Spoken Label

Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry / Artist Podcast) features the excellent Ashley Edge.

Ashley is a non-binary, autistic poet from the heart of England. They take great pleasure in opening the rusty can full of phobic critters, shining a laser on them and beating them with a poetic hammer. Prone to tugging at your soul with their tales of childhood trauma, Ashley is also able to produce the odd happy poem. Usually about cats.

They have been published in many anthologies over the years and won multiple slams. A fan of trying all poetic styles, on the stage and on the page. Due for release in February 2023, Ashley's collection, "Those Days, These Days", is a double-whammy. An exploration of their early life as a loud and proud queer, coming out and falling in love during Section 28, Ashley fast forwards to present times, being non-binary and the passions that keep them sane and fighting.

Facebook: observeandmuse with Ehjee

Instagram: observeandmuse_Ashley

Twitter: @AshleyEdgePoet

YouTube: ObserveandMuse Ashley

https://ashleyedgepoet.wordpress.com/

Today's Spoken Label Session (Author / Artist / Poet Podcast) features the wonderful Michael Burton.

Latest Spoken Label features the wonderful Judy Liu, author of the Vending Portal.

Latest from Spoken Label and our last session of the year features the magnificent Louise Fazackerley.

Louise’s work is described as “ work rooted in word-witchery and the working class, Louise explores the synergy between poetry, voice and movement in a way that makes the ugly beautiful and the mundane fantastical.  Winner of BBC Radio 3 ‘New Voices’, European Slam Finalist and support artist for punk legend Dr. John Cooper Clark, Louise is a true, Northern powerhouse. Welcome to her world of darkly humorous poetry. Previous poetry collections include The Lolitas and The Uniform Factory (Verve Poetry Press), Bird St. (The Secret Writers Club) and audio book, Council House Poetry (Nymphs & Thugs.) Louise has a degree in Theatre Studies and Creative Writing from Lancaster University and an MA in Creative Writing from Edge Hill University. She lectures and teaches creative writing in schools, prisons and universities. When she is not writing, Louise is loping around Wigan and wrangling two teenage daughters and two teenage cats. “

Louise’s latest book ‘pleasure dome which this sesison talks about ’ is described as: “Take your little feelings-junkie-self on a dash through the house of fun. Here is hedonism and anhedonia a.k.a 'the inability to feel anything' nothing? explored through lyric poetry and dystopian prose poetry. Here are the Romantic Poets. Here are some bands from the 1980's. Here is a bathroom. Here is a place where the super-rich get to use your organs instead of their own. Obvs. Think escapism, mothers guilt and drink- some of it set in an alternate dimension of distorted mirrors and super-fun balloons. Dilettantes and the discerning brain are welcome here. “

More about Louise can be found at: https://www.louisethepoet.co.uk/

Back with Spoken Label (Author / Artist Podcast) today is our returning friend “Ilaria Passeri”

Ilaria Passeri is a Scottish-Italian writer-performer living in South Manchester. She works as a storyteller in schools, libraries, art centres, theatres and woodland areas. You can often find Ilaria under a tree telling stories with a rubber chicken and a crowd of giggling kids with their grown-ups — failing that, you may find her on a train lugging around a suitcase of puppets or in a sweaty pub room telling people all her secrets through a microphone. She performed her debut show ‘Lady Ilaria’s Drawers’ at The Hen and Chickens as part of the Camden Fringe Festival and received a four-star review. Before becoming a writer and storyteller, Ilaria was Mandy the CrimeSolving Monkey, Sparkle Chops the Elf, a Bar Crawl Babe, an Aperol Spritz Girl and she also worked in a call centre for three days. 

In this Spoken Label Session, we talk about her show from a few years back “Lady Ilaria’s drawers” and what led into her book ‘Tales of a confused Life’. 

Instagram @ilariathestoryteller 

Twitter @ilariapasseri

Back with Spoken Label (Poet Podcast) tody is our returning friend “Ilaria Passeri”

New from Spoken Label (Author / Artist / Poet Podcast) features the wonderful Martin Elder talking about his debut poetry book "Rewind / Replay"

Martin describes himself as "Writer Poet and Dr of Hope  the story so far.....as a spotty faced teenager back in the mists of time I once wrote a poem about the Vietnam war which has been thankfully lost. I then picked up a pencil again in my late thirties and  started writing short stories and subsequently  a couple of books. I followed this with an attempt at poetry . However a friend told me that he did not like them. (The poems that is) so I stopped. But the loss of a job back in 2012 stimulated me to write a poem again which was quickly followed by another and then another , sadly I haven't been able to stop pouring out a sea of babble and drivel since.  Having tried the public domain few times in 2014 I have continued to subject members of the unwitting public to my utterances and dribblings through open mic gigs in a variety of locations with very few rotten vegetables or eggs being thrown....so far"

More about Martin can be found at: https://www.writeoutloud.net/profiles/martinelder

His Email address to purchase a copy of his collection is: [email protected]

Latest Spoken Label session (Author / Artist Podcast series) features the brilliant Ed Davis discussing his new book ‘The Last Professional’. originally from Northern California but originally from Kanas City. 

‘The Last Professional’ focuses on a hobo, a wanderer, a madman; three characters hurtling toward a heart-wrenching climax where their way of life, and their lives, hang in the balance.

These freights let you ride, they don't let you go!

Lynden Hoover, a young man on the brink of a new beginning, cannot embrace it without confronting the traumas of his past. Help comes from The Duke, an old loner who calls America' s landscape his home. He clings to an honor code, but in fleeing from Short Arm, his merciless enemy, his code is being tested. The Duke mentors Lynden, enlisting old traveling friends to keep himself and his apprentice just ahead of Short Arm' s relentless pursuit. When two of those friends are murdered, the stakes become life or death.

Bonds are formed, secrets exposed, sacrifices made, trusts betrayed; all against a breathtaking American landscape of promise and peril. Three unforgettable characters, hurtling toward a spellbinding climax where pasts and futures collide, and lives hang in the balance. 

More about Ed can be read at his website: https://www.eddavisbooks.com/

Audio rip of the live Spoken Label Zoom launch containing the set Richard Harries did for the launch of his second poetry book "Iconic Tattoo' recorded live on Monday 28 November 2022.

Richard Harries (not to be confused with the Bishop of Oxford) is a well known spoken word artist with a considerable following on YouTube. He performs mainly in the North of England but concentrates on East Yorkshire, Hull and the surrounding area. One of his first poems, Pirate Izzy, was written for his Granddaughter; and thereafter he began writing and performing at Folk Clubs and Pubs.

In addition to several years at the Hull Freedom Festival he has been a popular feature at the Filey Folk Festival, Cottingham Springboard, and in venues in Leeds, Harrogate, York and Wakefield. Richard's historical poems have been published in American Journals and his war poems were read in Ypres 100 years after the first shot in the Battle of Bellewaarde in World War I. He was also a significant contributor to the Saboteur project Haunt.

Richard is often known as the Bard of Withernsea or the Activist Poet of Hull having written for the Action for Hull Group, The Wilberforce Society and supported campaigns to save the Lord line building and Beverlygate.

The book can be purchased from: https://www.stairwellbooks.co.uk/authors/richard-harries/ and all good booksellers etc

New from Spoken Label (Author / Artist Podcast) features the incredible Selina Halliwell.

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