Poets and audience invited to Chichester's "first-ever" poetry slam

SussexWorld

Chichester is getting its “first-ever” poetry slam, kicking off in the city on March 26. Called Tongue Tied, it will run from 7-10pm at the Chichester Inn.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to

00:06meet Charlie Ross today. And Charlie, you are launching something very new for Chichester,

00:11completely new for Chichester, through the name Tongue Tied. It's Chichester's first

00:16Poetry Slam. What's it all about? And it's compositive, isn't it? Which is interesting.

00:24That's the point.

00:26So excited to be kicking this off at the end of March, on March 26th. We have got three

00:33heats coming up in March, April and May. And then we're going, all those winners from each

00:39of those heats are going to perform in a final in June, which is very, very exciting.

00:44And how does a Poetry Slam work then?

00:47Yeah, so it's essentially an open mic night with scoring. So it's not too, it's very open

00:55hearted. Everyone loves everyone else's work. It's great. You bring three minutes of poetry.

01:01So normally people just bring the one poem, but you can bring two if you've got two shorter

01:06poems. You've got three minutes to perform however you like, whatever theme, whatever

01:12style you like. And then at the end, you'll be given a score out of 10. And then those

01:17two winners from the eight competitors will then move forward to the final in June.

01:22And the chances are you'll have three judges in the audience, plus you, plus someone else

01:27from the organising team.

01:28That's right.

01:29What will impress judges then? What would your advice be to anyone competing?

01:34Ah, that's a really good question, because often you can't know it until you see it.

01:40But I would say authenticity is key. Something you really care about and you really need

01:46to say, you're bursting to say, that's what people respond to. It's passion and authenticity

01:52if we really get to know you.

01:54And what would you do that would really wreck your chances, do you think? What would you

01:57not want to see, unless that's an unfair thing to ask?

02:01I don't think there's anything I don't want to see. I just want people to be themselves

02:07and to say what they need to say. Yeah, just don't try to be anything you're not. Don't

02:12try and please anyone. Just say what you're bursting to say. It's your space to do what

02:18you want to do.

02:19And you're uninterrupted. People won't shout you down and say, no, you're off. You get

02:23your chance.

02:24No, exactly. Exactly that. No, no hustling whatsoever. It's very kind, very warm hearted,

02:30a very safe space as well. So it's whatever you need, we've got your back.

02:35And you're saying poetry slam's huge in London. You can't move for them. But this is the first

02:40in Chichester then, something you've been pondering for a while.

02:43It's the first in Chichester. Yeah, I've been thinking about it for a little minute. I put

02:47on a showcase of poetry last year at CFT, which was really great. And so this year,

02:53I wanted a new challenge to just bring together all the creators in Chichester, bring together

02:59you know, the university as well, maybe bring together, you know, Portsmouth and Worthing

03:04and Petersburg, bring all the towns together, all the creatives into this one space where

03:09we can all meet each other and do something new together.

03:12You're already thinking how it's going to pan out. You've got the three heats in March,

03:17April, May, the final in June, start some open mic nights in the autumn and then run

03:23through in the spring again with another competition. So it's an annual thing you're looking at.

03:31It's an annual thing you're looking at, isn't it?

03:34We are. Yeah, obviously, this year is the first year it's happened. So we're kind of

03:38like hoping that people love the idea as much as we do. But yeah, we're hoping it will just

03:44roll into an annual thing by having that off season as well, where people can try out poetry

03:50in the autumn where it won't be judged. You can just bring it along, try it out in front

03:55of an audience and see how you get on. And then maybe you could compete with that in

03:58the spring if you're feeling confident. That's our idea.

04:02Fantastic. Sounds a wonderful thing. Well done you for launching it. I hope it goes

04:06brilliantly. It sounds like it should too. Great to speak to you. Thank you.

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