Tag: Spoken Word

Community Poem November 2024

Safeword

Harry and Kate went to masturbate,
loving the vibration of love,
a slow, slinky ooziness.
A sausage, a hole and Vinted.
Breathe in, said Kate, exhale the fire of living.
The bag was bulging.

We need to establish a safeword, said Harry
I’m thinking of a line, said Kate, but it’s not happening,
the only thing that comes to mind is a thousand fucking doves.
Harry suggested: I love Ian Beale…?
Chocolate coins? said Kate Time is a construct!
Dare you! Dare you! Double dare you?

The naughty little mouse nibbled my member, said Harry
Well, your compliment wasn’t good enough, said Kate,
asking to see my anus on Instagram is not a love poem.
An ode for a misplaced hip flask? said Harry.

I hate loving you, you love hating me, said Harry,
and the postage was paid in Northern Ireland.

Days are unequal in the struggles of the dead, said Kate
What is stopping ants from taking over the world? Democracy?

I hope this line is read out of context
like Leda, like Persephone, like women, women, women. 
On this pirate ship poetry pandemonium,
we’re all just twatting around in the glitter.

Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Love Headliners: Jo Bell & Carlo Hornilla

Wednesday March 26th 2025
Loco Klub doors open at 7pm open mic starts 7.30pm
Evening finish at 10pm

Book tickets

Jo Bell

Jo Bell is a well-loved poet who has appeared everywhere from Glastonbury to Buckingham Palace, by way of running the UK’s National Poetry Day and winning major poetry prizes. She runs award-winning poetry communities, she writes best-selling books including 52 and How to Be a Poet. Catch her on a rare Bristol visit, before she hits the road with her memoir Boater, out in June with HarperNorth.

Carlo Sebastian Hornilla

Carlo Sebastian Hornilla (They/Them) is a Bristol-based Filipino queer artist, illustrator, workshop facilitator, creative consultant, spoken word poet, organised chaos, lover or lists, ticker of boxes and awkward human being.

They use fun, play and conversation as a platform to explore introspective feelings, interpersonal connection and the complexities that exist within them.

They will say a bunch of words and you might listen to them. Maybe you will laugh, you might cry (only if you want to). Maybe it doesn’t matter… Either way, they hope you have a perfectly average and tolerable time.

Entry requirements:   Anyone under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult 21+ years old.

Book tickets
Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Love: Headliners February 2025

No Comments

February 26th at the Loco Klub. Doors open 7pm open mic 7.30pm

Book tickets

Helen Ivory & Martin Figura

Martin Figura’s collection and show Whistle were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and won the 2013 Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show. Shed (Gatehouse Press) and Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine (Cinnamon Press) were both published in 2016. In 2021 he was Salisbury NHS Writer in Residence; the resulting pamphlet My Name is Mercy (Fair Acre Press) won a national NHS award. A second pamphlet from Fair Acre Press Sixteen Sonnets for Care came out in October 2022. His collection The Remaining Men ( Cinnamon Press) was published in 2024. He Lives in Norwich with Helen Ivory and sciatica.

Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist. She received a Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award in 2024. She edits Ink Sweat and Tears and teaches for the National Centre for Writing Academy. Her chapbook Maps of the Abandoned City was published by SurVision in 2019 and the poem The Square of the Clockmaker is riding the rails as one of the Poems on the Underground. She has work translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Spanish. Wunderkammer: New and Selected Poems appeared from MadHat in the US last year. Constructing a Witch (October 2024) her sixth Bloodaxe collection is a PBS Winter Recommendation.

Book tickets
Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Laughs: January 22nd 2025

No Comments

Our headliner this month: Tim Munson on the Lightship

Support: Samuel L Cohen

Doors open 7pm. Open mic starts 7.30pm

Book tickets
Tim munson

Tim Munson regularly performs in and around the seedy under belly of Bristol’s poetry scene. And can often be found looking bewildered and checking his emails whilst stood in the rain outside cancelled poetry gigs.

His work tackles heavyweight subjects, such as:

Can pork scratchings really be considered food?
Is my father in law actually a Nazi?

and the age old existential question

Will primula cheese bring about the next mass extinction?

Tim has the dubious honour of coming third in almost every poetry competition in the south west of England.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)

Samuel L Cohen is a multidisciplinary Theatre Maker, award-winning Poet and Instigator of Bristol’s cabaret night RIOT ACT.

An erstwhile scholar of Ancient History led astray by his love for clowning, he is fascinated by the hidden stories (both real and imagined) that underpin
everyday life, and crafts work which celebrates the timeless absurdities that make us human.

A high-octane lyrical raconteur of the hilarious, the unbelievable and the downright outrageous, Sam joyfully discovered in poetry a means to interrogate and finally understand life’s great many true stories which defy
rational explanation. High literary and magical realist worlds collide with the everyday grit of modern urban life as he as he attempts to make sense of the senseless, armed only with a microphone and a flair for the irresistible riotous humour of his native Bristol.


Most recently, he has founded RIOT ACT- a
multidisciplinary club night of open mic fun, with the joint missions to celebrate the people of Bristol and their
stories whilst finding new ways to stick it to The Man with laughter.

