So yesterday I attended Barefoot In The Park 2011, a day of poetry and music in Leeds’ Hyde Park. I read some of my stuff and my girlfriend’s as well as performing a short segment of Letter To The Man (from the boy). We also bizarrely ended up finding the same street names in Leeds as in York, which suggested some sort of temporal dimensional rift. I also won my first Slam, though admittedly only against one person; and in the end only by thumb war. I don’t know if Percy Shelly and Lord Byron ever thumb warred.
Barefoot is ace because it tries to make an event specific to poetry, spoken word and story-telling. They have a couple of bands but essentially the event is for the pleasure of The Word. Poetry evenings and events do exist here and there but a whole all-dayer festival is always welcome. Hats off to them, see you all next year.
Also my girlfriend and I, Lizzie Alderdice, have created a ‘poetryzine’ called SNAPPING TURTLE PRESS features poems from both of us and hand-drawn images. It’s based on the old DIY ethics of the fanzine can be yours for a mere 50p. You can pick one of these up from me if you see me around or drop me a message at henrythepoet@btinternet.com to get one (+P&P). There’s limited number, when they’re gone they’re gone. And will be worth millions on eBay. Maybe. One day.
Some tracks of mine uploaded on my Soundcloud you can hear right HERE if you want to hear what sort of stuff went on at Barefoot: http://soundcloud.com/henryrabypoetry
Cheers y’all.
Henry
