Poetry Evening in the Smith Studio
		Saturday 14 September, 2024 At the Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington

Tower Member and Friends came together in the Smith Studio to enjoy an evening of Poetry, our first in Stoke Newington, curated by George Savona and hosted by Matthew Ibbotson.
Over two hour-long parts, we were treated to some excellent and engaging readings - ranging in tone from work by John Donne to John Cooper-Clark - including two musical pieces. The twenty contributors also gave short introductions to their selections, sharing with the audience the personal significance of their poem choice. Following the readings, the night extended to socialising in the newly refurbished bar area and the positive feedback from attendees certainly points toward making this an annual event in the Tower calendar.

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Photography by Matthew Ibbotson

Here's a record of the chosen poems :

PART ONE
The Lion and Albert by Marriott Edgar, read by Julie Arrowsmith
Matilda, who Told Lies and was Burned to Death by Hilaire Belloc, read by Howard Platt
A Muvver was Barfing her Baby One Night . . . by Anon, read by Vyvian Shaw
Midsummer - Midsummer’s Day by AR, read by Andrew Robinson
The Second Coming by W B Yeats, read by Peta Barker
The Masque of Anarchy [excerpted] by P B Shelley, read by Nicola Stanhope
Holy Sonnet 7: At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners . . . and The Apparition by John Donne, read by George Savona
Refrigerator, 1954 by Thomas Lux, read by Karla Ptacek
I See the Boys of Summer by Dylan Thomas, read by Jack Pattison
Morning Song by Sylvia Plath, read by Rosanna Preston
Andromeda by Gerard Manley Hopkins, read by Simon Taylor
Andromeda by Sara Maitland, read by Megan-Madaleine Freeman
America by Paul Simon, performed by Colin Guthrie with Peta Barker

PART TWO
Beasley Street by John Cooper Clark, read by Christopher Lloyd James
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - a response to S T Coleridge by SN, read by Sally Nolan
To Mark Your Passing and Tropical Death by Grace Nichols, read by Bianca Curaçao
You Won’t Find a Bath in Leeds by Sophie Hannah, read by Stephen Brasher
The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy, read by Vyvian Shaw
The Night I Appeared as Macbeth by William Hargreaves, read by Tom Tillery
Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds by William Shakespeare, read by Nic Campos
Anne Hathaway by Carol Ann Duffy, read by Megan-Madaleine Freeman
The Second Coming by W B Yeats, arr. Joni Mitchell, performed by Chaachi Deane, accompanied by Colin Guthrie and Peta Barker
As the Team’s Head Brass by Edward Thomas, read by Simon Taylor
Two Anglo-Anatolian Goats by GW, read by Gillian Wallington
The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by T S Eliot, read by Colin Guthrie
When Sir Beelzebub . . . by Edith Sitwell, read by Rosanna Preston.