Shout or Whisper Thomas Irvine

We are an ‘Open Words’ event, a celebration of all oral literary forms.

Our goal is to give a platform to all voices. To those who feel that they are not being heard, to those who feel like they have no opportunity to experiment with different forms, to those who have never done anything like this before, we want to hear from you.

Similarly, if you’ve done this a thousand times before, if you’re a published artist, if you feel that you can bring something to help others prosper, we want to hear from you.

Finally, if you’re someone who enjoys the experience of being with talented creative people, someone who enjoys hearing local talent trying their arm, an avid reader and consumer of literary art, we want to hear from you.

In short, we want to create a community of writers, a community united by a passion for performance and literature.
We are hoping to develop and nurture two unique events. Not poetry nights, not just open mic, something that mixes all forms. Having attended many such gigs, it becomes increasingly difficult to really appreciate each individual’s pieces for what they are. Nuances of particular images or deftness of metre are lost by the time the last few poets and artists take the stage; sometimes these events can be utterly overwhelming, in terms of the amount of content the audience consumes.

By mixing styles and modes, we feel that this variety will allow each artist’s work to breathe and be appreciated for what they are in isolation.

We are looking for anyone with an interest and any sort of talent in the following forms:

Poetry
Spoken Word
Rap
Monologues
Dramatised Readings
Plays (excerpts)


We are not necessarily looking for perfection, for paired down performance or any sort of ‘greatness,’ we want voices who are willing to have their work criticised constructively and are open to feedback of a group. Of course, we want to celebrate well thought out and powerful pieces, but we want to give people the opportunity to better themselves.

View my website https://www.shoutorwhisper.co.uk/