Open Mic Poetry  - a key event in the Chichester arts scene - video Dailymotion

Organiser Barry Smith talks you through what it is all about...

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now, one

00:06of the great popular nights regularly happening in Chichester is Barry Smith's Open Mic Poetry

00:12Night. Now, Barry, you've been doing this for a good number of years now, haven't you?

00:17And it's hugely successful. I always tend to think of poetry as something you go into

00:20a quiet room and read, but no, clearly not. You have a big room with lots of people there.

00:26What's the idea behind Open Mic Poetry? Well, I think the idea behind it is that everybody's

00:33got something to say, and sometimes they need to talk to more than themselves and find a

00:39public platform. And that's where we come in. We provide a supportive group of writers,

00:47some just starting out, you know, fresh to the game, some young, some very experienced,

00:54and some even quite famous. So right across the age ranges and right across the level of expertise.

01:02So what is an open mic? Well, often there isn't a real microphone at all. It's just,

01:09it's a platform for people to have time and space to say what's on their mind in some kind of form

01:17or shaped structure. It doesn't have to be any particular style of poetry. Some people come

01:24along and love to rhyme, jingle and jangle their way through their thoughts. Others will touch a

01:31rhyme with a barge pole. It's all free verse and ultra modern. But we're happy with all of these

01:40things. Our main venue, perhaps, is the New Park Centre Community Centre in Chichester. And

01:48community is at the heart of what we do. But we are part of the South Downs Poetry Festival,

01:55which ranges right across the South Downs. It's a pop-up festival. It pops up all across the year

02:04and in venues right across the South Downs. It might be in a pub one week or it might be in a

02:10cathedral. It will be around near you somewhere sometime if you're in the South Downs. But they're

02:17not all open mics. Sometimes we like to do performance evenings. And when we do that,

02:24we love mixing it up with a bit of music, particularly jazz. That's one of our favourites.

02:30But we do classical too, and roots. Brilliant. And just tell me then, what do you get? What's

02:36the difference between sitting, reading poetry at home and performing it? What do you get when

02:40it's live? You get the technicolour experience. Okay, it's good when you're reading it because

02:46you can go backwards and forwards and you can pause over a word or phrase that you need to

02:53think about. But when it's live, it speaks directly to you. And if the poet's reading it,

03:01then they, of course, are best placed to shape the words and feelings as they deliver them.

03:08You're getting it straight from the horse's mouth and hopefully you'll enjoy hearing what they have

03:16to say. And the number of subjects that people touch on is unbelievable. Sometimes very personal

03:24and to do with rebuilding, restructuring their lives, coming to terms with things. Other times,

03:32it's all just for fun and exploring what kicks off ideas in people's minds.

03:40Brilliant. Well, thank you, Barry. You make it all sound extremely enticing,

03:44as you always do. Thank you ever so much. A pleasure, Phil.