Poetry Slam - Worcester Fringe

Get ready for  the Worcester Fringe Poetry Slam!

The finest wordsmiths from across Worcestershire come together to share their punchy poems. Poets will battle it out through several rounds, judges by our estemmed panel, until one person is crowned the Worcester Fringe Poetry Slam Champion of 2024.

Meet the Judges:

Leena Batchelor

Calling herself a “poetic minstrel with living in her veins”, former Worcestershire Poet Laureate Leena writes passionately about everything that strikes her mind and heart, striving to provide both meaning and entertainment. She has released five poetry anthologies to date, and frequently performs at spoken word events.

Leena is also the owner of Script Haven, Worcester’s only independent bookshop and creative event hub, supporting independent creatives and local community groups.

Holly Winter-Hughes

Multi-slam winner Holly Winter-Hughes' work has been commissioned by various organisations including Apples & Snakes, Poetry on Loan, Live & Local and Arvon. She has performed extensively across the UK including at Ledbury Poetry Festival, for Raise The Bar and for the BBC. She is passionate about amplifying underrepresented voices, and as such is the founder and CEO of The Word Association CIC who have published over 30 anthologies with Holly at the helm. You can find Holly performing at Cheltenham Poetry Festival 2024 and running embodied poetry workshops at Wychwood. She also has work upcoming in Clarion.

Zakariye Abdillahi

Zakariye is a poet and writer hailing from Birmingham who has been performing poetry for almost six years. In November 2022, he had his short poetry film ‘CAGES’ broadcast on BBC 4 and released on BBC iPlayer. He has also performed his poetry on Brum Radio, performed a set at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, headlined at The Glee Club for Verve and was a finalist at the Roundhouse 2023 Poetry Slam, winning the audience vote. Zakariye has completed residencies with Punch Records for Gallery 37 and Birmingham Hippodrome for their Gathering initiative. This year has also seen Zakariye be accepted for The Roundhouse Poetry Collective 2023-24.

Zakariye was recently commissioned by Apples & Snakes to produce a short poetry film where he worked with Aston Villa Football Club to deliver and showcase his film ‘When You Ask Him About Aston’.