The Speech Bubble saw a wealth of talent descend at Cognito’s bar last Monday. Student, Liam Peoples organised the event that saw an array of poets take to the floor and perform poems they had produced, aiding his dissertation. As an avid linguist myself, I was very much looking forward to the night but nothing could prepare me for the vast amount of people present in Cognito’s. Even the limitations of chairs and stools did not keep curious minds, ranging from English students, to athletes from this special occasion.
Our host for the evening, Steve Carrol, welcomed us all with a poem called ‘Defiant Sex with Clowns.’ As you can probably tell from the title, the poem was riddled with many sexual connotations. This included the speaker’s lapel flower ‘squirting’ all over someone. This poem was original, enjoyable and a great opening for the performances to come.
After Steve lapped up the applause from a much-amused crowd, he welcomed Liam Peoples to the stage where he performed ‘Kiss Chase.’ It compared how an eight year-old playing an innocent game lead to learning how love hurts. The girl in the poem does not meet the boy for lunch after agreeing she would, preparing him for twenty year’s time when he will learn ‘what real heartbreak is.’
Following Liam’s rather emotional poem, the students, lecturers and members of the general public were welcomed to the stage. Volunteers included Eddie King, a scare actor performing a poem expressing his anger towards people in a scare maze. Also, Sophie Furley performed ‘chlamydia blues,’ no need to say that this was well received by the young audience. In succession to these talented acts, the first headliner of the night came to the stage.
Steven Camden, better know in the poetry world as Polarbear took the stage with such modesty that simply did not mirror his wealth of talent or popularity. He performed a number of poems starting with one about his departure from his hometown, Birmingham for the south. He also performed a poem about how kissing a girl in a park led to graduating and becoming the girl’s partner and a parent.
The night didn’t end there! Danielle Bella touched our hearts when she spoke about growing old and Michelle Hobbit startled us with a rather emotional poem that about the on-going issues of domestic violence towards women.
After this, the final act and headliner of the night came on stage, Leicester-based poet, Jess Green. Jess performed a wide range of poems, from ‘Neurosis’ to ‘Atticus said,’ based on the well-known novel How To Kill a Mockingbird. She also performed an amusing poem called ‘Potatoes.’
It goes without saying that this Speech Bubble event was a great success. Liam People’s brought us a cultural event infused with pure talent and entertainment. The next Speech Bubble event will be held on March 17, 2014 at Loughborough University and promises to be bigger and better than the last. After speaking to audience members who highly recommend the event to all our readers, it is clear that this is one of our university’s hidden gems.
If you are interested to find out more on the two headliners, follow them on twitter at @homeofpolarbear (Steven Camden) and @greeellenjess (Jess Green).
Courtney Ricketts
