Projects
Secondly, Poetry Can initiates and manages a number of projects across a range of contexts and mediums which bring poetry into the community and develop new develop new audiences for poetry, including projects in which poets have worked in schools and with older people. Poetry Can also runs cross-art form projects with film, dance and visual art, plus digital and public art projects.

Training and Support
Thirdly, Poetry Can offers training and networking opportunities to all those interested in developing their creative skills, with regular workshops and training sessions. At all times the focus is on equal opportunities for everyone.

Bristol Poetry Festival serves as a high-profile vehicle to realise all of its core aims, to: 

�          increase opportunities for everyone to participate in and enjoy poetry, through a strategic programme of events and projects.

�          Initiate work in which poetry�s role in lifelong learning is explored and extended

�          Support the creative and professional development of poets of all ages and levels of experience

�          Promote its activities on a national level

�          Poetry Can is committed to the development of positive policies to promote equal opportunities and cultural diversity. 

Bristol Poetry Festival specifically aims: 

�          to develop interest, knowledge, enthusiasm and audiences for poetry by bringing the most innovative, talented, popular and skilled contemporary poets and performers available. 

Bristol Poetry Festival 2004 included readings/performances from Brian Patten, Michael Rosen, Don Paterson, Maura Dooley, Jean Binta Breeze, John Agard, Matthew Sweeney, Liz Lochhead, Jean Sprackland, Neil Rollinson, Paul Farley, Julia Copus, Matt Harvey, Alicia Stubbersfield, Rose Flint, Sundra.

Bloodaxe Books, latest anthology: Being Alive, was launched at Bristol Poetry Festival by editor Neil Astley and poets Helen Ivory and Julia Copus.   

�          Act as a focus and/or promotion and celebration for lifelong learning activities. 

The winner of the 20-20 Vision Project (see below) first prize of �200 was drawn at the Bloodaxe Launch. 

�          Act as focus and/or celebration of the work local promoters and poets. 

The Festival�s now highly popular Poetry Festival slam organised by The Poetry Slam, celebrating its 10^th anniversary featured Murray Lachlan Young and Cynthia Hamilton as well as previous slam winners and performances from a selection of the many school children The Poetry Slam (often with Poetry Can support) has worked with over the years. 

Paralalia launched City: Bristol Today In Poems And Pictures, an anthology of  new poems about Bristol by 24 of Bristol�s best poets.  

 �          To promote poetry and Poetry Can�s activities on a local, regional and national level.

 Bristol Poetry festival is promoted across the local media, including the BBC, Bristol newspapers, and Venue magazine. It also features on national websites and in national newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and Mslexia. 

High quality brochure and publicity designed and produced in conjunction with John Good Holbrooke Ltd. 

 �          To promote equal opportunities and cultural diversity. 

We seek to include work in the Festival, which directly reflects and promotes the cultural diverse society in which we live. This includes events such as the Festival Poetry Slam, local events as well as the showcase events organised directly by Poetry Can.       

Bristol Poetry Festival 2004 took place over ten days from the 7^th to the 17^th of October.

Attendances for events both directly organised by Poetry Can and by Bristol poetry promoters were up on the previous year, and attendance targets were surpassed.   

�          Bath Literature Festival 2004 

Poetry Can supported and assisted Bath Literature Festival 2004 and introduced and chaired a �in conversation� event with the poets James Fenton and Anthony Thwaite.   

�          Bath Literature Festival 2005 

Poetry Can facilitated a young person�s slam event by Poetry Slam. The event was successful and Poetry Slam will be invited to repeat the event in 2006.  

Regular Platforms 

Can Openers

Poetry Can�s monthly poetry platforms in both Bristol and Bath, which aim to help develop poetry at it�s grassroots, providing an opportunity for local poets to present their work and for everyone attending to perform within a relaxed and supportive environment. Richard Carver continues to present Bath Can Openers, an evening event at The Huntsman pub. Organised by Claire Williamson, Bristol Can Openers in contrast, take place at lunch time in Bristol Central Library Caf�, every second Thursday. Audiences remain at a good level with an average 30-40 people attending both events. The success of Bristol Can Openers does show there is a need for daytime events. 

