Poets' Cafe: Reading's monthly night for poetry

If you have a drawer full of poems you have never read aloud, Reading's Poets' Cafe is the place to finally bring them out. It is a monthly literary gathering that has quietly become a cultural staple for the town's creative community, and it runs on a simple, welcoming premise: a space for local poets and literature enthusiasts to share their work and connect.

The cafe is held at the South Street Arts Centre, at 21 South Street, and it lands on the second Friday of every month. Doors open at 20:00 and the poetry gets going at 20:30, so there is a bit of time to settle in before the first reading. Entry is £5, and £4 for concessions, which includes anyone who signs up to read at the open mic, so the price is the same whether you are there to listen or to perform.

The format is what makes it work for everyone. There is an open mic section where anyone can read their work in a friendly atmosphere, alongside a full reading by some of the country's finest poets. Twenty open mic slots are available on a first-come-first-served basis, and they are open to both experienced and novice poets alike, so you do not need a track record to get a turn. The only real rule is to keep it brief: poets are asked to read one A4 page or the equivalent, roughly two minutes of their best work.

That balance of open mic and guest reading is the heart of the night. The guest poets are a real draw, and the line-up for the coming months is strong: Katrina Naomi on 13 November and Safety in Numbers on 11 December. The inclusive atmosphere is taken seriously, too. The cafe is run so that people of every faith, orientation, ethnicity and background can feel comfortable, welcome and supported, and poets are asked to review their work beforehand to avoid offensive or discriminatory language or positions. A few practical notes are worth knowing: photographs and videos are taken during the event for social media, but you can let the organisers know if you would rather not appear in any promotional imagery.

There is some real history behind the night. It was set up over thirty years ago by Susan Utting and has passed through several hands since, with A.F. Harrold steering it from 2004 to 2016 and previous curators including Claire Dyer, Gill Learner and Jez Dyer. Today it is run by The Poetry Society's Reading Stanza's Poets' Cafe team, and the Reading Stanza itself is a group run voluntarily by Poetry Society members, open to both members and non-members, for poets aged 18 and over. The current organisers are Vic Pickup and Katherine Meehan.

The venue helps. South Street Arts Centre is a theatre managed by Reading Arts and Venues, one of the three main arts centres in town alongside The Hexagon and The Concert Hall at the Town Hall, with room for 125 seated or 220 standing and full disabled access. If you want to find out more or book a slot, the organisers can be reached at poetscafelive@gmail.com, though emails are only checked once a week, so it is worth planning ahead.