Youngsters help organise poetry event at former miners welfare hall

Almost 100 people attended the event at Blackhall Community Centre, one of the first of it’s kind in this area.

The event was part of East Durham Trust’s No More Nowt Happens project, which is funded by County Durham Community Foundation and supported by East Durham Creates, a project funded by Arts Council England.

The project brings groups of young people together to plan and stage events with professional performers and artists in non-traditional venues, putting an end to the idea that ‘Nowt Happens’ in East Durham.

The line-up included BBC Slam Poet of the Year 2018 Jess Green, whose show ‘A Self Help Guide to Being In Love with Jeremy Corbyn’ wowed audiences at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and who has played festivals like Glastonbury and Latitude.

Alongside Jess was Newcastle-based door to door poet Rowan McCabe and disabled rights poet Lisette Auton.

The event was hosted by County Durham ‘Gong Fu’ poet Tony Gadd.

Some of the young people involved also took to the stage performing their own poetry and acting as co-hosts to introduce the performers.

Chief executive of East Durham Trust Malcolm Fallow said: “To get this many people out to experience poetry in a former Miners Welfare Hall is astounding.

“The crowd was such a fantastic mixture of those who love poetry and those who had never experienced it like this before.”

East Durham Trust is a registered charity with an expressed purpose to promote the regeneration of rural and urban areas of the effects of social and economic decline.

The trust is the flagship voluntary and community sector organisation for the area and as well as providing the traditional support to local Community groups and is host to the area’s nationally accredited volunteer centre.