ACTIVE poets and poetry lovers are invited to the open mic event in glór by the Clare Poetry Collective.
Established over thirty years ago, The Clare Poetry Collective was set-up to create an inclusive community for established creatives and would-be poets across the county.
Through open-events, live performances and professional workshops, the Clare Poetry Collective hopes to inspire and support writers and readers of poetry.
Frank Golden, poet and committee member explained that the organisation aims “to cultivate an encouraging environment for their members, not one that is overly critical”.
The group has recently worked with Marie Byrne the director of glór to re-establish ‘Foyer Readings’. This is a bi-monthly event which runs on Saturdays from 12.30pm to 2pm in the glór foyer. The event begins with a musical introduction which is followed by an hour of poetry reading for all guests to enjoy.
The next instalment of “Foyer Readings” will be an open mic event. The Clare Poetry Collective are inviting poets and would-be poets to share their original poetry at the event. Frank explained that this is a brilliant opportunity for creatives to test out new works on a live audience. “It is a great platform for authors to read their work out in front of an audience. Oftentimes you can write a poem or a series of poems and be unsure if it really works. The best way of finding out if a poem really works is by reading it out in public”.
As the event is limited for time, those who are interested in taking part in the open mic event are asked to register beforehand. Registration for performers is open in the glór foyer from 12-12:30pm. Each poem cannot exceed 40 lines.
The Clare Poetry Collective also run a monthly poetry event in libraries around the county. These events take place in the De Valera Library in Ennis, Kilrush Library, Seán Lemass in Shannon and Scariff Library on the first Friday of every month. The monthly library poetry events are another opportunity for attendees to share the poetry they have been working on with others and receive live feedback.
Alongside these open events the Clare Poetry Collective also runs regular workshops with professional poets. These workshops are open to both the public and to members of the organisation.
