The POW! 2020 festival is in full swing with a host of events still to come.
On Friday (March 6) the event opened at the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate and the following day there was a well-attended POW! pop-up, women’s makers market at Radford House – the former Ramsgate fire station – in Effingham Street.
On Friday, March 13 Margate Bookie’s legendary slam is going to be a fully female line up, as part of the annual festival.
Headlining is Birdspeed, who won all three national slams in a single year and won last year’s BBC slam. Birdspeed, who is now based in Bristol, was born in London and grew up in Barbados. She was drawn to poetry, she says, because of a sense of frustration at its narrow focus. She told the BBC that at school “I didn’t hear a lot of voices like mine. Poetry enabled me to share my truth.” The Triple Crown winner brings wit, wonder and thrills to the stage.
Also on the bill is Maggie Harris, who has won the Guyana Prize for Literature twice and was the Caribbean Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She is one of Thanet’s best poets, and her performances are always captivating. Her poem Lit by Fire about the North Foreland Lighthouse was commissioned by the BBC for National Poetry Day.
The night will be hosted by Things With Words and Music’s Megan Garrett-Jones, an active and engaged individual in the Kent arts scene.
Kent Poetry Champion Pauline Holmes, Nina Telegina, Penny Tigerlily Lane, Alice Gretton, Sophie Cameron, Louise Devismes, Rhea Skelton, Clair Meyrick, Alice Grace will also perform, with one final spot to be raffled off on the night.
Despite having an all female line up, Margate Bookie haven’t forgotten that this year’s International Women’s Day theme is #EachForEqual, and so the male who has curated the evening is poet and publisher Connor Sansby.
Tickets are £5 in advance and available here www.powthanet.com/events/2020/3/13/the-pow-slam
This coming Saturday (March 14) POW! festival is heading to Dreamland Margate for Mind and Body Day, a day exploring physical and mental wellbeing with talks, conversations, masterclasses, and performances.
Mind and Body Day is a mini-one-day festival within POW! festivals’ ten day schedule. The day includes: massage, t-shirt making workshops, body confidence photoshoots, live performances, a talk on parenthood and mental health, a pelvic floor masterclass, a talk on body confidence and imposter syndrome, a session on the power of the womb with award-winning gynaecologist Uzo Sampson, a conversation about disability and mental wellbeing, and a panel talk about gender, race and disability. In the evening there is also a Sound Bath with Sound and Somatic therapist Jo Miller, which includes guided meditation and sound therapy.
Throughout Mind and Body Day there will be free soft play for any parents or guardians attending with young children.
Mind and Body Day will take place in Dreamland’s Ballroom and is from 10.30am – 6pm, with the Sound Bath running from 6pm – 7.30pm.
An all-day ticket costs £10 in advance, which you can book through www.powthanet.com, or £12 on the door. The Sound Bath costs £10 in advance or £12 on the door. A combination ticket for Mind and Body Day and the Sound Bath can be purchased in advance for £16.
Refreshments will be available, with amazing cakes by Never Mind the Cupcakes and tea from Chai Walla Margate available throughout the day.
In the evening of Saturday, March 14, POW! is bringing the ultimate feel good event to Cliftonville’s Lido Cliff Bar. The Cocoa Butter Club will be presenting a fierce line-up celebrating the best cabaret by Queer, Transgender and Intersex People of Colour the world has to offer. The evening will include burlesque, spoken word, music, voguing, a nipple tassle workshop and more.
The night runs from 8.30pm – 2am, and ends with The Cocoa Butter Club’s in-house DJ and dancing.
Tickets are £12 in advance and can be booked at www.powthanet.com, or £15 on the door. This evening is for over 18s only.
The complete line-up and schedule for POW! festival 2020 can be seen on www.powthanet.com