White House Poetry Revival Wed 12th Nov 2008

White House Poetry Revival
Wed 12th Nov 2008 9.00pm

The second All Ireland Live Poetry Championships will occur in the White House pub, Limerick on Wednesday the 12th November.

Next years is scheduled to happen in either Connacht or Leinster, in what is hoped will become a revolving and democratic annual jamboree celebrating the noble bardic art of filidecht.Live poetry in Ireland is thriving, and to prove the point the number of venues around the country that hold regular poetry event is steadily growing, even Poetry Ireland recently inaugurated an open-mic event in Damer Hall in Dublin. From Cork to Belfast and all points in between live poetry is taken the country by storm. In Galway Over The Edge instigated by Kevin Higgins: Dominic Taylor and Barney Sheehan who run the White House Poets weekly Wednesday in Limerick, Pamela Brown, Jenni Doherty and Abby Oliveira who perform singularly and as The Poetry Chicks -- all committed facilitators of live poetry events in Derry - Mark Madden of the Creative Writers Network in Belfast, Gordon Hewitt and Chelley McLear also in Ulster, the Monday night ÓBhéal in Cork which Paul Casey initiated last year -- Mike Igoe and his three fellow Cavan cohorts from the fortnightly Naked Lunch series, Orla Martin in the Winding Stair Bookshop and the poets behind Seven Towers monthly poetrynight in Cassidy's - all in Dublin -- are individuals and organizations dedicated to making the native Irish art of poetry, live, accessible and inclusive to anyone on the island wishing to partake of it.After the success of the very first regional heats which lead to the inaugural All Ireland Live Poetry Championships in Belfast last year, won by Liverpudlian native and long time Galway resident Brendan Murphy - who went on to the BBC Radio Four Poetry Slam in London - many of those named above, hooked up to create an informal body of poet/organisers, with the intention of making it easier than ever before for those wishing to discover and attend places in which to experience a reading, recite themselves, or even tour around an all island circuit, which was birthed over a couple of pints in the Electric Mouse pub, on the penultimate Saturday evening of the In Sight of Raftery Festival in Kiltimagh,Mayo.At this festival in the home place of the great blindpoet-musician from whom it is named, a quadruplet body of representatives from the four provinces, met collectively face to face for the first time and sealed an informal set-up in which the promotion of live poetry took centre stage.And the primary tool effecting this coalescing of creative and organisational talent into an all island whole, was the internet, which has revolutionised in a few short years, how people all over the world communicate, acting as an immediate postal service, dissemination board, shop window for recordings of live events, ad-space, classroom and calling card for anyone with the wit, will and ability to click their way into a virtual realm where physical borders and barriers do not exist and the free exchange of what's inside our head and hearts is happening in a way unpredictable during the lifetimes of our great grandparents, only three generations ago.
Further info: Desmond Swords at desmondswords@hotmail.com
http://www.myspace.com/dublinpoet - latest Dublin poets streamed recordings http://irishpoetry.blogspot.com/ - read the latest blather.