Buckle up.

This is poetry to party to. The more raucously, the better.

Book tickets
Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Love Presents: Back to the Fuschia

Book Launch Wednesday 11th December 2024. John Sebastian Lightship

Book tickets
T. S. idiot

T.S. IDIOT presents a very special evening of punk-tinged poetry in celebration of their debut collection, BACK TO THE FUCHSIA. Featuring a special selection of their very favourite Bristol poets and a unique improvised collaborative set with musician Louie Newlands (Mildred Maude, Eva May, Double Pelican).

Although known for his high energy, humour laced performances seen at comedy nights, punk gigs and poetry shows across the UK, this collection shows a more intimate side of T.S. IDIOT. Written between 2019 – 2022, these poems document a fictional 12 hour window as the poet walks through 3 years worth of grief for lost friends, broken relationships, mental breakdowns – and ultimately, the scraps of love, resilience and belonging found along the way that might just help us get through this.

Books will be available for sale at this event!

Doors are at 19:00 with entertainment starting at 19:30.
The event finishes at 22:00.

Book tickets
Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Love: Wendy Allen & Catherine Balaq. November 27th

This November Satellite presents a headline double bill

Doors open on the John Sebastian Lightship at 7pm, open mic starts 7.30pm

Wendy Allen

Wendy Allen’s debut pamphlet, Plastic Tubed Little Bird, was published in 2023 by Broken Sleep. She is a PhD candidate at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her pamphlet, Portrait in Mustard will be published in October 2024 by Seren. 

Catherine Balaq

Catherine Balaq is a writer and body psychotherapist. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and nominated for the Pushcart and Forward Prize.

In 2022 Catherine was a recipient of The Poetry School MA scholarship. Her poetry play ‘Fuck the Moon’ was commissioned by Paper Nations and short-listed for the Bristol Old Vic Open Sessions 2019.

She is co-editor of Black Cat Press. Her debut collection ‘animaginary’ was published in July 2023 and was nominated for the Seamus Heaney Prize for first collection and the Pen Heaney Prize. Her second collection ‘Deathless‘ is published with Verve. Catherine also writes novels.

Home » Spoken Word

Community Poem June 2024

No Comments

If They Hadn’t Written This Would You Have?

(Shouted) Derek! They’ve stolen the geraniums again
that’s the biggest I’ve ever seen
You’ve snatched the world up of precious solitude which you have been craving for so long and realised it was in fact loneliness
A life of collaborative A Level anxiety


Isn’t it rude to leave at the interval after you’ve read every fucking time
leaving behind nothing but the faint whiff of an old fart?
Liberation for Palestine is liberation for us all. Ask yourself what you are doing at this moment
If I hadn’t written this would have you?
I spent the day horizontal in the park


Please improvise this line and don’t just read out this
To be cringe is to be free, apart from if you’re me right now in this exact situation
There is nothing so bloody wonderful as genuine warmth and encouragement, and there is so much love here
Rim Tim Tag I dim
But to see you again would destroy the memory
Marz

Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Love: Headliners October 2024

Lily Redwood and Jay Macdonald

Wednesday October 23rd 2024 John Sebastian Lightship

Doors open 7.00pm. Open mic starts 7.30pm. Finish 10.00pm.

Lily Redwood lives off-grid in South Wales with her husband and two children. She writes about the everyday extraordinary from the political to the poetical. Lily combines spoken word with tender verse, which comes alive through her live performance. She has recently been Cheltenham Poetry Festival Slam Finalist and the Bristol Milk Poetry Slam winner.


Most of her poems are written on the notes app hiding in the toilet from her two children, or scribbled on the back of a shopping list, whilst burning the dinner.


Lily’s debut pamphlet, You Make Me Think of Swifts, is an unflinching and raw voice for motherhood, it is out now with The Collective Press.


Lily’s work has been described described as: “visceral, loving and brave”.

You can find lily online – @lilyredwoodpoet

Jay is a straight edge poet who writes on neurodivergence, gender, and the love of hardcore punk; doing so like he’s authoring an early 2000s emo LiveJournal post.

Since starting to perform in the spoken word scene a year ago, he has competed in UniSlam and Lyra Fest; and frequently haunts poetry events across Bath and Bristol

Home » Spoken Word

Satellite of Love: Joelle Taylor, Bradley Taylor

September 25th 2024 at the Loco Klub

Doors open 7pm open mic starts 7.30pm

VENUE CHANGE

This month Satellite of Love’s open mic and headliner session is relocating to the Loco Klub at Temple Meads. The venue is fully accessible.

Loco Klub access details
Loco Klub venue location

A Tale of Two Taylors

Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a co- curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet will be published by Riverrun in Spring of 2024. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Her most recent acting role was in Blue by Derek Jarman, which was directed by Neil Bartlett and featured Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard, and Travis Alabanza. Blue sold out its run across the UK and more dates are expected for the future.

Bradley Taylor

Bradley is the winner of Satellite’s recent Summer Slam.

When we asked Bradley for a bio, all he wrote was:
‘Bradley Taylor (he/him) is a poet from Birmingham. Apologies.’

Home » Spoken Word