DATE: Wednesday 16 April
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: East Quay Kitchen
This is a FREE event and all are welcome

Our informal Spoken Word evenings are held once a month in the East Quay Kitchen, and hosted by Elaoise Benson. You are invited to come and share any poetry, stories or words that shed light on salient moments in life, explore connections with yourself, each other and relationships to our wider kin. Don’t worry if you’re not ready to speak; you are more than welcome to just come along and listen, bring friends along or meet new people here.

This month's guest speaker will be Aish Humphreys, and the invitation theme is An Offering To The Flames. 
Aish has set this month's theme in honour of Beltane, for summer is not too far out of reach. Traditionally at the Beltane festival, rituals were performed to protect cattle and crops and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, whose flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. So this month, what would you like to see bloom? What will you discard or sacrifice to the flames and what will you take with you into summer? Do you have any rituals, big or small, spiritual or trivial? What's igniting your passion and creativity right now? Feel it, write it, bring it to share. 

About Aish
‍Aish is a queer poet, facilitator, and curator from Cornwall, living in Bristol. He was the poet in residence for the SS Great Britain in 2022 and has performed across the UK as well as internationally. His first poetry pamphlet, Saints of Golden Hour was released in February 2023 which explores soberness, girlhood, queer relationships and the gods we create for ourselves. He co-produced a queer poetry event for Lyra Festival 2024 and was a Young Curator with MAYk for Mayfest 2024. He is currently collaborating on producing a spoken word theatre show exploring transness and masculinity.

You can find Aish on Instagram: @aish_humphreys

How the evening works:
‍· Open Mic Sign Up opens from 6:45pm, for a 7pm start.
· MC Introduction and Guest Set
· Open Mic - 2 poems each (but bring a 3rd in case we have time for more)
· Please give trigger warnings for any topics that listeners may find upsetting.
· Elaoise will close the evening and tell you what’s happening next month!

We hope to see you there!