heart of Dumfries.

Brave New Words will return to The Stove on the 28^th of this month for a special Halloween Spectacular open mic night.

To take part and for more information on events, please email [email protected].

Building on the success of Open Mouth during The Stove’s Open House events, we welcome back Sindigo and Eryl Shields, alongside curatorial member Martin O’Neill who are hosting Brave New Words, a day of performance poetry and spoken word at the Stove. Brave New Words is an afternoon of free discussion events, workshops and one to one consultations for the aspiring performance poet, followed in the evening by Dumfries’ first ever poetry Slam, with the winner securing a place in the Scottish Slam Championships in Glasgow!
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or have never done it before we want to hear from you!
There is absolutely no restriction on content.
For full instructions, to take part or for more information send an email to: [email protected]

Detailed below are the times and content of the discussion events and workshops:

2PM – 3PM: Sotirius Frantzanas: Democracy: What does it mean now?

Sotirius shall host a discussion on the meaning of democracy in the 21^st Century. How does it relate to the current political landscape and in turn, our personal life? Is there such a thing as a truly democratic society? An open discussion and lecture on the process, philosophy and meaning of democracy in 2015.

democracy473 — Democracy. Ligorano/Reese.

3PM – 4PM: Emily Elver: Personal is Political

Emily Elver is a ground-breaking spoken word performer from Edinburgh who combines the shocking and mysterious with the mundane, disgusting and delightful. There is no subject matter off limits and she deals out laughter and gasps in equal measure. She co-hosts Poetry Circus and is editor of Edinburgh’s newest literary magazine Freak Circus

Emily’s workshop aims to help remove some of the stumbling blocks aspiring writers and new performers have when trying to tell a personal tale. Emily will offer guidance on how to approach personal subjects confidently through discussions and readings of her work, followed by one to one advice and mentoring for the aspiring performance poet.

4PM – 5PM: Rory O’B: Rhyming and Rapping

Rory O’B is a fiercely intelligent rapper and talented musician from Oban. He has played at Kelburn, Audio Soup and The Loch Lomond Boat Party and performs to enthusiastic crowds both as a solo artist and with Ciaran Mac. He is currently part of Volition in Glasgow and runs exciting rap workshops for young people.

Rory O’B’s workshop looks at the origins of Hip-Hop culture, where it’s going and how we can relate it to our lives. Participants will have the chance to write their own rap, get to grips with rhythms, rhyming techniques and patterns with the opportunity to perform what they’ve written to the group.

7PM – Slam Championships

Brace yourselves for Dumfries’ first ever poetry Slam! Expect the controversial, heartfelt, beautiful, disgusting and joyous. Staged in three rounds, the winner will go on to compete in the Scottish Slam Championships in Glasgow.

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