Chorlton Book Festival 2023 & Flapjack Press present
An Evening with Flapjack Press
The Edge Theatre, Manchester Rd, Chorlton M21 9JG
Saturday 16th September, 7.30pm
Pay What You Can tickets at www.chorltonbookfestival.co.uk

An evening of performance poetry with award-winning poets from Flapjack Press.
Starring Gerry Potter, Rose Condo, Tony Curry, Laura Taylor and John Darwin.
Compered by Melanie Neads.

Gerry Potter is a poet, playwright, actor, director, and both creator and destroyer of the infamous gingham diva Chloe Poems. National Museums Liverpool lists him amongst their city’s leading LGBTQIA+ icons, and he was profiled in the documentary film My Name is Gerry Potter. His debut collection as ‘himself’, Planet Young, was featured on BBC TV’s Between the Covers. Gerry’s new collection, Li’l Book o’ small Poems, is available now, and the first volume of his autobiography, 6A Blackstock Gardens, is published in September.

Rose Condo’s poetry theatre show The Geography of Me won the Best Spoken Word Show award at the 2021 Buxton Fringe Festival, and her show, The Empathy Experiment, received critical acclaim at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won Best Spoken Word Show at the 2019 Gtr Manchester Fringe Festival. She was longlisted for the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship, and her new collection, How to Find Where You Belong, will be published this October.

Tony Curry’s solo spoken word shows include Brit Boy, Complicit Relations, Moving and The Odyssey, performed at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. He is the host of Rhyme Time at the Carlton Club and for the last seven years has been the host of Word Central, the monthly open mic and spoken word event at Manchester Central Library. His latest poetry collection, We Kid Ourselves, is available now.

Laura Taylor was born into a working-class family in the North of England and has challenged arbitrary forms of authority all her life. Now in her prime, she understands fully the potency of kindness in a world intent on creating division. Her latest collection, Speaking in Tongues, is a politically astute exploration of the slippery and inconclusive condition of language, the power of ideology, and the process of myth-making.

John Darwin was a member of the acclaimed national touring troupe A Firm of Poets, host of Write Out Loud at Sale Waterside, co-host of Spoken Weird in Halifax, and now curates Crooked Poets in Prestwich. His solo poetry show, Happy Hour, won the Best Spoken Word Performance award at the Gtr Manchester Fringe Festival 2021. His new collection, Ultrasilence, is available now.

Event host Melanie Neads is a poet and playwright from Salford. Her play, Drowning Aristotle, won the City Life Best of Manchester award, whilst her poetry collection with Sarah Miller, Selkie Singing at the Passing Place, was runner-up in Saboteur Awards’ Best Collaborative Work category. Melanie is an occasional host of Word Central at Manchester Central Library, and has been the special guest poet at Chorlton’s long-established Manchester Poets four times.

Likely to contain adult themes and strong language.

Flapjack Press – exploring the synergy between performance and the page
“Publishes the most cutting-edge poetic performers.” – Writing Manchester
“Among the region’s most innovative and forward-thinking publishing houses.” – Manchester’s Finest
Shortlisted Best Northern Publisher, Northern Soul Awards
Shortlisted Most Innovative Publisher, Saboteur Awards

www.chorltonbookfestival.co.uk
www.flapackpress.co.uk
www.edgetheatre.co.uk