Ó Bhéal hosts the
2022 Munster Poetry Slam
(and provincial heat for the All-Ireland Slam Championship)
with special guest Abby Oliveira
The 2022 Munster Poetry Slam Competition is the regional heat of the 2022 All-Ireland Poetry Slam, which will be held during Cork’s Winter Warmer poetry festival in November. The top three poets from each provincial heat will qualify for the final. The Munster Slam will be held over two rounds, while the All-Ireland will have three. Usual rules apply, 3 minutes max per poem, etc. To enter email Ó Bhéal or DM us via social media.
This year’s judges are poets Julie Goo, Stan Notte and reigning All-Ireland champ Shaunna Lee Lynch.
Abby Oliveira is a writer and performer based in Derry. Her work is often cross-discipline and collaborative; comprising poetry, storytelling, music, prose, playwriting, and/or physical performance. She’s all into the battles & triumphs of the human mind, body, and spirit in relation to the socio-political/cultural tornado that has been the 21st century.
Her work has been most recently published in The 32: An anthology of Irish Working Class voices (Unbound, 2021), The New Frontier: reflections from the Irish border (New Island Books, 2021), and Empty House: poetry & prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021). She has been commissioned as a writer by organisations such as The MAC in Belfast, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Foyle and RTÉ Radio.
This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.
We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 15 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.15pm: Munster Poetry Slam (Poets compete over two Rounds) & Special Guest (2 x 10 mins);
11:10pm: Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 15).
(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)
Jane Ayres and Maurice Scully
(via Zoom) (in-person)
UK based neurodivergent writer Jane Ayres re-discovered poetry studying for a part-time Creative Writing MA at the University of Kent, which she completed in 2019 at the age of 57. She is fascinated by hybrid poetry/prose experimental forms and has work in many publications including Lighthouse, Streetcake, The North, ubu, (mac)ro(mic), Fly on the Wall Press, Crow of Minerva, Magma, Selcouth Station and The Forge.
In 2020, she was longlisted for the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets’ Prize. In 2021, her poem Neurodivergent Cake Dream was nominated for Best of the Net, she was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and a winner of the Laurence Sterne Prize. Her first collection edible was published by Beir Bua Press in July 2022. Her micro-chapbook my lost womb still sings to me is published by Porkbelly Press in late 2022/23.
Maurice Scully was born in Dublin in 1952. He has had many books published over the decades, most recently Things That Happen (Shearsman Books, 2020), Play Book (Coracle Press, 2019) and Airs (Shearsman, 2022).
A book of essays on his work appeared in 2020, A Line of Tiny Zeros in the Fabric, ed. Ken Keating (Shearsman, 2020). He is a recipient of the Macaulay and the Patrick & Katherine Kavanagh Fellowships.
This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.
We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets (20 minutes each);
10:20pm: Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 20).
(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)
the 10th Ó Bhéal Winter Warmer Festival of Poetry
Ó Bhéal’s 10th Winter Warmer (and 2nd hybrid) festival will present over 30 poets live from up to eight countries at Nano Nagle Place in Cork (and online). The festival will feature the All-Ireland Poetry Slam Championship final, workshops, music, the shortlist screening and prize-giving for Ó Bhéal’s International Poetry-Film Competition, a round table discussion and a closed-mic set for new voices – poets who have featured regularly in Ó Bhéal’s open-mic sessions during 2022.
Ó Bhéal is grateful to its sponsors, The Arts Council, Cork City Council, Foras na Gaeilge, Dunnes Stores, Forum Publications, Colmcille, Arc Publications, Cork City Libraries, Poetry Ireland, Paradiso, the University of Vigo and the UCC School of English and Digital Humanities.
