National Poetry Day Toolkit
WHO CAN HELP?
The first starting point for information about National Poetry Day must be the Poetry Society website www.poetrysoc.org.uk
Here you will find a wealth of information about poetry in general and a separate link for National Poetry Day. This year as well as the useful on-line tool kit, the Poetry Society also produced a CD Rom aimed at teachers for use in schools. This includes some live performances of poems by well known poets.
N.B. There are no funds available to support events from The Poetry Society.
Another useful and local source of information is the Manchester Poetry Festival office. This organisation promotes a ten day/2 week festival of poetry every autumn and can provide a huge amount of information about poets, particularly those based in the NW. The contact details are Tel: 0161 236 5725 or e mail Manchesterpoetry@aol.com
Another good website is www.57productions.com
This gives details of around 30 good performance poets and will help you to contact them. It also has a useful links to other literature/poetry sites
Colin Brown recommends Renaissance one- an organisation which promotes culturally diverse writers – nationally and internationally "The agency engages with a range of UK-based novelists, poets, musicians and DJs around the year, and can source artists to suit your particular needs."
They can be contacted on www.renaissanceone.com
The national theme for National Poetry Day is usually announced in Feb/March. This year the theme was Celebration. The Poetry Society provides a free toolkit of ideas and free listings of events. The theme always seem to be general enough to encompass anything you want to do.
N.B. National Poetry Day often falls on or near World Mental Health Day, and October seems to have become Black History Month, so with careful planning you can incorporate several promotions into one event.
The website archives information about the past year so you can see what happened in those places that informed the Poetry Society. This year events were registered by libraries in Tameside, Manchester, Salford, Knowsley and Trafford. (see below for details)
Librarians in the North West have pioneered partnership working to encourage new readers into libraries. Time To Read is a partnership of librarians engaged in reader development activity in public library authorities in the North West Region. All 23 public library authorities in the region currently support Time To Read.