Want to know my answer? Read on; there are headings and links and
everything…
Introduction
This is a question that, as I’m sure you can imagine, I get asked
a lot. If you don’t know why I’d get asked that, let me elucidate: I
run two spoken word shows a month, ten months of the year in
Cambridge (
Hammer & Tongue Cambridge and
Allographic Open Mic). I run a
dedicated spoken word stage all day at
Strawberry Fair, Europe’s largest open-air free festival called
Wild Strawberries, also in Cambridge. I also run six spoken word cabaret shows a week, every week of the Edinburgh Fringe most years. (I also run the occasional visiting artist/ one-off thing in Cambridge. That’s different – I’ll come on to that later.) They’re all a mix of featured artists and open mic/ slam slots.
I help to
programme the Spoken Word element of PBH’s Free Fringe, and to look after and promote the artists we programme. I have been involved in the
BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam in a non-competing role most years it’s been running. I used to run a
calendar promoting spoken word events in south-east England and the Midlands. I used to run a combined featured
artists-open mic-slam event in Milton Keynes. I’m part of the Bardic Council for Cambridge (though that needs a thorough reviving right now), which I set up, along with the In Other Words Festival (ditto).
And I’m also a performance poet. But it’s probably fair to say that more people know me as an host/ administrator of other people’s performance than as a performer in my own right.
I had a
wee whinge yesterday on Facebook about the particular teeth-gritting phenomenon which is people asking me if I can recommend female spoken word artists for their programme. Since most people think of me as female, this is galling, but I consider it an application in humility and thence character-building to recommend other people. (It’s easier when they ask for people who are of a different demographic or geographic location from me but yeah – character-building.) And I do it, because, at the end of the day, I do like talking up the artists that get me excited, and everyone loves being asked their opinion…! ☺
Back to that
other question I get asked –
“Can I headline/ perform at your show?” I get asked this so many times, that I thought it might be neater to put all the criteria down in one post, and then I can point people at it in future. It’s a question of spoons, you understand…
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Hammer & Tongue Cambridge
Not many people seem to realise that all the various
H&T franchises are just that – semi-autonomous facets of the whole. The way it works is that we are sent the month’s headliner (October-December, February-June inclusive), who will tour through all the (currently) six locations:
Cambridge,
Brighton,
Hackney,
Bristol,
Southampton, and
Oxford (order depending on how the month falls, day-wise). Once a year or so, we’re asked to a) provide our own list of spoken word artists we’d like to see headline on the H&T circuit, and b) vote on the full list between all of us. Steve Larkin (H&T Boss/ Director/ Founder/ Capo) then books and sends us the gen about each one as they confirm.
Short version: I don’t have any control of who’ll be headlining when.
We
programme support acts, and for Cambridge they
tend to be local artists/ artists with a strong local connection. (They’re often, but not always, H&T Cambridge slam winners.) There are a few reasons for this.
Firstly, it’s part of showing how
engaging with the event can see you
rise as an artist in terms of platform and respect (that clear path of audience ➔ slammer ➔ support act ➔ headliner – especially as many of our headliners are former/ current slam champions of some kind).
Secondly, it’s good to
support local talent, for a variety of hopefully obvious reasons (especially if you’re intent on
building the local arts scene, as I am).
Thirdly, in an utterly
mercenary philosophy: local artists are
more likely to bring friends/ relatives/ colleagues with them, and we need the money to
pay the artists. And I do pay my artists.
Short version: unless you have a local connection and I’ve seen you perform before, I’m excessively unlikely to book you as a support act.
Apart from those two acts, all the other people on stage during H&T Cambridge are slammers and me, and I rarely perform anything other than my usual hosting schtick. (My job here is to keep the audience motivated and excited about the performers.) During the Regional Final, it’s just three rounds of slam – we just don’t have time for anything else!
(Oh, and we also have a “sacrificial slammer” before each new slam round in the heats. They tend to be the winner of the previous heat (again as part of demonstrating that progression thing), and they tend to get free entry (and travel expenses if they’ve come from out of town) and a chance to show off.)
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Allographic Open Mic
Short bit of
background: I started helping out with Hammer & Tongue Cambridge in 2010, having an increasingly central role until February 2012 when I started hosting and programming as well as the other admin. (Frankly, I need to get other people doing the other admin stuff these days – delegating is not my strongest suit.) For a while in late 2010/ early 2011, we were being sent a lot of mostly
white, straight, able-bodied, British, cis male performers within a narrow age range as headliners. They were all lovely chaps and very talented, but I found I wanted to be
hearing other stories and voices. I’d started suggesting female, queer, of colour, and generally “other” performers as support acts, but that felt wrong too. I wanted to
curate my own events that had
“other” voices front and centre. I also wanted to
run an open mic again. Somewhat haphazardly, I set up
Allographic (“nebulous poetry concept” – thanks, Tim Clare) to be a platform for other voices – either as work I
published or
promoted on stage. It swiftly became
an umbrella for all the non-H&T stuff that I do, whether it’s an
anthology of local artists, a stage of
predominantly female and non-binary performers at a literary festival, a stall of “
Poetry To Go” at various festivals and other gatherings, or the “
Other Voices” spoken word cabaret at Edinburgh Fringe. Plus
other things that crop up from time to time.
