3 Verse

Worcestershire's poetry project for 2012/13. It will give young people in the county 3 opportunities to write and perform their own poetry either on their own or as part of a group.

Worcestershire has an emerging poetry scene within the county. We piloted our Young Poet Laureate Competition, 'Word Up' in 2011. This was highly successful, attracting 121 entries from young people around the county. This has shown to us that there is a real appetite for spoken word within the county and we are now keen to develop this further.

Our target group is young people who may not traditionally take part in arts projects, this being the case, the poets we are working with are those that are seen by young people to be good and strong role models.

The project is backed by the Worcestershire County Arts Partnership whose vision is to make the arts as accessible to as many people as possible.

As the name suggests there are three projects in total. These are:

Word Up

Word Up is the search for Worcestershire's Young Poet Laureate. It is for poets between the ages of 13 and 19 who are resident in, attend a youth club, or are educated in Worcestershire.  

Entrants will be asked to write 2 poems – one of which will be on the National Poetry Day Theme.

15 poets will be shortlisted and invited to perform at a live final.

Awareness of the competition will be raised by interactive information sessions being held in schools and other locations around the county. These are being led by Performance Poets Spoz, Dreadlockalien and Matt Windle.

For more information about Word Up, please contact Natalie McVey on 07876 144905 or nmcvey@worcestershire.gov.uk

Middle School Poetry Slam

This competition is open to middle schools.  It starts with workshops led by one of the performance poets. These workshops give pupils the opportunity to write and perform poetry and participate in a team-based head-to-head competiton at the end of the day.

The programme culminates in a live final in the Spring Term, 2012 where the winning teams from each school will compete against one another.

In 2011 we had groups write about cheese, youth culture, cheap clothing and the global economy, and that was only the first half of the show!

The project is open to young people from the ages of 11-13, and will take place between January and March 2012.

The 2011 winner was Witton Middle School.

High School Poetry Slam

As with the above project, this is a school based competition, open to young people between the ages of 11-14. Young people are encouraged to freely express themselves, something they don't usually shy away from.         

The delivery framework is based on the Middle School Poetry Slam but the timeframe is extended over the Summer Term, with a Grand Final in July 2012.

The 2011 winner was South Bromsgrove High School

For more information about the Middle and High School Poetry Slams, please contact Julie Andrews on 01905 740131 or jandrews2@worcestershire.gov.uk

Which Poets are Involved

3 Verse is privileged to have performance poets Spoz, Matt Windle, Dreadlockalien and Laura Dedicoat  as workshop leaders and poetry champions.

"Spoz is….. a sort of poet. The sort, in fact, that has been published, recorded, been on the radio, won awards, is a former Poet Laureate of Birmingham, taken part in so many festivals, he's lost count and even had a commission form the BBC." - Watch YouTube videos of Spoz performing.

"Being a keen amateur boxer, 21 year old Matt Windle doesn't necessarily fit the bill of what you'd expect a former Young Poet Laureate to look like. But when the Northfield resident takes the stage, all becomes clear. One of Birmingham's leading lights in the performance scene, his unmistakable brand of 'Slam Poetry' is the hallmark of a story where the boy done good'". - Watch YouTube videos of Matt performing.

"Dreadlockalien is a working poet based in the midlands. The former Birmingham Poet Laureate was founder member of the New October Poets, the largest spoken word collective in the region. Rising from the soundclash toasting days of carnival blues, and speakers too big to carry, he regularly appears internationally as a conference keynote speaker, poet, and workshop facilitator."

Laura Dedicoat is the Worcestershire's present, and first Young Poet Laureate. Since she was crowned in January, Laura has been performing on the poetry circuit inspiring people young and old with her words.

All of our poets are on a mission to get Worcestershire's young people writing and performing.

Who is involved in this?

This is a joint initiative from:

• Worcestershire County Council Children's Services 
• Worcestershire County Council Libraries and Learning Service.
• County Arts Partnership.