PROJECT WORK 

20-20 Vision

With the overall aim of promoting the pleasures of contemporary poetry, 20 contemporary, accessible poems that could be understood at first reading and provided an instant emotional or emotive �hit� were the basis of the 20-20 Vision project.

The poems were posted on the Poetry Can website and people were invited to vote for the poem they liked, with the further enticement of �200 first prize for the lucky winner who voted for the most popular poem and whose name was drawn out of a hat at the Being Alive Launch event during the Poetry Festival. The project and the poems were also promoted through the Bristol Library Service. In addition Bristol poets Fiona Hamilton, Peter Hunter and Mark Warner gave readings from the poems in a variety of settings, including Bristol libraries, Can Openers, and HMP Bristol. 763 people voted during the project

Performance Poetry Master Classes

In partnership with Rosemary Dun of Big Mouth Productions, Poetry Can has organised a series of 12 monthly master classes, to be run by 12 experienced, well known and successful and nationally recognised poets. The classes will run from Nov 04 to Oct 05 and will be held at the Folk House, Bristol. The classes have gone well, have been well attended and a full report will follow after evaluation in October 2005.

In Partnership With Bristol Library Services 

Poetry Can continues to develop its partnership with the Library service in Bristol. Central Library is the venue for Bristol Can Openers and the Library service was a key partner in the 20-20 Vision project. Poetry Can is continuing to work with the Library service to develop a model poetry/reader development strategy, to include aims & objectives, poetry promotion, stock selection, events, staff training and public awareness of poetry.

Earth From The Air Poetry Competition

Poetry Can, with the Natural History Consortium, organised The Earth From The Air Poetry Competition as part of Bristol Festival of Nature. Children, young people and adults from all over the South West were invited to enter poems responding to images from the Festival of Nature. Poetry Can co-ordinated and judged the competition and awarded the prizes at prize giving ceremony.   

In South Gloucestershire

Poetry Can worked with South Gloucestershire Library Service to organise five events across South Gloucestershire. Claire Williamson and Glenn Carmichael led events including readings, open floors, a poetry slam, poetry games and poetry workshop in Leyhill Prison.    

Support and Advice

Poetry Can continued to be very active during the year in providing advice and information to poets, to organisations and to the general public. Assisting poets with various aspects of their professional development; advising schools and lifelong learning agencies on poetry development and the organisation of various activities and events; answering enquiries from the general public re. a wide range of activities concerning poetry and poetry events.

This is an important and varied area of Poetry Can�s work, it ranges from answering simple one off enquiries to arranging activities or advising how to arrange activities; working over a number of sessions with individual poets on professional/poetry development or attending meetings at the Arts Council as a member of the SW literature advisory board.  

The Poetry Can Web Site

The web site continues to have regular visitors from the region and around the world. It consistently receives poems for the site�s poetry page, provides information, advertises events and helps with enquiries.  We have liaised with the Arts Council, literature organisations in the South West and web site users and plan further developments to develop the web site in order to make it an increasingly useful resource.

The Poetry Can Board

Poetry Can has successfully recruited new members to its board. At the 2005 AGM meeting

Lizzie White Polly Carr Adam Pushkin Catherine Stott. Yewande Akinlade, assistant to the Directors of the Bristol Old Vic will attend the next meeting and agree to attend the Poetry Can Board as a Trustee. It is intended to recruit more members after the 2005 Bristol Poetry Festival.

advisory members

Rachel Bentham was invited, and as agreed, to become an advisory member of the Poetry Can Board. Advisory Members will attend meetings but will not be trustees and will not have voting or nomination responsibilities. They are likely to be poets and writers or promoters and will advise the Poetry Can Board and assist in its activities as appropriate. It is intended to recruit more advisory members.

2005/06 PROGRAMME.

