Poetry Take Off! @ Draper’s Yard
A open air poetry performance in Chichester’s hidden gem, Draper’s Yard!

Poetry Take-Off! A friendly poetry competition – Presented by Chichester Poetry and the South Downs Poetry Festival for the Chichester Fringe, with nine poets and Chris Hardy on guitar.

Doors/bar open: 5pm – Show Starts: 5.30pm

Arrive from 5pm to have a drink and some dinner before the show begins at 5.30pm.

Enjoy a lively mix of poetry and music to inspire and entertain. Nine local poets go head to head in a contest of spinning words and ideas to see who catches the audience’s eye and receives a coveted laurel wreath prize as Poet of the Day!

You get to say whose poems take off and appeal to you best while Chris Hardy holds everything together on his guitar. Barry Smith, the SDPF director, is MC for this unique event.

The Poetry Take-Off! Poets are:

Pratibha Castle who is making waves with her pamphlet A Triptych of Birds and A Few Loose Feathers
Richard Hawtree has a quirky pamphlet of wit and observation, The Day I Spoke Irish in Surrey
Denise Bennett writes about Portsmouth, history and her family in several books including Parachute Silk
Alan Bush is a member of several local poetry groups including Stanza, Swanbourne Poets and Chichester Poetry
Nicola Garrard is the author of award-nominated Young Adult novel Twenty Nine Locks as well as poetry
Christine Rowlands is a regular at Chichester poetry gatherings with her observations drawn from life set down in verse
Miriam Valencia is a member of the Chichester Stanza poetry group and regularly presents her insightful poems to the members
Chris Hardy is the author of Key to the Highway as well as being the guitarist for the group Little Machine
Barry Smith is the director of SDPF and the author of Performance Rites; he will be the MC for Poetry Take-Off!