MALVERN FRINGE ARTS present
Poetry Night
MALVERN YOUTH CENTRE
Friday 9th MAY

The times for performers is as follows:

7.40 - Dick McBride - (2 sets with a break)

8.55 - Linda Hart

9.45 - Thomas Vipond

10.10 - Lizzie McHale

10.45 - Jai Hill


DICK MCBRIDE
Dick McBride was born in Washington, Indiana in 1928. After travelling around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Nebraska working in radio, Dick hit San Francisco in the early '50's to pursue writing more seriously. Store manager of City Lights Bookshop from 1954 until 1969, he was friends and poet-in-arms with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen and Richard Brautigan among others. He came to England in 1964 to "bohemianize" Better Books in London. Tony Godwin, founder of Better Books, had met Lawrence Ferlinghetti and suggested a "work swap" whereby Ferlinghetti would send "one of his beats" over in exchange for an English salesman who needed some education. He returned to England in 1969,as director of independent book distributors "McBride Bros. and Broadley". In 2001 Dick collaborated with Celluloid on the Last Beat project, a live and recorded performance project on BBC Radio 3's "The Late Junction".
“They heard I was a relic from the 50s and 60s beat poet days," he said. "I was surprised that young people have this fascination with Jack Kerouac and the whole beat generation."

In 2004 "Remembered America" was published by Rue Bella, who described the book as "...an uplifting reminder of the transcendent thrill of Beat poetry, mixed with a maturity hard earned by McBride in his long and colourful life".
His recently recorded audio anthology "Upbeat and Groovy: Poems 1960-2008" is available to purchase now.

LINDA HART on ROBERT FROST
One of America's greatest poets, Robert Frost, first gained poetic recognition here in England in 1914.
Linda Hart will explain how this came about, with readings from his poems - especially those that relate to
his time in Gloucestershire. Copies of Linda's book, A Dymock Poets Anthology, will be for sale during the evening.

ELIZABETH MCHALE
(Lizzie Mac) is not so new to the art of the slam, having been rescued from the abyss of abandonment by amazonian warriors and retrained in the art of parenting by black widow spiders. She intends to militarize motherhood.

PLUS TOM VIPOND & JAI HILL