Why we love the poetry takeaway! 

We have recently been introduced to the amazing people at The Poetry Takeaway and we want to share the love with you all!!

The Poetry Takeaway are a brilliant collective of poets who turn up to events in a converted burger van where they cook up poems as ‘Poetry Chefs’! What we love about them is that all of the peoms they write in van are inspired by talking to members of the public who come up to the van and place an ‘order’. They take your ideas, stories, hopes, dreams, nightmares and musings on the world to form a personalised poem especially for and about you!

Their reputation for making heartfelt, true and delicate poems formed from the lives of people they meet reached national ears and eyes when their poets Laurie Ogden and Laurie Bolger wrote and performed poems for a series of adverts for Nationwide. Both of these show off Poetry Takeaway’s unique way of combining laughs and tears. Laurie Bolger’s poem about the small traumas and joys of living with a loved one will be reminiscent to anyone who knows they give side eye for days at finding beard hairs in the bathroom sink! And you can watch it here

Laurie Ogden’s poem created with a young man called Gavin for his mum on Mother’s Day is a perfect example of how personalised their poems can be. You can just see in his mum’s eyes how much it means to her to have had a poem written about her. You can also watch that one here but be warned I have yet to get through it without being in floods of tears! 

Not only are the Poetry Takeaway gang brilliant at creating such personalised poetry they also give brilliant young artists the opportunity to show off their skills and use their creativity on regular paid jobs. A rarity in the arts world believe me!! Laurie Bolger said in an interview she finds working with Poetry Takeaway “opens up new ideas to me constantly and just meeting people, having a chat and hearing their stories is the most rewarding job in the world.” Giving young performers great performance opportunities is exactly what we love doing at I Do Festivals too which makes us love these people even more!

We can’t wait to bring Poetry Takeaway to our festivals over the summer because we know they will bring laughter, tears and joy. They are perfect additions to bring a personal touch to your Wedding or Corporate Festival. We just know that you are gonna love these guys as much as we do!

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