Nowadays, the regular
open mic (poetry, storytelling, any other spoken word that people want to bring) often (but not always)
features guests for
short spots who often also lead
workshops in the afternoon of the same day. The events are designed to be
accessible, in as many different ways as you’d like to use that term, though do we encourage people to bring and perform difficult and challenging work. Allographic open mic is supposed to be a
friendly, safe-yet-fierce space for new and/ or difficult work/ performance.
The only rules are: don’t kick down, and don’t apologise (unless you’ve kicked down). Part of that accessibility is making it
free at the point of entry and encouraging people to
donate whatever they can afford/ think the event is worth in order to help with our costs and to at least
pay the guest artist’s expenses (travel and subsistence). Any
money donated at the workshop
goes straight to the workshop leader, and we provide means for them to sell their merchandise, if any.
The “platform for other voices” thing holds true for the guest artists – we want to be
deliberately platforming people who are still marginalised: female artists, artists of colour, LGBTQIA+ artists, disabled artists, neurodiverse artists, etc. (We need to be doing better at getting working class voices on the bill to boot, especially those combining the above.) We
don’t currently have any external funding, so making this viable for people from outside Cambridgeshire and nearby is… challenging.
Short version: if you want to perform at Allographic open mic as a guest artist (rather than on the open mic – obviously everyone’s welcome to that!),
travelling to Cambridge needs to be
economically viable for you, and you need to be an “other” voice. If I’ve
not seen you perform, I’m relatively easy to persuade with a
good bit of footage – audio, or audiovisual for preference. It probably goes without saying, but: I also need to
rate your work pretty highly and trust you as an artist.
If you’re
up for it, the form is here:
http://bit.ly/agoguest ↑ Top
Wild Strawberries
Wild Strawberries is the yearly spoken word (poetry and storytelling) stage at
Strawberry Fair in Cambridge. Strawberry Fair is on the
first Saturday of every June. A form for expressions of interest for short guest slots and open mic will go out in the next couple of months, and I’ll post the latest here each time it’s ready. If I’ve
not seen you perform, I’m easy to persuade with a
good bit of footage – audio, or audiovisual for preference. The Fair is
free, everyone there is a
volunteer, all the payment for what we do pretty much
comes out of our own pockets and any
fundraisers we’ve done over the months proceeding.
We cannot pay anyone. Yes, you can
bring merch. No, you
can’t have a longer feature set unless you’re either an act that combines poetry/ storytelling and music, you are crazy famous and we’re lucky to have you, or you’re the Bard of Cambridge.
Even shorter version: a
ten minute slot at a Cambridge outdoor festival in early June needs to be economically viable for you.
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Other Voices Spoken Word Cabaret at Edinburgh Festival
We’re part of
PBH’s Free Fringe. All cast members and guests are “other voices”, and there is open mic available to everyone. I am
excessively unlikely to book you unless I’ve
seen you perform/ you have a
compelling bit of footage to wave at me. Again: we’re looking to
cover our costs, and we
can’t pay anyone, but please do
bring merch if we’ve booked you. The forms for featuring/ being in the open mic will be made available by May/ June of any year we’re running it.
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Allographic Presents…
This one’s a bit different – this is where I use the
Allographic banner to
promote a spoken word event that’s touring/ wants to come to Cambridge/ needs curation or collaboration from our “stable” of local spoken word artists. We
negotiate publicity, payment, etc. between us. I
find you a venue and
support artist(s) if needs be. While we
obviously favour promoting “other” voices, it’s
not a central criterion for the “specials”. Again, it probably goes without saying, but: I also need to
rate your work highly and trust you as an artist.
If you’re up for it, the form is here:
http://bit.ly/agpresents ↑ Top
Th-th-th-that’s All, Folks!
That’s it, really. Any further questions, please comment here so we can create a kind of
FAQs section. ☺ If that’s too exposed, email me (remove the gaps if you’re not a robot) on:
cambridge @ hammerandtongue. com for
Hammer & Tongue Cambridge
events @ allographic. co. uk for
Allographic events
fay @ fayroberts. co. uk if you’d like to
book me as a host or performer (hey, you never know!)
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