We just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ll be scaling back the Words Aloud site over the next couple of weeks and removing a lot of content, which may well include some of your bits and pieces, such as poems you performed or stories you read. If you’d like to get your hands on any material that is yours, please get in touch. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll assume you’re happy for it to disappear into the literary ether!

The address to contact is iain@writeforyourlife.net

All that said, we’re planning to leave the website in a slightly altered form, featuring the retrospective video we showed at the last Words Aloud and all the wonderful photography. It’ll me more lasting epitaph than writerly graveyard.

Anyway, that’s it! Hope you’re well and all still scribbling!

The WA team
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Greetings, Word-junkies!

The spoken-word wonder that is Speak Easy will be returning to the HUBS (Hallam Union) on the first of October, Thereafter to take place, confusingly enough, on the FINAL Thursday of very month. Due to scheduling problems, September misses out, but October gets two!

Our special guest on the 1st is the esteemed Tim Ralphs, Young Storyteller of the Year 2007. If you’ve not experienced storytelling since Jackanory was cancelled, Tim’s dramatic performance and ingenious plotweaving will soon have you hooked!

There are still plenty of slots to read or perform on the night, so please do contact us if you’d like to book. Any and all spoken word is welcomed, as long as it’s under 5 minutes long…

Admission, as always, is free, and student-priced drinks are available from the bar.

Can’t say fairer than that!

It would be great to see you there.  As usual, please let us know if you’d like to read, and do spread the word!   Bring friends, family and strangers off the street! To book a slot, email John Turner at j.turner@shu.ac.uk, or find us on Facebook.

The Speak Easy Team
speakeasyshef@googlemail.com

Here’s a reminder that the last SpeakEasy  before the summer break will take place in town at the Hubs on WEDNESDAY 24 June –  start 7.30 pm. Head on down for some spoken word, open-mic fun and games.

Thanks!

Hiya  Wordsmiths…….

SPEAKEASY is going to happen at The Hubs at 7.30 pm on the third Thursday of the month in May (the 21st.) as the last Thursday is part of the Bank Holiday week and lots of people have told me they’re going to be away !.  Please email me as usual if you wish to perform  -   or just come along and enjoy the evening……
Onwards and upwards
John

There’s a Silent Sheffield short film competition at peace in the park and we’re having a small cinema tent for Silent Sheffield as an appendage to  the Help the Aged cream tea tent (6 June). Plan is to deck it out like an old person’s front room – battered sofas and kitsch stuff and show the short films about older people. And have a bit of spoken word in between. Which is where you come in!

Do you have any pieces on this topic? Would you like to write something and come and perform it?
And/or if you could forward this onto anyone who you think may be interested, that would be great.

Also, if anyone’s interested in entering the short film competition themselves (even if it’s just recording yourself reading something), details below.

Entering the shortfilm competition
Make a film/some films about older people in Sheffield. Also nomad are getting involved, so we’re extending it to homeless shorts too.

Details here: http://www.silentsheffield.org/film.html

Many thanks
Justine
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Here’s the info:

Following the gap left by the wonderful Words Aloud, John Turner has finally caved in to months of pressure from all around and agreed to help fill the gap by organising a brand new monthly spoken word open-mic event.

It’s called SPEAKEASY and until June will take place on the last Thursday of the month  in A-Pod in the Hubs (Hallam Students’ Union)  in town. We hope to switch to the last Wednesday in the month from September onwards  -  so watch this space…..

Admission is free and start time is 7.30 pm.  Format is similar to Words Aloud  -  solo or duo performers – original poems, stories, songs, comedy or drama.

Please email John  at  j.turner@shu.ac.uk to book your 5 minute (max) slot.

Write for Your Life already has just under 100 subscribers and a burgeoning community of writer folk, who are more than up for a chit chat.

Here’s the gen:

Write for Your Life offers practical advice and productivity tips for writers of all shapes and sizes: novelists, bloggers, poets and journalists. Anyone who works with words.

Life gets in the way for most writers. Whether it’s the kids, the family finances or the full-time job, there’s often a sacrifice that needs to be made. And that sacrifice is usually the writing.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Write for Your Life can help you find time for your writing and those things that you just have to do.

So, if that sounds your bag, or you’d like to show your support, head on over to Write for Your Life right now and subscribe for free updates!

Or, if you’d like to contribute, feel free to contact Iain by emailing: iain@writeforyourlife.net

The WA Team

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From February onwards, it will take place on the last Monday of every month at The Lescar, Sharrow Vale Road.

The format is an open mike event for 3 minute slots .

If you would like to read, sing or play, please contact Hayley Nelson at learnforlife.uk@googlemail.com

This retrospective was shown at the final Words Aloud which took place on Tuesday 25 November. Sniff.

Go here. Pop your headphones on, put it in full screen if you prefer, and take a trip down memory lane. Sniff again.

Click here to watch the Words Aloud retrospective!

Here’s what we’d like you to do. Don’t worry, it’s quite quick and easy, and you might even enjoy it!

Please finish the following sentence and send your answer back to info@wordsaloud.org

Words Aloud is…

And that’s it! Your response can be anything you like. It can be poetic, funny, serious, poignant or profound. We really don’t mind. Ideally, it will be no longer than a couple of sentences. But if you can say what you want to say in a single word, go for it!

If you can get your answer back to us asap, that would be even better!!!

Big thanks and see you next week!

The WA team

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