Yer Bard

An offshoot of Blue Shout Poetry, YER BARD is a poetry night designed to help new writers develop their practice through close listening and open discussion.

YER BARD takes place at Dash the Henge in Camberwell once a month, and hosted by Vida Adamczewski (Amphibian & Other Bodies, Toothgrinder Press 2023, winner of UEA New Forms Award 2022) and Angus Rogers (Dog Replica, Toothgrinder Press 2022), with the able assistance of Lois Thomas (founder of the LSE Creative Network).

Opening with a poetry reading and Q&A with our guest Bard (or bards). Since our first event in February 2023, we have had an incredible selection of guest poets from across the UK join us, including; Jack Underwood; Padraig Regan; Maria-Sophia Christodoulou; Alice Frecknall; James Maessiah; Ella Frears; Felix Orlo; Rachel Cleverly; Prerana Kumar; Will Harris; Cecilia Knapp; Oakley Flanagan; Stephanie Sy-Quia; Katie O’Pray; Wayne Holloway Smith; Lucy Mercer; Eve Esfandiari-Denney; and Alycia Pirmohamed, amongst others. Many of our guest poets are award winning writers, many of them are editors of key poetry publications, and many others have promoted and launched their debut collections at the event.

The guest readings and Q&A are followed by an hour of open mic slots. Each 5 minute slot is an opportunity for a poet to read work in progress that they want to road test and refine with fellow writers.

Poets who read on the night will be able to send one or two of their poems to Vida and Angus, who will reply with thoughts, feedback and reading recommendations before the next event.

YER BARD is open to anyone; young and old; sad and lonely; professionally bad poets and amateur good ones; friendly faces and harsh critics; people who are keen to read, and people who just want to listen.

Follow YER BARD on instagram to get updates on our upcoming events @yerbardpoetry