Spoken Word in a Hectic World: More Song, Less Silence

Poetry Event Review: Northern Lights In/Form and More Song – the importance of independent events in scope of the discussion around fossil fuel free books.

With extra quotes from event organiser Kimberly Campanello, as well as Tom Branfoot’s comments on his work and on “More Song” poetry events!

Pages in the hands of poets are struck by light from above, and the audience can make out the shapes words take on the page; triangles, pentagons and snaking letters take form on the illuminated papers in their hands. They introduce each other, and then their words flood the room with full force. It is a collection of solemn, heartfelt, funny, critical, poems. Oscillating between quiet and loud enunciation, they explore highly relevant and thought-provoking topics performed by diverse voices. I leave questioning and confused and fulfilled all at once – and desperately wanting to research crows. Organised by University of Leeds lecturer and poet Kimberly Campanello and her friends and fellow poets, this experimental poetry event prioritised atmosphere and togetherness over formalities that might limit creative minds. The only guideline given to the poets was this: perform poetry experiments of eight minutes or less. 

In eight minutes, Campanello herself performed a piece translating, or rather rewriting her version of some of Dante’s work. Her voice rises to a crescendo and then falls to a breath quivering in the echo of her words. To her, this event was a “coming together” of friends and poets to hear each other’s work, sharing words that filled the air of the room and performing work free of restriction.

When I spoke to her after the event, she told me that today’s reading was an important piece of the aftermath of the 2024 Society of Authors election supporting the divestment of fossil-fuel funding of local companies and literary events. Many poetry events are funded by fossil-fuel companies. Following their vote, “the Society of Authors’ management committee calls on all financial institutions with ties, through sponsorship or other partnerships, to divest from the fossil fuel industry” (fossilfreebooks). Today’s event space was rented out at community rates because it didn’t charge for tickets: which worked for this event because it was more of a community gathering, but becomes more complicated when poets are getting paid for their performances. Who is still willing to sponsor these underfunded events and how can this be achieved ethically? Society of Authors is urging people to become members and support authors’ rights and an array of ethical debates ranging from funding to consent for AI stealing writers’ work, stating that “if you’re not a member of the SoA, now is the time to join! We are fighting to protect the rights of all authors, now and in the future. We’re stronger together” (SoA Instagram).

Sarah Dawson’s performance offered interesting questions about dealing with pain and endurance. Why do we praise this endurance of pain? Her performance she asks: “why is covering up pain frequently praised?” and talks about “tolerating pain as though it was funny”. A thought-provoking question that can be abstracted from Dawson’s context and offers commentary on more general societal structures. Sophia Fritz, who is amongst other things a feminist author and tantra masseuse, does exercises with patients at the beginning of sessions to establish the body’s boundaries. She speaks about how patients more often than not try to endure discomfort and that this is somehow something we claim and are proud of: I can tolerate this pain. In this context, Dawson’s performance asks why we pride ourselves in overstepping our pain thresholds, by pretending we’re not in pain, or shouldn’t express this.

Following this, Jon Gilbert stepped to the front of the room to exclaim: “[crows] remember faces, isn’t that crazy?!”. His performance of “The Language of Crows” had the audience laughing and admiring these creatures that are incredibly linguistically advanced – I left the event unsatisfied with my previous knowledge of these complex birds and wanting to do more research on them. Gilbert says “After the last human word there will be the language of crows”, exploring a continuation of intelligence and communication beyond human existence. 

Tom Jenks rounds the evening off as he shares his visual translations of books. Essentially, these pieces visually portray an element of a chosen book (e.g. all mentions of whales in Moby Dick). My personal favourite – and judging by the audiences’ laughter, most people’s favourite – was his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. In two minutes, Jenks performed all instances of the white rabbit being mentioned in the novel. If the white rabbit was mentioned halfway through the novel, for example, Jenks would mark this by saying “rabbit” into the microphone at minute one of his performance. It was funny to experience a whole book being distilled into a particular chosen detail, and as my partner pointed out, Jenks’ dry delivery made it all the more amusing. 

Tom Branfoot performs his piece “Muminent” which Campanello has encouraged him to abstract. He hands out four pages of his work to random volunteers in the room and then begins reading the words he has written. As he reads each page, he drops it and it twirls to the ground; feather-like, swaying like a reverberation of his words. At certain points he stops and points to one of the volunteers who then read their extract of “Muminent”; one drops his page to the ground, echoing Branfoot as if unifying within this poem and performance. It is a nice moment to witness, a coming together of poets to create something new, and of poets giving voice to each others’ work. “Muminent” offers a rich and thought-provoking exploration of intertextual themes and explores heartfelt sentiments of amongst others illness, memory, and archive. The poem was published online by Community Mausoleum, but experiencing the live performance added a touchingly personal layer to its meaning and significance. 

I spoke to Tom Branfoot after the event and he told me about More Song: a poetry event he began organising in 2023. He wanted to “create […] an innovative space in Bradford” that “prized diversity and people less traditional in personality”. The event collaborates with presses and has “created a loving community” in and around Bradford. Tom Branfoot also admires how the event has “acted like a magnet for a lot of people to come together who wouldn’t normally meet”, and offers a space for connections, understanding, comfort, experimentation, and personal development. It is an ethically funded place of art that invites everyone in – not unlike the Northern Lights event. People can come together without judgement to try to translate life’s questions and meanings into words, spoken in a room of people giving their full attention to someone else’s mind. 

Words by Kim Cullen