Jazz and poetry night for Arundel Festival

Jazz and Poetry at the Jailhouse is jointly presented by the Arundel Festival and the South Downs Poetry Festival.

SDPF director Barry Smith, who will be one of the poets performing at the gig, said: “Laying down the jazz grooves will be Big House jazz band, led by Mike Carey on keyboards. Big House are an exciting new five-piece band based in Arundel. The band plays their own material full of energy, melody and lyricism. The band members, Mike Carey on piano, Mike Comber on double bass, Stephen Cass on drums and percussion, Paul Hodgson on tenor sax and flute and David Hepworth on trumpet and flugel, are looking forward to raising the roof on their home turf.

“The band’s recently released album Where the Earth Meets the Sky gives a taste of the lively music in store for the festival.

“Joining Big House for the Jailhouse gig are four South Downs poets who have all been creating a stir on the arts scene and are all known for their involving performance styles. Raine Geoghegan is developing an international following for her poems of Romani life, inspired by her own family history, including tales of working in the hop fields and life on the road. Her latest collection, The Talking Stick – O Pookering Kosh, has just been released by Irish publisher, Salmon Press.

“As well as being a poet, Chris Hardy has also spent a life on the road playing the guitar with Little Machine, a band which specialises in setting poetry to music, including works by Carol Ann Duffy.

“Reading alongside Chris and Raine is Chichester university lecturer, poet, editor and novelist Naomi Foyle. Naomi’s poems address a wide range of subjects including issues of the day like the Grenfell Tower Block fire. Her quartet of futuristic eco-aware novels, Astra, has recently been adapted for the stage in a multi-media show including puppets, presented at the Brighton and Chichester festivals.”

SDPF director Barry Smith will also be performing at the gig. Barry’s recently published collection, Performance Rites, covers the notion of life as performance and includes poems on music, clowns, politics and theatre.