By Isle of Wight Observer
By Roz Whistance
Two days of words – sung stories, spoken word poems and tales, some original, some celebrating our literary heritage – were performed at the Yarmouth Community Hall during the recent second Yarnival Wordfest.
Hosted by Jean G-Owen, of the Naked Figleaf Collective, this gathering was an opportunity for the spoken, and sung, word to be celebrated in all its complexity and frivolity.
The event opened with a welcome from historian, Kevin Shaw, sharing two John Betjeman poems. Then came Ovid with Reverb, which interprets and adds contemporary context to Ovid’s Metamorphoses for this generation with wit, rhythmic, drive and verve. Poet, Maggie Sawkins, demonstrated the maturity and essence-grabbing nature of her work.
The Triple Crones, Jean, Cheryl May and Sandy Kealty, recited and sang examples of their own acerbic and hilarious poems, while Hillard Morley read an extract from her novel The Shadowing of Combfoot Chase.
Paul Armfield followed, singing from his Shanklin-woodland inspired song collection. Then came Lucky Dip, in the shape of naughty poet, Steve Taverner, with his shockingly hilarious poems.
The evening finished with Peter Darby and the Battered Instruments, with a tribute to Pink Floyd’s ‘shining diamond’ Sid Barrett.
Earlier in the day there was a writing workshop on Tennyson Down, and, on Saturday morning, sessions in story-telling for children, and song-writing, led by Ross Glanfield.
There were also yearning entreaties of WordSpokenSong. An invitation to come with a learned-by-heart poem led to a collection of favourites from the audience, some less well-known.
The afternoon concluded with original poems and prose, performed by their writers. Ross Glanfield finished proceedings with a very apt song about the potential perils of writing.
