The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is looming, and the creative clogs are starting to whirr! We have something very exciting planned for this year, and the word is - roller banners! Let me explain!

Every year at the festival we at Poesy have tried to make sure that there is some kind of poetical outlet that is offered out. Theatre is aplenty, and the stand-ups certainly have their corner of the market covered, but what about poetry? In the past we have been part of the organisation of poetry readings, poetry jams and writing workshops. Most of you won’t remember the early days where we just did it on the streets – mostly because it didn’t work out too well for us! However, if any of you have been to the festival, you may remember the open sessions we ran as part of the free fringe in the last few years, as well as the ‘bar sessions’ we put on in pubs in and around Edinburgh. With a festival that prides itself on its eclectic creativity, there is still room for a stronger poetry presence.

That is where Poesy comes in to play. We have decided to ‘kick it old school’ as it were, and take things back to being on the streets. The project idea (and the practices of it are still being worked out) are as well as running the poetry impro jam this year, we want to bring poetry back into the visible limelight for the public. We’ve discovered a new way to make this work. The key element came whilst at a (quite boring) exhibition at the Kensigton Olympia. I found out about the ease of carrying, putting up, and operating roller banners. If you don’t know what I’m talking about there a good picture of a roller banner here. This is how it would work.

We pick the best of the poetry that people submit. We then have them printed onto these pop up display stands, then we simply pick a spot in Edinburgh each day, put them all up and presto we have a street poetry exhibition happening! We could take donations from anyone who paricarly enjoys the work, perhaps sell postcards with the poetry on it, and certainly use it as advertising to encourage people to come to the poetry jam that we are also running. I think this is a really good idea, but what we need now are poems.

f you have a poem, and you would like to have it considered for display in Edinburgh, please email it to the poetry jam address at improjam@gmail.com. We will publish it on this website, and if selected you could be in for a chance to have your poem displayed in Edinburgh!

We look forward to hearing from you and reading your work! Email us today!