Chichester’s “first-ever” poetry slam gets off to a great start

Called Tongue Tied, it runs from 7-10pm at the Chichester Inn. The March event was the first heat at which eight poets competed. The second heat will be on April 30 and the third on May 28. In April and May another eight poets will compete. From each heat there will be two winners who will go up against each other in the final in June.

Poetry slams are extremely popular in London but on the south coast are relatively few and far between. The closest one is in Brighton. Poets Charlie Rosse and Ryan Burle teamed up with Emma Alexandra to fill the gap, with the promise of bringing something completely fresh to Chichester’s poetry scene.

Charlie said: “We had such a great time at the first one. It was a really good turn-out which was very exciting. People came on the door as well and we definitely got more than we thought. Also people in the pub heard what was going on and they stayed which was great. It was really nice. We've got a couple of small things to smooth out our end but one thing we did learn was just how much people love poetry, and if you're passionate about something then people really get on board with it. The passion of the performers really came across. The pace of the show was great and so was the variety of poetry that people produced. People have got so much in their heads that they want to talk about and write about. The variety was brilliant. We've got our two winners and they now go through to the final but we are also inviting them back to the next round.”

Charlie labelled it a historic moment for Chichester's arts scene, the first night of its kind to be held in Chichester, expanding the horizons of what poetry can be and what it can achieve.

“Tongue Tied are looking for poets/poetry lovers of all ages and backgrounds to get involved whether they want to compete, judge or simply see what it's all about.”

Both audience and competitor tickets are available on Eventbrite (search for Tongue Tied).

Charlie said: “A poetry slam isn't as aggressive as it sounds. It's a spoken word competition but it's judged in a way that is so open-hearted and so wonderful that you forget the competitive element. It feels like a poetry open mic but there is a scoring element which adds to the excitement but really doesn't take away the open-heartedness.”