“It’s an opportunity to come together” – Coming up: Poetry Christmas Cracker event

To celebrate Christmas, Salford resident, and poet, ‘J’, will be hosting a Poetry Christmas Cracker event this December on Zoom.

The event, which is taking place on Friday 18 December, will be held on Zoom at 6.30pm, and streamed on the ‘GM – Words of Hope’ Facebook page.

J is looking for residents of Salford to contribute a poem of their own – old or new – or one they really like, or an originally-composed musical piece.

He said: “We’re looking for people from all walks of life to contribute their own poetry, preferably, but if there’s a favourite they like from someone else, a famous one which is in the public domain, then they are welcome to come and share that as well.

“But we’re also looking for musicians, so it’s not just poets who write their own work and appreciate poetry, it’s also musicians and singers who want to contribute by way of a piece of music or video or something.”

Contributions can be pre-recorded and sent to J, or spoken/performed live that evening.

Describing the poetry Christmas cracker event as “an antidote to the current situation”, Ahmed added: “This Christmas cracker needs to happen now. We are inspiring hope within our communities around Christmas whilst we’re facing so much adversity.

“It’s an opportunity to come together. I know that people are struggling to find those opportunities. And when we came out of lockdown, for a while, people were still struggling to find those opportunities to meet up and see each other.

“So, I feel it’s one of our ways to do so during this season.”

He continued: “There are already a couple of people who have handed in poetry that isn’t anti-Christmas, but certainly recognising the difficulties, shall we say, that we’ve been having at Christmas for many years.”

“As much as I want the traditional crowd of people who celebrate Christmas, I also want people who perhaps aren’t Christmas fanatics, aren’t Christmas fans at all, to come along and maybe present some of their poetry, too.”

How to contribute:

To send poetry submissions, email ‘safe77@hotmail.co.uk’ with the poem/s in Word format.

To contribute with a live musical performance, email the same address with the following details: the genre of music, the title of the piece and the duration.

Musical submissions can also be pre-recorded and played on the evening. To get assistance with this, email the same address.

All submissions must be emailed by Wednesday 9 December.