Monday 19 March brought snow and ice – but it also brought ‘Spring People’: an evening of poetry exploring queerness through the spoken word.

University of Birmingham Slam Team

Hosted by the Birmingham and Midland Institute, and organised by Rona Cran and Rachel Sykes, the evening featured four unique and energetic performances that each addressed what it means to be queer, by poets Romalyn Ante, Jason Edwards, Jenna Clake, and the University of Birmingham’s Slam Team.

Jason Edwards

Audience members took part in a sequence of lively readings of their favourite queer poems, including work by John Ashbery, H.D., Frank O’Hara, Audre Lorde, Hart Crane, Eve Sedgwick, and Saeed Jones, as well as original work by Lucy Hancock and Joanna Delyse Packwood which they performed themselves.