Sidmouth Celebration of the Spoken Word Helps Combat Climate Crisis
Tipton St John-based international reforestation charity, Word Forest, has launched a monthly poetry and spoken word event at the Leigh Brown Room at the Unitarian Hall in Sidmouth. It’s set to be a fabulous celebration of word play and it will be hosted by poets and Word Forest founders, Tracey and Simon West.
Simon comments: “Wordplay will give poets and writers of prose a chance to perform their work with a microphone, perhaps for the first time, in front of an appreciative audience. It’s always fascinating listening to pieces performed by their creators in the way they envisioned they would be. The South West is teeming with talent and I can’t wait to open the doors to let the wordy magic happen!”
The Wests created and ran a similar event called Vittles and Verse in Lyme Regis for many years and they are confident that Wordplay in Sidmouth will be just as much fun.
The inaugural Wordplay takes place on Saturday 20th April and it will repeat on the 3rd Saturday of the month, every month. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 7pm start. Admission is £4 on the door and it includes a light beverage. Additional plant based refreshments and snacks will be available to purchase.
Aside from being a convivial event, Wordplay is also a fundraising initiative for Word Forest. Money raised over and above the hall hire will be used to plant fast-growing, predominantly food-producing trees in Kenya, where they grow up to 10 times faster than in the UK. They’ll draw down around a ¼ of a tonne of CO2 in 5-7 years and the commodities from them will put a dent in local hunger and poverty too. This particular vehicle to raise money to help the planet, its people, wildlife and biodiversity is exciting, but it has a deeply serious focus.
Tracey concludes: “Wordplay will deliver an entertaining evening and the participants will create a pioneering opportunity to slow global heating and extreme weather events. This is great news because there are worrying meteorological times ahead. Our Special Scientific Advisor, Professor Bill McGuire said recently that many people tell him they feel isolated, and that as individuals they don’t think they can make a worthwhile difference. Bill’s answer is to join a group of like-minded people. This has a galvanising effect, replacing hopelessness with hope; inertia with action. Let’s use Wordplay to do just that!”
For further information, visit WordForest.org/wordplay.
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