Wonder in Wales: All Wales poetry event celebrates national poetry day

Nation.Cymru Staff

On Sunday 4 October, in celebration of National Poetry Day, three spoken word/poetry groups in Wrexham, Carmarthen and Llantwit Major joined forces for the first All Wales Hybrid Poetry event.

Poems covered a range of themes from ‘Wonder’ — this year’s National Poetry Day theme — to wild swimming, biscuits, and peace. 

The event, in which over seventy people participated, rotated across three venues, with local poets performing their work and readings live-streamed onto big screens in other venues and online.

Three venues, four hosts

Voicebox, in Wrexham, was hosted by Natasha Borton, while Dominic Williams from Write4Word hosted at Cwrw in Carmarthen, which was also the command centre for the hybrid element of the event.

Dominic’s spoken word night has its own regular international online community, which brought readers from across the world including Mexico and Sweden.

In Llantwit Major Poetry and Pints, which is hosted by Sarah Persson, teamed up with Cardiff’s Urban Wordsmiths run by Dai Woolridge to jointly celebrate poetry at the event which lasted more than four hours. 

Kath Giblin of Bardic Books in Llantwit Major described the day as “a beautifully orchestrated chorus of voices raised in poetry.”

Poetry regular Gilli-Ann Prevett added that it offered “Welsh experiences, shared by the magic that only poetry can bring.”

A hybrid event

Dominic Williams shared more about the Write4Word’s hybrid event, saying: “Like many poets I became a member of several international creative communities online sharing our poetic voices during lockdown.

“As director of Write4Word, we also took our own regular participatory spoken-word community event online. We discovered this channel made our event accessible to poetic friends and comrades across the globe and to disabled poets in Wales, some of whom, prior to lockdown had never had the access to such community events.”

He described how “we have been visited by poets from all over Wales who are stunned by the international reach of the event and amazed at the natural integration of technology. My ambition was to introduce this model nationally.”

“On occasion, we have delivered events with up to three physical venues linked in Wales, Sweden and Denmark,” Dominic added. “I was excited by the opportunity this model had to connect grassroots communities and small venues across Wales. I am so proud of the work that Sarah and Natasha have done to bring this vision to practice.”

From Radio to Reality 

The catalyst for the link-up was an interview on Bro Radio’s First Draft, a monthly show on which Sarah Persson interviews writers, publishers and industry experts connected to Wales.

The aim of the show is to demystify the world of publishing and to offer tips and advice to writers. 

Sarah interviewed Natasha, and during their conversation about bringing north and south Wales closer together, the idea quickly turned into a shared determination to make it happen. After a few meetings with Dominic and Dai Woolridge, the event came to fruition.

Natasha said: “The All Wales Poetry Open Mic was born from a simple but important idea: that our poetry communities should have more opportunities to come together, hear each other’s voices and feel part of a shared national conversation.

“By bringing poetry together from north east Wales to south Wales through a hybrid event, we were able to connect communities across the geography of Wales and beyond.

“From the hybrid expertise of Dominic Williams at Write4WEord, holding space in south Wales between Sarah and Dai, and a push from the north with Voicebox, what made the event so special was the grassroots poetry scene showing the sheet breadth of work and experience in Wales and its impact on the world.”

Dai, who runs Cardiff’s Urban Wordsmiths reflected on the event: “It was a real joy to partner with like-minded creative pioneers in Wales – all great poets in their own right, but with a passion to create platforms for others to have a voice and share their story.

“We showcased Poetry in Wales, for Wales and beyond. By doing so, we join a rich ancestry of those who have gone before us.”

What’s next?

The organisers, who all worked as volunteers to put together the event, are keen to connect with further poetry and spoken word events across Wales with the hope to widen participation in future years. 

Natasha added that the event was “a celebration of what becomes possible when we work together building on the wonderful relationships between poetry communities across Wales and creating space for new connections, collaboration and a stronger collective voice.”

Dominic Williams is hosting the Coracle Europe Fringe festival from Thursday 23 October to Wednesday 29 October and there will be a poetry slam event on Sunday 25 October.  

Poetry Nights involved in the All Wales Event:

• Poems and Pints – Llantwit Major [Second Sunday of the Month in The Old Swan, at 6:30pm]
• Urban Wordsmiths – Cardiff  at Urban Crofters [Next event on Friday 6 November]
• Voicebox – Wrexham  [Second Monday of the month]
• Write4Word – Carmarthen at Cwrw and online [Every four weeks; next on Monday 26 October]
• First Draft, the Radio show for writers [Available on Spotify and to listen to again on Bro Radio]

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