It's time to start looking back in amazement and gratitude at the part that Write Out Loud played at the recent poetry extravaganza that was – is – Morecambe poetry festival. We were there beside the seaside – and not far from Eric Morecambe's exuberant statue - to celebrate 20 years of Write Out Loud as a website, providing a space for poets to blog their poems, a national / international gig guide, news, discussions and reviews.

Amazement to find ourselves on the bill at such a stunning poetry festival that embraces top names, such as Michael Rosen, Henry Normal, John Hegley, and Luke Wright, and the world of grassroots poetry as well, all thanks to the generosity and vision of organiser Matt Panesh.

Gratitude that so many turned up at the King’s Arms on Saturday afternoon to celebrate with co-founders Julian Jordon and Dave Morgan our 20th birthday, as well as the launch of our Echoes poetry competition anthology. They included a number of poets who took to the mic to pay tribute to Write Out Loud’s role in helping them find their poetry voices.

Poets such as Hilary Walker, left, who said: “Exactly 20 years ago this month I nervously went along to the Howcroft pub in Bolton one Sunday night as I’d seen an advert in the local paper about joining a poetry performance group. I’d already begun to write quietly at home, scribbling my own personal thoughts, never imagining sharing them or that anyone would even be interested.

“And then everything changed when I was welcomed into a brand-new world of words and as a group we bravely ventured out of Bolton and took our poetry to the masses around the north-west in Dave’s poetry bus – Liverpool, Lancaster, Barrow, Rochdale – we weren’t proud! Eventually we made it to France – an amazing trip to Bordeaux where we found kindred spirits and it didn’t really matter whether we were understood or not!

“Since then, my own poetry journey has led me to headlining at open mic events and charities, publishing a book, supporting American Beat poet George Wallace as well as finding the confidence to share my words in New York and San Francisco, and for the past few years being Patron of Poetry at a high school in Liverpool.

“Discovering Write Out Loud has enhanced my life with a warmth and richness I couldn’t have found anywhere else, and I’ll always be grateful to three people in particular without whom that wouldn’t have happened: Julian Jordon for his belief, Dave Morgan for his encouragement, and the late Paul Blackburn for his brutal honesty. Probably, and without knowing it, they gave me permission to express myself without fear and that’s a priceless gift.”

Jacqueline Woods, right, has been a regular at Write Out Loud Wigan open-mic poetry night for a number of years. She said: “My first experience of Write Out Loud dates to more than 16 years ago when I plucked up the courage to walk into a Wigan pub called the Tudor. I didn’t know anyone and everyone else seemed to be in couples or in small groups. I nearly walked away that night but I’m very glad that I didn’t and that I sweated it out. People who I met in those early days … have gone on to great things in the poetry world and some have remained friends over the years.

“I’m not sure if I read that night but I certainly did at subsequent meetings and as I read, I gradually grew in confidence so that I didn’t shake quite so much. You could never quite predict what would happen at a Write Out Loud Wigan night. The tears and tantrums, rants and rages … I’ll never forget the toilets at the Tudor, right next to the stage, when the sound of the flush and hand dryers would accompany the reading of poetry. People from the bar area would walk through and often stop to listen on the way back and I think some started to write and perform their own poems. When the Tudor closed, we moved to the Old Courts and the Bailiff Bar which is still going strong as a monthly Write Out Loud venue. The supportive atmosphere and the wealth of talent and experience is something I’m sure will continue for the next 20 years.

“Over the years I have attended writing weekends, online workshops and events run by Write Out Loud in various venues round the country. Covid closed the world for us all in many ways but also opened the world of Write Out Loud to me as I began Zooming everywhere - Woking, Blackpool, Suffolk, Oxford, Stamford, Bolton, to name but a few. Now I enjoy a combination of open mics and Zoom meetings. I have had the privilege of my poems being included in several Write Out Loud anthologies.

“Happy birthday Write Out Loud and thank you for all you have done for me and many hundreds of other aspiring young and not so young writers!”

Heather Moulson, who co-organises Poetry Performance in Teddington, south-west London, discovered Write Out Loud at open-mic nights in Surrey. This year she and Write Out Loud Woking co-compere Sharron Green, who both appeared at our anniversary celebration, had their own slots on the Morecambe bill. Heather said: “Write Out Loud became a significant part of my poetry journey, and Write Out Loud Woking really helped me grow as a poet back in 2018.  Their sessions were held in the small village of Send and I learnt an awful lot from these evenings.

“Write Out Loud also gave me the confidence to steer in another direction of poetry.  By then, these sessions were held at the Lightbox in Woking, and opened up a wealth of poets for me.  Thank you, Write Out Loud.  A happy 20th birthday to you.”

Also contributing to the aniversary celebrations were Sarah L Dixon - aka the Quiet Compere - and Write Out Loud board member Julia Clark, with Sarah reading a poem about truth and conflict written by a 12-year-old poet, and published in our 2029 Together anthology, in a tribute to the work done by Young Write Out Loud. 

Star guest was Joy France, pictured top, whose journey from nervous newcomer at Write Out Loud Wigan to award-winning slam poet to stand-up comedian to battle rapper has been well documented but is equally well worth repeating. In interviews on TV and radio she has told how this former teacher of children with special needs was “always really shy, really quiet” for “almost all my life”. But in her mid-50s something happened – and she became a performance poet, winning slams and awards, and treading the boards as a stand-up comic as well as a poet. Becoming a battle rapper in a world dominated by apparently aggressive young men has been yet another string to her bow.

In an interview a few years ago when she had become a national figure owing to her appearance on Nationwide Building Society adverts, she credited her early performances at Write Out Loud open mic nights, attending a Write Out Loud residential weekend, and being part of the website as being “integral to shaping the poet I have become. Not just my words but my attitudes. I made so many true friends. The organisers, poets, audiences.”

Expectations can be overturned at such nights: “Most Write Out Loud events have a huge number of talented men, down-to-earth, working class men sharing sensitive delicate personal feeling words, as well as strident angry ones.” She added: “I remember vividly taking those first tentative steps into the poetry world. I hold on to the feelings of being terrified when I encourage others to take their first steps. I love seeing them being brave and blossoming.”

Write Out Loud’s co-founder Dave Morgan, left, still an indefatigable cultural activist in his home town of Bolton, had provided display boards with newspaper cuttings and other evidence of how we grew in our early years.  

In a grateful message to Morecambe poetry festival’s Matt Panesh, Julian Jordon said: “I want to thank you ever so much for inviting us to put the Write Out Loud at 20 session on. Impossible for us to capture all those years and adventures in an hour, but we did it by focusing on the question: What's Write Out Loud ever done for us? And allowing our users/beneficiaries to answer that question from their own experience of our work.

“I was so very impressed with the success of your festival in terms of numbers, and the eclectic range of your festival offerings. Your audience and participants represent the whole gamut of poetry and poets, from those just getting started to those already much-published. A work of genius, Matt. It's not 'us and them', as some would have it, but your festival is, it seems to me, deliberately inclusive. This reflects our view, too and it enables novice poetry writers and performers to feel a part of the whole continuum of poetry activity.”

Write Out Loud's co-founder and director, Julian Jordon 

 

PHOTOGRAPHS: SHARRON GREEN AND DIANE BROOKS