A monthly spoken word night for unheard and under-represented voices in Teesside.
DiVerse features special guests and open mic performers who are womxn, LGBTQIA+, visibly and invisibly disabled, refugee and artists of colour. DiVerse alternates venues between Hope & Union in Stockton and Shanti Bistro in Saltburn.
Featuring:
Degna Stone
Degna is a poet and poetry editor based in Tyne & Wear. She is a contributing Editor at The Rialto, and a co-founder and former Managing Editor of Butcher’s Dog poetry magazine. She’s a fellow of The Complete Works III, a recipient of a Hawthornden Fellowship and holds an MA in Creative Writing from Newcastle University. In 2015, she received a major Northern Writers’ Award for her poetry.
G
Queer performance artist, immersive world maker, musician and wordsmith G has performed at venues in cities and festivals across the country for over 20 years. G writes from the heart, taking the often turbulent and unpredictable world and refashioning it in words to reflect our current times through a Queer lens.
Sky Hawkins
Sky Hawkins, aka The Word Bird, is a dyslexic poet and has been ranting on stages, winning the odd slam in the North East and beyond for over a decade now. Sky’s passion is supporting disenfranchised people to find their voices. One of her proudest achievements was supporting a group of young women as part of the Word Cup project with Apples and Snakes.
Juli Watson
Juli Watson is a poet and artist from Sunderland and is co-founder of Newcastle Literary Salon spoken word night. Her chapbook, L.O.V.E. Feelings, is published by Heddon Quarry. She has a collaborative book available online from blurb, with photographer Gemma Dobson and had poetry commissioned by the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art. Juli enjoys working with found text and images.
For open mic slots, sign up on the night.