A special edition of Coventry’s longest running spoken word event, Fire & Dust in partnership with Apples and Snakes. Audiences can expect an open mic and headline set from Jasmine Gardosi.
Sign up for open mic on arrival, they will be three minute slots. Open mic names pulled out at random.
Jasmine Gardosi is the former Birmingham Poet Laureate and an Honorary Doctor of Letters. They are a multiple slam champion, beatboxer, winner of the Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry and winner of the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Performer 2023. Their work exploring identity, LGBTQ issues and mental health has appeared on Button Poetry, at the Tate Modern, Glastonbury Festival, Symphony Hall and BBC. They were featured on Sky Arts’ BAFTA-winning show Life & Rhymes and their poem about the pandemic, filmed on a rollercoaster, was broadcast across America on PBS. They have taken their poetry across Europe, including at Romania’s Transylvania International Spoken Word Festival, and Estonia’s historical, first-ever queer poetry slam for Baltic Pride. Most recently, they were funded by West Midlands Combined Authority to perform and run workshops for the poetry and queer communities in the Philippines.
They are a previous Writer in Residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Poet in Residence at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and BBC Arts Young Creative. Their poetry/beatbox/Celtic dubstep show Dancing To Music You Hate explores gender identity and was commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre. After premiering to standing ovations, it won Best Spoken Word Show in the Saboteur Awards and its titular track was performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, broadcast on BBC Four. Following a sold-out show at Symphony Hall, the show toured the UK in the summer of 2023. Jasmine has most recently penned a new rock anthem for Birmingham, Brummie Steel which was performed by a mass collective of 300 musicians, commissioned by Misfits Music Foundation.
Apples and Snakes is England’s leading organisation for spoken word with an international reputation for producing engaging, transformative and inspiring experiences for audiences across the UK.
Spoken word trailblazers, the company commissions and produces events, develops artists and runs participation programmes across the country. It exists to amplify ignored voices, support and champion poets and poetry in performance and challenge expectations of what poetry is and can be.
Fire&Dust is Coventry’s premier monthly poetry event. Held every first Thursday of the month at the Priory Visitor Centre, with headline sets from guest poets plus open mic. Fire&Dust is a friendly, supportive environment where everyone’s welcome to share poems and experience live spoken word performances!
