To celebrate the Cultural Olympiad Open Weekend on Saturday 23rd July 2011, ten poets will complete a poetry relay across ten locations in the West Midlands.. This will take the form of public events in different venues, including stations, libraries, Polesworth Park,  Hatton Country World, a motorway service station and the Pie and Ale Pub in Stafford.

At the first location, poet A will write and perform to an audience the first segment of a collective poem. They will then join a team minibus and be taken to location two. There poet B will read the first segment and continue in that vein, writing their own segment. Then poets A and B will each perform to an audience. They will then be taken to the third location, where they will be joined by Poet C. The team of poets and segments of the poem will grow until ten segments and ten events are completed.  All the finished pieces will then be attached to ten racing pigeons from Project Pigeon who will be released to carry the ten segments of the poem back to their Birmingham loft. The order in which they arrive back will determine the final manifestation of the poem.

8am Stoke On Trent, Railway Station, Booking Hall, ST4 2AA http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sot/details.html
9.15am Burton On Trent, Library http://www.istaffordshire.co.uk/profile/282991/Burton-on-Trent/Burton-Library/
10.15am Polesworth Abbey Green Park – as part of Love Abbey Green event with Touch FM, B78 1DU http://www.loveparksweek.org.uk/Whats-on-detail.aspx?EventID=85eb71fa-46e0-40cb-a6db-1c9abc2266e8&County=Warwickshire
11.40am Hatton Country World, Toffee Shop, CV35 8XA http://www.hattonworld.com/shoppingvillage/
13.10pm Worcester Arts Workshop – Cafe Bliss, WR1 1RU http://www.worcesterartsworkshop.org.uk/aboutus.asp?menuID=Cafe%20Bliss
14.30pm Malvern Hills – British Camp (Herefordshire Beacon) car park  http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=wr136dw&hl=en&ll=52.063573,-2.345753&spn=0.018864,0.038581&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=18.61907,39.506836&z=15
16.05pm Bromyard Town Green – behind the Public Hall near St Peter’s Churchyard
HR7 4DU		 www.herefordshire.gov.uk/communityhalls/chd_bromyardpublichall.aspx
17.15pm Highley – Severn Centre forecourt, WV16 6JG http://www.severncentre.co.uk/index.htm
18:20pm Telford Odeon, Forgegate, TF3 4NE http://www.nationalvenues.co.uk/shropshire/telford/telfordodeon.htm
19:35pm The Pie and Ale House, Crabbery Street, Stafford, ST16 2BA http://www.pieandale.com/

 

Here’s a google map of the day!

Come along to celebrate the Cultural Olympiad and get involved in the creation of the relay poem which will be inspired by each place the poets visit and the concept of a relay race!

Follow the relay on twitter (@gwmpr) and see where we are along our route!