“… life, literature, and the pursuit of happiness in the famous Troubadour basement, London’s liveliest and best–loved poetry landmark since the 1950s …”
Former US Poet-Laureate Billy Collins on the Troubadour’s 60th birthday as a writer’s café…
Thanks to the zeal of its many managers and promoters, the Troubadour has evolved over its 60 year history from a hidden-away beatnik coffee house to a world famous center for the performance of music and poetry. Its walls have become storied, and if only the place had halls, they would be hallowed. The Troubadour was the scene of the first reading I gave in the UK, and I count myself among the long line of poets who are eager to return and darken its doorway again.
welcome
from Coffee-House Poetry organiser, Anne-Marie Fyfe
Take off over the coming six spring weeks into an airy world of birdsong, tail-feathers, swooping & soaring (& into how our avian alter egos’ existences can be a metaphor for so many emotions & insights, myths & metamorphoses). Immerse yourself in an aviary of the imagination, a poetic bird-land, indulge in the art of bird-ology & discover the thinkers, painters, poets & prose writers who’ve long been captivated by our feathered friends.
Intrigued? Ornithologically inspired? Starts Sunday 30th March (see right, & classes page).
Meanwhile Between the Lines, our popular & inspirational creative-&-critical weekly workshop, is taking a break, with next new 7-wk course starting mid-May (see classes page). But open for applications now as – with limited group numbers – early booking’s essential & the course is always oversubscribed!
next event
thu 12 jun, 7.30 for 8pm, £10: night & light & the half-light: bedford park festival — yeats-birthday poetry evening with special guest christopher reid
… plus guest poets, hosted by Anne-Marie Fyfe & Cahal Dallat
The young Yeats, in Bedford Park, wrote of golden & silver light, of night & light & the half-light: join us in an evening of poems of shadow, shade & sunlight, dusk & dawn, grey skies & blue, candle-light, firelight, headlights, traffic lights & every kind of light & dark.
Celebrate our ‘local’ poet’s 160th birthday – & Bedford Park’s 150th – in a poetry evening introduced by Coffee-House Poetry organiser, poet Anne-Marie Fyfe (preceded by music & drinks on the lawn by the #EnwroughtLight artwork from 7:30 pm)…
…& after the interval, favourites from former Faber poetry editor Christopher Reid, who has edited The Letters of Seamus Heaney (2023), & has published 18 poetry collections including Costa-awarded The Scattering, & The Song of Lunch adapted by BBC TV with Alan Rickman & Emma Thomson.
And do bring your own light, night or twilight poem (max. 25 lines) for a chance to read!
Proceeds to: Bedford Park Festival Charities
Venue: St. Michael & All Angels Church, opp. Turnham Grn Tube, Bath Rd Chiswick London W4 1TX
Booking: via Bedford Park Festival
