30/4/18 - My Camp NaNoWriMo (April 2018)

For anybody that happens to have liked my Facebook Page or follows my Twitter, you are probably aware that I have been participating in Camp NaNoWriMo April 2018. This event is an informal NaNoWriMo event, meaning you have to write a certain volume of words/pages but you get to choose how many you do. These events run twice a year, once in April and once again in July, with the official NaNoWriMo event taking place in November.

This April, I decided that I would participate in this for the first time since I was in college, and actually managed to make significant strides toward the goal that I had set. To prepare me for the November NaNoWriMo, I always aspire to reach a total of 50K within the space of a month.

The goal for this Camp NaNo event was to create a short novella length story about a male character coming to terms with being asexual and learning that you don't sex to be happy in life and ends up establishing solid platonic relationships with the people around him. I named this story 'Ace Of Hearts'!

I managed to write a total of _ words throughout Camp NaNoWriMo, a graph of my progress through the process can be found below:

As you can probably see from my stats, my word counts were higher at the start of the month. This was because I was still on my Easter Holidays and was, therefore able to apply myself and write a larger volume of content before returning to university for my third term. At the start of my first day of classes, I had eighteen thousand words out of fifty! That was a great head start and allowed me to have a bit of leeway in terms of getting back into the swing of my degree. I was very grateful for my progress at the start of the month, even as the volume of words I was producing per day seemed to lower. But I managed it so I am more than happy!

But how did I find this experience?
I didn't struggle all that much as I am familiar with the idea of juggling a NaNo event with my coursework, as that has been my experience every year I have participated - my first NaNoWriMo was done during my A-Levels, and the subsequent NaNoWriMo events have taken place within my first and second year at university. I was familiar with the volume of work I would need to do in order to accumulate my ideal word count and am satisfied with the way it went!

Do I have any advice?
Always - you need to be aware of whether you feel that you are up to writing, sometimes you have days where it's easy to just dedicate your time to yourself and those days are very important, especially in such a high-pressure writing event. NaNoWriMo and other events under the same brand name can be immensely taxing, even for 'veteran' participants. Self-care and pacing oneself is pivotal to achieving a "win" at a NaNoWriMo event.

20/4/18 - In Wake of Twisted Tongues Birmingham

Hello everyone! I know this post isn't part of my usual blogging schedule, but I have managed to eke out a short moment in order to write a post about what happened on Thursday 19th April - the day of Twisted Tongues' Birmingham's Launch Night!

I was in an amazing position when this event was created - I had already created and achieved every single spoken word goal I possibly had for this academic year, and I managed to do that back in October of 2017, a mere two months into pursuing said goals! It was an amazing feat.

At the start of this academic year, I had established several goals that would be pushed ahead to be aspired for in my third year at the University of Derby. One of them was to perform in another city - one that was not Derby, or my hometown. Of course, one could count my participation in UniSlam 2018 to be the completion of that goal, but my performances were competitive, as opposed to recreational. That meant that my first actual performance took place on Thursday 19th April 2018, at the launch of Twisted Tongues Birmingham!

Twisted Tongues was the event that pushed me to start chasing a path in spoken word poetry, and I was, therefore, determined that I would get to continue to support the team in their newest venture. I was so eager to do so, that I pre-booked my performance slot with the team and planned out my performance slot. I was going to read my UniSlam solo along with a character piece called 'She'.

When I got to the event, however, things changed. I was approached by some of my fellow poets from Derby, Aoife and Tamara, when they asked me about my set, I informed them of my choices, and they encouraged me to perform a different piece - my UniSlam audition piece; Red, which was one of their favourites. Upon some brief consideration, I decided it was better to perform that piece instead.

Photo Cred: Favourite Child of the Sassy Apollos  

The above image depicts me during my performance. I was very nervous to go up and speak in front of a crowd where very few people knew my name or face. My fellow poets from Derby had all clustered in one spot, so at least, I knew there were people in the audience that wanted to hear what I had to say.

I was delighted with the reception I got in Birmingham, and cannot wait to participate in the next event in May, the last spoken word event I will do before I return home for the summer. 

12/03/18 - Performing At Derby Uni's International Women's Day Celebration

Several days ago, I had the privilege of being asked by one of my classmates, who happens to be affiliated with the University of Derby Students Union, whether I would like to be one of the female voices speaking up and raising awareness at today's event - Derby Uni's International Women's Day Celebration.

