Swindon Festival Literature
4th Youth Poetry Slam

The heat was on to find the winner of the forth Swindon Festival of Literature Youth Poetry Slam on Saturday May 10th at Devizes Road Arts Centre. Commonweal School won first prize with their team Grade A Girls. Second was Between the Lines from Highworth Warneford, with team Moustache from Greendown third in this double blind competition.

“It’s great to be involved in such an exciting project. Once again, we have been impressed with the enthusiasm and imagination of the young people. They have shown real dedication and flair in responding to the challenges of writing and performing poetry. Swindon was rocking with good verse vibration at the slam on Saturday,” Spiel Unlimited.

In the fortnight prior 120 students from nine Swindon secondary schools took part in poetry workshops in preparation for the Grand Slam on the Saturday morning .

Professional poets, Marcus Moore and Sara – Jane Arbury from Spiel Unlimited came into schools to put the youngsters through their paces to learn the art of performance poetry. Commented Marcus , “The standard goes up every year and is a credit to Swindon schools who have embraced this creative opportunity
with gusto.”

“This exciting project is part of our community cohesion objectives and forges links with main stream secondary schools . It increases confidence and inter-personal skills and gives young people the chance to work with professionals. It is proof that art makes a difference!” said Josie Williams, Community
Arts Development Officer and Youth Slam Project Manager.

The event is supported by, Swindon LA, Artsmad, Artsword and the prestigious Poetry Society based in London.

The Youth Poetry Slam was project managed by Josie Williams, Community Arts Development Officer at The Commonweal School. Participating schools:-

Highworth Warneford
Dorcan Technology College
Kingsdown School
Greendown
Nova Hreod
St Joseph's RC
Commonweal
Ridgeway
Churchfields.