Credit: Poetry Emergency
The two-day poetry festival, Poetry Emergency, returned to Salford bringing workshops and performances to the New Adelphi theatre in Salford.
Joey Frances, 28, is one of four co-organisers of the event and wanted Poetry Emergency to bring a literary festival like no other to Greater Manchester.
Mr Frances said: “There’s not a festival of this kind in the North-West of England.
“There’s an amazing poetry scene in Greater Manchester and across the North-West.
“We wanted to represent and showcase the best of the scene here.”
Poetry Emergency is a political poetry festival that not only showcases the Manchester scene but asks about the relationship between poetry and protest.
Mr Frances said: “We wanted to look at how radical work around poetry can comment on politics and the world.”
The festival did just that showcasing local artists as well as giving aspiring poets the chance to create poetry in multiple free workshops.
The ‘Introduction to letterpress for poetry’ workshop focused on visual elements in poetry through poster making.
The workshop saw a group of 10 aspiring poets and writers create visual poetry.
Visual poetry made in the workshop used letter blocks similar to those used in a printing press.
The workshop was hosted by Manchester based arts group, Generic Greeting Collective.
The festival was held partly in tribute to Sean Bonney, a poet who headlined the first festival who passed away recently.
Joey Frances made a speech about Sean Bonney at the start of the keynote as well as performing the late poets work.
Mr Frances said: “Sean was one of the most engaging, difficult and thought provoking performers I’d ever seen.”
The evening saw performances from multiple poets including Jazmine Linklater, Scott Thurston & Gemma Collard-Stokes and poetic duo MontenegroFisher.
Jazmine Linklater’s performance is accompanied by multiple photos that help engage the audience, giving them a visual to accompany the poems being performed.
Luna Montenegro and Adrian Fisher (MontenegroFisher) demand your attention the second they step on stage with Chilean chants followed by a performance that plays with sound outside of spoken word.
Scott Thurston and Gemma Collard-Stokes’ theatrical performance saw words intermingling with movement similar to ballet and contemporary dance.
On Saturday, The festival hosted workshops at Manchester Metropolitan University followed by performances at Gullivers in Northern Quarter.
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