Sit down with a cup of tea, your chatty host is back once more! This time, we’re talking about a recent success that happened at the University of Brighton – The MA Spoken Word Event!

What is this ‘spoken word event’?

As a quick and brief description, a spoken word event is an event held to promote writers/poets by showing off their work to others. They can be as simple as people gathering to read to friends, or as grand as booking a slot and talking in a grander room. While you tend to see more of them targeted to poetry, prose/fiction pieces are just as valued here.

Why is this one any different?

While this might be just the same as any other spoken word event out there, I find this one rather special considering… we held it ourselves! That’s right, the MA Creative Writing students managed to organise, advertise and host their own event. With the leadership and skills of the cohort, we managed to piece together everything and host a successful event that showed off our written pieces within our theme of ‘Connection.’

 

How did it happen? What did you even do?

So… you might be surprised to hear that this was linked to our publishing course (not that is a bad thing). We were able to learn what is usually considered before the events even take place, and we implemented them. A small list of things that were considered includes (but are not limited to):

• Venue
• Theme
• Times (in general)
• Spoken pieces
• Advertising
• Overall participation
• Extra pizazz

These discussions took place over the few weeks we were planning it, with contributions from everyone in their own unique way. We played to people’s strengths and even found ways in which people didn’t even think of.

As for my part… not only did I read out a piece (something which I am oddly proud of), but I also provided moral support in the form of stickers.
Was it necessary? No. Did people still appreciate it? Yes. Nobody left without one and a smile on their face on a job well done. It’s the little things that matter too.

Would you do it again/How would you do it again?

As someone who has a ‘give everything a go once’ mentality, my verdict happens to be a firm yes to trying it again. I’d love to interact more with the process, as well as write more to a theme.
If I were to change any aspect of what happened last time, I’d say to get more involved (as I did stay on the sidelines), try to bring more people in (actually figuring that out, or seeing the social media options), and writing to the theme in a different way. While my piece did fit with ‘connections’, I came up with it before the event, which made it feel like it was forced to fit the mould.

While these points do feel vague, there wasn’t much I could think of to change, except get more people in. It has been a learning experience, and one I wish to do again at some point.

As you’re on a publishing course…does this count?

The most important question for this, to which the answer is…. yes. We’re reading our work out to a group of people, getting your name and work out there. The act of putting that into the world, no matter how big the audience, counts as publishing.
…That and the fact the acts were recorded too. Publishing takes many different forms, there’s no one way of doing it. This project has definitely shown me that.