On 18 November the next Rhymes event, Meet the Laureate’s, is taking place at Margarett Rose Abri Cafe, Digbeth from 8pm.

Poets at this months event will be Roy McFarlane in one of his first outings as Birmingham’s new Poet Laureate and Jordan Westcarr, Birmingham’s phenomenally talented new Young Poet Laureate. Joining them will be Fatima Al Matar, Sean Colletti, and Andy Cook.

Take a look at their Youtube channel for an idea of what Rhymes is all about, tickets for this event are £5.

On 20 November the Spoken Word All Stars national tour is hitting Birmingham’s mac after launching earlier in the year at Latitude Festival.

Poet in the City and Apples & Snakes present a ‘spectacular evening of wall-to-wall words with an unflagging backbeat’, with the following selected All Star Cast…

Kate Tempest – Hellfiery powerhouse of socio-poetry
El Crisis – combines a hypnotic mixture of rap, spoken word, song and chant.
OneNess – Spoken-word Soulsista from Grenada
Kat Francois – Slamtastic, superphysical storyteller
Ventriloquist – Wordsmith wizard from the West
Jason Yarde – the King of improv Sax.

Tickets for this event are £9/ £6 and can be booked online.

Punch in collaboration with Apples and Snakes, present Tuned On, a development session for performance poets. The event will take place at mac on 20 November from 4 – 6pm.

Artists confirmed to appear on the panel are Kat Francois, OneNess, El Crisis and Chris Redmond, who will be led by Rob Taylor, discussing the creative business side of spoken word, along with their artistic journey and making a living as spoken word poets, before opening the floor to questions.

This will be a great opportunity to meet other members of the West Midland’s spoken word community, set up collaborations and find out about events and performance opportunities.

Tuned On is free to attend, RSVP to bohdan@applesandsnakes.org.uk