Keith Armstrong to read at North Beach Nights Poetry Slam

galway | arts and media | event notice Monday July 03, 2006 02:07 by Over The Edge

famous Galway poetry slams continue

North Beach Nights poetry slam Thursday, July 13th

BK's Winebar, Spanish Parade, Galway at 9 pm.

Performance Poetry Reading with

KEITH ARMSTRONG

KEITH ARMSTRONG, born in Newcastle upon Tyne, is a community development worker, poet, librarian and publisher. Now residing in the seaside town of Whitley Bay, he is coordinator of the Northern Voices creative writing and community publishing project which specialises in recording the experiences of people in the North East of England. He has been a self-employed writer since 1986 and he is currently studying for a PhD on the work of Newcastle writer Jack Common at the University of Durham where he received a BA Honours Degree in Sociology in 1995 and Masters Degree in 1998 for his studies on regional culture in the North East of England. He was Year of the Artist 2000 poet-in-residence at Hexham Races, working with painter Kathleen Sisterson. He has also held residencies in Durham, Easington, Sedgefield, Derwentside, Teesdale, Wear Valley, Chester-le-Street and Sunderland. His poetry has been extensively published.

He has performed his poetry on several occasions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Festivals in Bradford, Cardiff, Cheltenham (twice at the Festival of Literature - with Liz Lochhead and with 'Sounds North'), Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Greenwich, Lancaster, and throughout the land.

He has read in Newcastle at the Morden Tower, Swarley's Club, The Blue Room & The Baltic, at Durham's Colpitts Poetry, Tees Valley's Write Around & Writers' Cafe, Leed's Wicked Words, York's Riverlines, Liverpool's Stamps, Sheffield's Antics, Bradford's Grey Sheep Cabaret, London's Apples & Snakes, at the Universities of Bath, Durham, Newcastle and Warwick, in Edinburgh at the Scottish National Poetry Library and the Royal Oak and Diggers venues and in Limerick at TheWhite House.

He often works and travels with folk-musicians from North East England, including Jez Lowe, Marie Little, Gary Miller and George Welch, and he has written the lyrics for an album, 'Bleeding Sketches', by folk-rock band ‘The Whisky Priests’, with whom he has toured extensively in The Netherlands. He has also visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg to perform his poetry with musicians Pete Challoner and Ian Carr. He has recently inspired songs by Jez Lowe and by Joseph Porter of Blyth Power.

KEITH ARMSTRONG - SOME COMMENTS:

'No one in the North East has written and read and encouraged and organised so consistently and over so long a period as Keith Armstrong. His poetry is different, original, and politically exhilarating.’
'It doesn't matter which way his poems are facing, or the subjects they address, it is recognisibly the same sensibility, each part of a unified whole, and unified by the same, strong identifiable voice.' (Andy Croft).

'I'm told that if the Labour Party is looking for a wandering poet I must put Keith Armstrong top of the list'. (Tony Blair).

The North Beach Nights Slam follows the usual format.
All poets, readers and performers are welcome.
Slam participants require 2 three minute pieces.
The Prize is the Honour and a bottle of red wine donated by BK's Winebar.

MC for the night is Trish Casey,
2004 winner of the Cúirt Grand Slam.

North Beach Nights gratefully acknowledges the support of Galway City Council.

Info: John Walsh 091-593290

Entrance fee: €4