Bristol Poetry Festival 2005

See Bristol Poetry Festival 2004 above for objectives 

Bristol Poetry Festival 2005 included readings/performances from:

Wendy Cope, Helen Dunmore, Dennis O�Driscoll, Ciaran Carson, Jo Shapcott, Kathleen Jamie, Michael Symmons Roberts, Sean O�Brien, Brendan Cleary, Helen Ivory, Jacob Polley, Moniza Alvi, Dorothea Smartt, John Stammers, Francesca Beard, Greta Stoddart, Ros Barber, Lucy English, Rachel Bentham, Martin Figura, Sarah Law 

The Temptation Poetry Slam

This year�s highly popular Festival Poetry Slam was organised in partnership with The Poetry Slam and Apples and Snakes. Bristol poets Miles Chambers, Tim Gibbard, Leiza McLeod, Jacqueline Roskani and Julian Ramsay-Wade rose to the challenge of Apples & Snakes National temptation Tour Team featuring from London Niall O�Sullivan, from the North West, Dike Omeje, from the East Midlands John Berkavich, from the West Midlands Kimberly Trust and from the South West Lucy English.

The event was the first date of Apples & Snakes Temptation Tour and they invited the promoters from all the venues around the country in which the tour was playing. This added an extra element to the event, which was both enjoyable and significant. Promoters and poets from all across the UK came together with the opportunity to meet and network etc.  Bristol Poetry Festival Poetry Slam has become an highlight of the arts year in Bristol and this year, has in the previous three years, sold out well in advance, the rest of the country could not help but be impressed by this excellently organised, presented and attended Bristol event. 

�          Act as a focus and/or promotion and celebration for lifelong learning activities. 

Breaking New Grounds

This year Bristol Poetry Festival employed two poets residence: Bristol based poets Peter Hunter and David Johnson. The aim of their residency: Breaking New Grounds was to perform at 9 cafes across the city where poetry has not hitherto (or very rarely) been presented: Blaise Castle Park Caf�, Revival Caf� Corn St., Gatehouse Caf�, Hartcliffe, Create Centre, Smeaton Rd, Arbi �n� Tap Narrow Quay, Caf� Maitreya Easton, Circle Bookshop Caf� North St., Amoeba Bar Caf� Clifton, Soup Etc Ginger Gallery Caf� Hotwell Rd.

They performed at the cafes and offered advice on writing, reading and performing poetry.

All the venues have said they would happily host poetry events in the future.

The idea of employing poets in residence to undertake lifelong learning/developmental activities will be repeated at future festivals.

The Festival Bookstall

This year the Festival Bookstall was provided by the Arnolfini Bookshop who did an excellent job of ordering a variety of books by all the Poetry Festival poets appearing at the Bristol Old Vic Studio. Over a thousand pounds worth of poetry books were sold over six events.

BBC Radio Bristol

Each afternoon, on eight week days during the Poetry Festival we placed a poet appearing at the Festival, or an events organiser, on the Keith Warmington show, where they were interviewed by Keith, talked about poetry and, in the case of the poets, read one of their poems. Keith Warmington�s show has a daily listening audience of 250,000 people so over the eight days we were reaching an audience of two million people.

Attendances at the Poetry Festival were up again on last year.

PROJECTS � LIFELONG LEARNING

Thornbury Arts Festival � April 2005

Poetry Can organised Thornbury Arts Festival�s first ever poetry slam. Glenn Carmichael and Claire Williamson presented a slam, which featured 15 first time slammers from Thornbury before a lively and appreciative audience. The slam was a departure for this festival, which had hitherto generally presented �high brow� events. The organisers hope to repeat the event in 2006.

Andy Croft � June 2005

North East poet and for a number of years Writer-in-Residence at HMP Holme House, Stockton Poetry Can brought Andy Croft to Bristol where he read to great acclaim at Can Openers as well as sharing his experience of working as a Writer-in-Residence before an interested audience including members of the Justice Network.

The International Myeloma Foundation Poetry Competition Prize Giving 2005

The IMF exists to promote awareness of the myeloma, a form of cancer. It organises a prestigious national annual poetry competition,  this year judged by UA Fanthorpe. IMF intends to organise the prize giving in a different UK city each year. Poetry Can was pleased to organise the 2005 event in Bristol at The Watershed in partnership with the IMF. The event should have featured a reading by UA Fanthorpe as well as readings from six Bristol based poets. Unfortunately UA Fanthorpe fell ill and was unable to attend the event; fortunately Dr Rose Bailie was excellent in her stead.

Writers in Schools Workshop with Jean Sprackland and Mandy Coe  

The aim of this workshop was to develop the understanding and skills of poets working in schools and thus to develop the quality of work undertaken in schools and young peoples� experience of poetry.

