poets in pyjamas

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

No, it’s not a prediction that the only clean dry clothes left at the Big Chill will be some stripey pj’s for us all to wear…… But Geraldine’s post about how art that’s just plonked in the middle of anywhere public rather than an art gallery makes it more accessible and how brilliant Jay’s performance was in the yurt got me thinking. The blog post asked how does location affect poetry and how can you take poetry to the streets -it reminded me of a particular day.

How many times as a student did I put a coat over a pair of men’s striped pj’s (which I used to wear to chill out in, not sleep) and just shuffle off to the shops up the road in Camden without a thought? Less often now I’m allegedly a proper grown up. (Although I’m still waiting for the curly hair/long nails/36 c bra I expected would arrive with said adult status.) But on National Poetry Day in 2007 when I became B’ham Poet Laureate, a collective of poets and friends called ourselves ‘Poets in Pyjamas’ and we traipsed around B’ham City Centre for the day doing guerrilla style poetry on the streets, all wearing only our pj’s. Some of us even carried our teddys, the molten shame of it….. as I met so many people I know and as a 6 foot woman wearing red pyjamas it’s hard to be invisible….. but it was hilarious really!

For many who sleep commando a quick trip to Primark was obligatory for decency… and even our Young Laureate, the mightly Matt Windle – a 17yr old boxer joined in – although he looked cooler in tracksuit rather than pjs….. the theme was ‘Dreams’ for Nat. Poetry Day by the way, in case you just thought it was a fetish of ours. Wearing something slightly odd gave us an excuse and a ‘way in’ to open an exchange with passers by who mostly stopped and listened and enjoyed some spontaneous words – especially once they realised we weren’t collecting money:) We egged each other on, and had a blast with many other poets joining in like a relay throughout the day and there were some memorable connections. Despite the fact that not one person knew it was national poetry day…. sad to say.

One of our shyest poets made a stunning impression on a couple of cute students with the biggest cleavages you’ve ever seen – and as they had very low cut tops on, the more they laughed at his hilarious words, the more he blushed with hidden pleasure:) One passer by recited a poem she’d written a year ago in prison when she’d finally got clean from a 20 yr heroin habit, she wrote beautifully. Matt the 17yr old was at one point surrounded by about 20 teenage girls spellbound by him outside the Bullring and they were yelling at everyone else passing by to stop and listen too….. he loved it as much as they loved his green contact lenses:)

Poetry really worked on the streets and people often asked if we’d got copies of our work they could keep – which only our organised poet Maggie Doyle had thought to bring with her. Highly recommend it, but as I’m kinda shy, definitely safety in numbers and it works best when you’ve got a gang of fellow poets to boost your confidence to approach strangers while hugging a teddy bear in the middle of the daytime. Perhaps we’ll do it at the Big Chill as well as our proper performance – in which case I’d better pack pyjamas….. x

My Place Or Yours

poets in pyjamas

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