Welcome to our Poetry Praise Sandwich event, which will be hosted every other month by Derby-based poets Sonia Burns and Camille McCawley. The event will take place at YADA Collective on the first Wednesday of the month (Select the next date in the dropdown above)
This event is for poets of any level, including people who simply enjoy reading and listening to poetry. We want to show how poetry is for everyone. Poetry Praise Sandwich is a safe space to share and get feedback on poems.
The first half of the night will be an opportunity to read poems written by other poets you have read and enjoyed and would like to share rather than your own work. It might be a poem that got you into poetry, something from your childhood, something which you read recently, or something which captures well a mood we’re all feeling at the moment. Try and keep it under two minutes if you can; no renditions of The Waste Land, please. If you are writing your own stuff but not quite up to sharing it yet, reading someone else’s work might be an opportunity to practice the process of getting up and reading aloud to a small audience.
After the break, it will be an open mic with a difference – feedback. There’ll be a limited number of slots for people to read one poem (2 minutes or so, please) and for the audience to give constructive feedback on their writing and performance. The feedback will be written down by audience members in response to set questions, gathered up by the hosts and distributed to poets at the end of the night.
If you want to read another poet’s poem in the first part of the night or would like a slot on the feedback open mic (or both) please let us know via direct message or comment on the event wall. Slots will be booked on a first-come, first-served basis.
The audience will be very important to this event, so please come and support your fellow poets, even if you aren’t reading. There might be doughnuts, and we can promise there will be excellent poetry.
We’ll go through everything in detail on the night. This is an experiment, but we wanted to have a space in which to celebrate poetry we love, get inspired and support each other to gain more confidence in our poetry.
This event will not be ticketed, but you can support us by pay-what-you-can donations. We are setting up a Ko-fi page and any donations will go back into supporting local vulnerable community groups to access poetry opportunities.
At the time of posting this, mask-wearing in public is no longer mandatory, and service from the bar is allowed. However, please wear a mask if you feel more comfortable. Table service is also an option we offer. Just let us know when you arrive. As always, for our poetry night in Derby, we advise you to be cautious and not to come if you’re showing symptoms of Covid or have a positive test result. Thank you.
Event Details
First Wednesday of the Month
2022 – 19:00 – 21:00
Tickets FREE – Limited Spaces available, so it is recommended you book a ticket to ensure we know you’re coming.
As usual, we will have our AF on draught and our range of AF beer, ciders, wines, kombucha, and other quality drinks.
Food and Drink
We only serve snacks at the AF bar, so we recommend you grab something more substantial before you arrive. Alternatively, we’re happy for you to order your own food and eat in the bar, although please help keep the place clean and try not to order anything too smelly. (No external drinks, please!)
Location – YADA Collective, 58 Green Lane, Derby DE1 1RP
If you use the precise What3Words maps app, our bar’s entrance can be found at – ///banks.prefer.froth
Parking – Yes, it’s non-alcoholic, so you can drive. There is no car park linked with YADA Collective CIC. However, there are plenty of on and off-street pay and display parking options nearby.
