Being Human Festival 2023

In November 2023 we held a 'pop-up poetry café' as part of the Being Human Festival's Being Human Cafés and in collaboration with the Oxford Poetry Library, which has a lovely space at the Community Works, near Oxford station.

The event was advertised by the Oxford Poetry Library, and by our Department (Continuing Education), and was described as follows:

"Poetry can delight; it can give us ideas; it can help us move on. Come along to the Oxford Poetry Library's pop-up poetry café at the Community Works, Oxford, to enjoy a coffee and find a poem or poems to help you with whatever you're going through. Or just come along to find a new poem to enjoy. Together with Sandie Byrne, a lecturer in English specializing in twentieth-century poetry, they will prescribe the right poem for you. You can browse our collection, discover poetry for yourself, or let Sandie make some suggestions based on your current needs, desires, feelings, or mood."

10 people attended in total, as part of the 'drop-in' style of the event, and people seemed to enjoy it- although obviously we would have preferred larger numbers. We decided for future events to advertise more widely, and to consider holding it in a more open venue (perhaps in a public space such as a shopping centre, if possible).

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