I was asked to go on stage and perform several pieces of spoken word that focussed on women or empowerment in one way, shape or form. I was delighted to be given such an amazing opportunity and spent hours pondering over the choices of pieces I would do. I decided that I would read three poems to fill my ten minute performance slot. 

During the event, I got to watch several of my friends and fellow performers take to the stage and discuss feminsm and issues surrounding such for this event. I was moved by the performances of my former UniSlam teammates, as well as my friends and fellow regulars in the Derby Spoken Word Scene! 

My first piece, Red, was the poem I used to audition for Team Derby for UniSlam 2018, and a poem that I haven't performed since then. Until today. I was incredibly nervous, and excited to share the piece which gained me my place on Team Derby. The poem told the story of how after a break up, a woman associated with only red, was left longing for her former significant other and how she longed to see them again, despite the messy break up. 

The second poem of my triad was called Wildfire, and was one which I wrote for coursework, the piece itself discussed how the speaker was able to idolise a person and how despite their illness and ailment, they managed to continue on making progress and succeding in acheiving their goals. This person was compared to fire through a variety of metaphors. It is a personal favourite of mine. 

The last piece out of the three that I performed was relatively new and discussed women and female empowerment in the context of a romantic relationship. This short piece was entitled You Say He's My Type. This poem discussed not only how daft it can be to categorise people in this manner, but the issue that spans from it. It tells the story of an asexual woman, who is in the process of attempting to stop her friend from setting her up with a mutual acquaintance. It discusses how setting people up with romantic partners does not make you responsible for the impacts that that relationship may have had in the future. It also mentions how unfair it is in society that a women seems to almost require a male to speak on her behalf. 

The above photograph, taken by Emmaberry depicts me reading some of my poetry at the event. I am so grateful for this experience! 

30/1/18 - Post Twisted Tongues

On 30/1/18 was the first instalment of Twisted Tongues of 2018, and the first public performance of the Derby Uni Slam team since our return from the competition late on Sunday night! We found ourselves back on much more familiar terrain!

For me, being onstage at Twisted Tongues is probably the most comfortable I am ever whilst performing. Twisted Tongues was the first ever spoken word event I attended back in my first year of university, and when was the only event I would perform at when I was still finding my feet in the spoken word community. The team and the crowd are very supportive of new and inexperienced performers.

I began performing there back in September 2016 and by September 2017 I found that I had improved at a rate of knots due to the support from the crowd. It was only as of the dawn of my second year at university that I began to pursue performance at other venues to learn from other artists, as advised by someone who later became a mentor for me as a slam poet; Jamie Thrasivoulou! He told me back at the start of October last year. He advised me that the best way to ensure that I continued to improve at a steady pace would be to expand the venues that I have performed at - for example, as of September 2017, I had performed at Twisted Tongues, Poetry Speaks' Intro To Freshers' Event, She Speaks and LGBQWERTY. But as of the end of October, I had also performed at Co-Conspirators, Subverse, City-Zen and Word Wise! These new spaces gave me the opportunity to experience a variety of different performance styles! If I hadn't acquired such great advice I wouldn't have made the slam team. But more importantly, if I had never performed at a Twisted Tongues event and been validated by such a supportive crowd, I doubt my poems would have developed from sounding like the 'woe is me' declarations of a Tumblrina instead of the better-formed creations of a newly established slam poet! So I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jamie, as a supporter of Twisted Tongues, and the Twisted Tongues Team for the belief and support you have given me since I began this journey!

I was beyond grateful, as part of Team Derby for UniSlam 2018, to get the opportunity to perform the pieces that we would have shown the other teams in the semi-finals, had we qualified. I was so glad to watch Aoife and Mole perform 'Call Me MH' at last! And  I hope that should I qualify for Team Derby next year, we will be able to perform some of the other pieces we would have performed in this year's semifinals in our bouts next year, and show the other unis what they missed out on this year!

Performing at Twisted Tongues this time around was an incredibly emotional experience, the idea of how much I had accomplished managed to swallow me up.

I got to perform my solo during last night's Twisted Tongues, and finally, the words of our team captain finally began to make sense. Originally, she said that our pieces were written, not just for ourselves, but for that one person in the crowd, who needs to hear it more than you did. Last night a member of the crowd approached me to thank me for performing my solo piece about learning to move past suicidal thoughts.