Mandy Coe is an award-winning poet for children and adults. Her work has been widely published and broadcast on radio and television. Jean Sprackland�s last book Hard Water was short-listed for both the Whitbread Poetry Award and the T S Eliot Prize. Both have worked and have organised writing workshops extensively with schools, and deliver training and consultancy on writing in education. Their new book Our thoughts are bees: Writers Working with Schools is the most complete model of good practice currently available. It sets out a vision for the future of writing in education as well as giving advice on organising exciting projects in schools, from the author�s visit to the long term residency.

Poetry Can frequently facilitates various kinds of poetry activities in schools and was delighted to organise this workshop aimed at writers who already, or who wish to, work in schools. Fourteen people attended the workshop in July 2005.

Off Centre in HMP Prison Horfield

Poetry Can organised two sets of performances and workshops at HMP Prison Horfield.

The work built on interest and enthusiasm identified in work previously undertaken by poetry Can as part of the 20-20 Vision Project (see above). Off Centre was a national tour by Renaissance One which aimed to bring poetry to �venues� that were not traditional venues for poetry events. It also aimed to present work, which was by its own nature �off centre� either in terms of content or style.

Poetry Can asked Renaissance One to deliver workshops, which would inspire people already interested in creative writing, and further develop their skills.

Both workshops were very well received. It is hoped the highly enthusiastic evaluation of the workshops will lead to an increase in resources for education in the prison.  

Work with HMP Prison Horfield has developed through our partnership with Bristol Library Service. 

In Partnership With Bristol Library Services  

Poetry Can has continued to develop its partnership with the Library service in Bristol. Central Library is the venue for Bristol Can Openers and the Library service will be an important and key partner in Poetry Can�s work as a poetry development agency.

Poetry Can is continuing to work with the Library service to develop a model poetry/reader development strategy, to include aims & objectives, poetry promotion, stock selection, events, staff training and public awareness of poetry. We expect this strategy, which will be called Guidelines for Promoting Poetry in the Library Service to be completed in the next few weeks.

Ride On Writing Workshops: Working With Vulnerable People

From January to April 2006 Claire Williamson will lead six workshops at

Bristol Crisis Service for Women, exploring, with a group of young women, how poetry can be used therapeutically.    

 The Poetry Can Web Site

Poetry Can�s web site has expanded in scope and is now in the process of carrying details of poetry organisations, events and activities etc. taking place across the South West region.

The Literature South West Web Site

In addition to the poetry web site, Poetry Can has obtained funding from the Arts Council in order to create, develop and maintain a new web site that will reflect all kinds of literature activities and events etc. taking place in the South West. This funding has including a part-time worker (one day a week) to develop and maintain the site. It is expected to go live at the end of November. 

Diversity Plan

Poetry Can�s new Diversity Plan will be in place by March 2006.

� Outline plans and objectives for 2006/07 and beyond including any plans to apply for 

  Grants for the arts

Audience Development

In 2006/07, the first year of Poetry Can�s new three year plan, audience development with Asian audiences and African-Caribbean audiences will be a priority.

Poetry Can will:

develop partnerships between November and March 2006 with Asian and African-Caribbean agencies in the community; 

devise  poetry based lifelong learning projects to take place between April-September 2006; 

the work of these projects to be reflected or complimented in events in Bristol Poetry Festival 2006 at venues in St. Pauls and Easton.  

After evaluation this process will be repeated and/or developed in 2007/08 and 2008/9 

Bristol Poetry Festival 2006 

Bristol Poetry Festival 2006 will take place in September / October 2006 (month to be tbc) 

It is likely to feature major events at Bristol Old Vic, the Arnolfini, and this year at venues in St. Pauls and Easton.

Following the success of the Poetry Festival Poets in residence project in 2005 � we will repeat this but with a different poetry audience developmental slant.

Web Sites 

Throughout the year we will continue to develop and maintain The Poetry Can Web-Site and the Literature South West Web site including liaison with literature organisations, agencies, poets and writers etc in the South West

Other specific plans for events and the lifelong learning project are currently been discussed as part of the Poetry Can�s board development. 

The new draft for the next three year plan will be completed by December 2005.

Funding Acknowledegments
Poetry Can is funded by Bristol City Council, The Arts Council of England, Bath & North East Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council.

Web-site Acknowledgements