Origins of the Poetry Breakfast

We began poetry performances late in 2018. Through the contacts of Ronaldo Hare (twenty years old and already making his name in Arts and Property promotions) we had some exciting local names, but the venue was our top room, sometimes constricted in space, and access impeded by two flights of stairs! Also our Saturday afternoons only suited some.

It was lockdown that prompted us to move poetry out of the bookshop to adjacent buildings. By mid-2021 many had been starved of essential poetic sustenance and importuned us with requests for performance. Lockdown then allowed outdoor gatherings only, so we talked to the landlady of a nearby pub. She granted us the use of her beer garden over a morning, ahead of the arrival of her ‘regulars’ at noon.

I wrote to prominent local spoken-word artists; to my astonishment all but one accepted my invitation to read. The result was a still, sunny June morning and the walled-garden effect of the Malt Shovel outdoor. In the surrounding quiet we breathed in the cold air, and with it the refreshment of poetry. We were collectively moved and felt like old friends, survivors, finally come together after many months.

The monthly movement gathered strength and has continued unbroken to the present. A nucleus of thirty-odd people, of poets and artists and enthusiasts, has gathered around the serial event. Brooke’s Bar and Bistro allowed perfect performance space which major performers – Emma Purshouse and Steve Pottinger among others – recommend to others of similar standard. After Brooke’s closed, we moved to the Court House pub, and then to the Reading Room at Dudley Library, St James’s Road, Dudley DY1 1HR.

For a while, every third month was entirely open-mic. But nowadays most of the events are led by published, established authors, though local poets are welcome to read alongside them. If the numbers are high, it’s names out of a hat!

Photos from 14th January 2023, headlined by Fawn Press poets Scarlett Ward, Sallyanne Rock and Nabeela Saghir:

This page was last updated on September 20, 2025.