Oxford Brookes UniversityVenues in Oxford
Venues in Oxford
One of the Poetry Centre’s aims is to encourage the reading and writing of poetry in the community. On this page you can find a list of regular and irregular poetry readings and events in Oxford, as well as venues where you might hear poetry. If you run or know of others, do get in touch with us via the ‘Contact Us’ page. If you’d like to know about regular events further afield than Oxford, have a look at this page from the Poetry Kit website.
Nights
The Catweasle Club - a warm, welcoming open-mic night often involving poetry and story telling, held at East Oxford Community Centre every Thursday night. 17 years old now and becoming legendary.
No Reading Alone - a night of poetry and spoken word held once every few months around Oxford, hosted by the local writers group Oxwords.
Hammer and Tongue - a night of performance poetry, with headlining acts and a poetry slam, held at various venues around Oxford.
George’s Jamboree - a new night of live music, comedy and performance poetry held on the first Monday of the month at the Jam Factory.
Hear the Word - a regular night (that’s been going for 10 years now) for the performance of poetry, writing and songs open to all local writers, held at The Gardeners Arms, Plantation Road, Jericho. More information here.
The Duke’s Cut - a pub in central Oxford hosting poetry nights featuring the work of the Oxford University Poetry Society. You can find more details of Oxford (University) Poetry Society’s activities here.
Back Room Poets - a group hosting twice-monthly workshops in the City Centre, and once a month in North Oxford and occasional extra workshops, and participating in public performances.
Venues
The Albion Beatnik Bookshop - an indie bookshop in Jericho which hosts various literary events, including poetry readings and performances, storytelling, writers groups’ gatherings, and comic, journal and magazine launches.
North Wall Arts Centre - a theatre and exhibition space which occasionally features performance poetry and storytelling.
Modern Art Oxford - the Basement Gigs at this venue often include nights of performance poetry, multimodal literary performances, storytelling and more.
Blackwells - the Broad Street branch of this bookselling chain occasionally includes evenings of live performance poetry and spoken word within its literary event schedule.
Groups
Freehand - a writers’ group that meets monthly in Oxford.
Stanzas 1 & 2 - two poetry writing groups made up of members of the Poetry Society. Stanza 2 also has its own site.
Oxford Poetry Society - the Oxford University poetry society, which runs frequent events and readings with local and internationally-renowned poets. The society can also be found on Facebook.
