Now in its sixth year, Birmingham’s very own Verve Festival of Poetry and Spoken Word comes to Birmingham Hippodrome from Wednesday 15th–Sunday 19th February. Verve has become synonymous with a lively and celebratory approach to programming poetry of every different kind. From raucous performance poetry events, quiet reading events, studious workshops, mind-blowing dramatic poetry, collaborative work or open mic poetry – the programme encourages audiences to see their favourite poets and to try something new – to join in, create, listen and learn.

Fast forward to March and Apples and Snakes are back with their notorious spoken word event Hit the Ode on Friday 10th March. Featuring a brilliant line-up including the multi-lingual host Bohdan Piasecki, Hit the Ode is a unique performance poetry night bringing world-class spoken word artists to the heart of Birmingham to perform alongside open mic-ers. Attendees can take the mic, or just simply take a seat and enjoy the performances.

Completing the line-up is poetry festival UniSlam 2023, which returns to the Hippodrome on Sunday 12th March. Based around the UK and Ireland National Inter-University Poetry Slam, audiences can watch the UK and Ireland’s most exciting spoken word poets compete live on stage during Preliminary Heats, Semi-Finals and Grand Finals; with the Finals seeing the country’s top 4 poetry slam teams go head to head for the champions trophy.