The image above was taken by my friend Emma, and depicts me performing my solo! I am so glad I finally got to share it with an audience that have supported me from the get go! It was such a great experience and am so excited to keep performing in the upcoming days!

Thank you for reading!
And thank you for the continued support!
And remember:
Per Ardua Ad Astra!
- Imogen. L. Smiley!

29/1/18 - UniSlam Reflections

Today was my first day back at university, and the outcomes of the UniSlam Competition are only just starting to sink in! I absolutely adored the entire experience, despite how anxious I was throughout the pieces! This was my first ever proper competition for poetry and I feel that with that considered, I did an incredible job representing The University of Derby!

This post, is basically me prattling on about my experiences and what I hope I can do better in the future!

So, how did Team Derby do in UniSlam 2018?

We came! We saw! We... made it through preliminaries!
But that isn't a problem in any way, shape or form. Team Derby came to UniSlam for the first time this year and I found myself enthralled by the process of learning in workshops and performing! It was incredible nerve-inducing, but that was part of the fun!


In our first round / bout, Team Derby came third out of five competing teams! We were delighted we could kick off to such a great start. In Bout One, we performed four pieces; 'Zimbabwe', a solo by my teammate Sile, ((@siles16 on Instagram!)), a team piece called 'New Year New Me', 'Half A Painting', a solo by my teammate Mole ((@my_unsafe_space on Instagram)) and then a trio piece between me and my teammates, Aoife and Grace called 'Letters To The Deceased'.

In Bout Two, we came fourth out of five competing teams, and despite being disheartened we did not make it to the semi-finals, it did not invalidate the immense ammount of effort and enjoyment that surrounded the experience. In that particular round, we opened with a solo called 'Mother', performed by my teammate Grace, ((@gracelporter on Instagram)). We then went on to have a duet called 'Mankind', which discussed veganism and was performed by Grace and Mole, and then my solo, 'Rationalise;' and Aoife, our team captain, ((@aoifepoc on Instagram)) closed the set - and the bout, with her solo 'Femme'. We did amazingly! And I am so proud of every single one of my teammates!

And now! Let's not forget our amazing coach! Dan Webber ((Dan Webber Spoken Word)) performed on Friday at the Coach's Slam, performing a peice on gender equality and the free the nipple campaign. This was a brilliant performance and he represented our city and university just as well as the rest of the team. Not only was he greatly supportive of our team, he provided great insight etc. throughout the entire weekend! I am beyond grateful to him for the continued support!


Now! To tell some stories!

Friday!
A huge highlight in terms of humour had to focus on the misadventures my team and coach had in our disasterous attempt to make our way from the preliminary on Friday night to our hotel so we could prepare for the Coach's Slam. And we managed to end up trekking for an hour through Leicester Town Centre in search of the hotel. Google Maps was of absoluetly no help, and of course, it really doesn't make the experience very positive when the entire team is dragging their weekend's worth of luggage along with them! However, finding out we had walked in the complete opposite direction from where we were meant to be was hysterical!

Saturday!
One word. Birmingham! One of my favourite performances of the competition had to be the one that concluded Team Birmingham's performances in the first semi-finals and secured their place in the final. I was up in arms after seeing their piece 'Thoughts And Prayers'! It was incredible!

Sunday!
After running into a unimate, Tamara, at the semi-finals on Sunday Morning, we gained ourselves a mascot throughout the last leg of our journey through unislam! Having another familiar face alongside me made the experience even greater! The poetry was incredible! The poets were so friendly! The experience was amazing!


Being part of the Derby Unislam team was an all in all amazing experience! I adored almost every moment of the experience - only discounting the panic attacks!

I learned so much about myself and how I can exceed my own expectations of myself to not only become a better poet or a better performer, but a better writer as a whole! I feel that going to the slam and meeting so many unique individuals with a passion for arts and poetry will have my motivations on a high for the next few months! I am so excited to go to Twisted Tongues tomorrow with my team and share our works with Derby and show them what would have been performed, had we actually made it to the semi-finals!

I really hope I can make the team and go back to the slam next year to make our university even prouder of our achievements!

Thank you for reading!
Hey Poets? Audition for your uni's team!
Hey Writer's? Give poetry a shot! THEN audition for your uni's team!
Hey Competitors? Congratulations on your achievement! We all did amazingly!
And remember!
Per Ardua Ad Astra!
- Imogen. L. Smiley