Spoken Word Friday

Spoken Word Friday
Friday 19th June 2026
The New Adelphi Club
£6 Advance or Pay what you feel (Unwaged)
Doors: 8.00pm

Six of the UK’s best spoken word acts all for £6.00…Unwaged PWYF!

Emma Purshouse is a lively and original performance poet and novelist. She was the
first Poet Laureate for the City of Wolverhampton, is a slam winner and regularly
performs at spoken word venues and literature festivals across the country and has
supported John Hegley, Hollie McNish and Carol Ann Duffy.

Steve Pottinger is a poet, author, and founding member of Wolverhampton arts
collective ‘Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists’. Steve is a dynamic and engaging
performance poet and has gigged up and down the UK with his irreverent, comic and
political poetry.

Matt McAteer is a spoken word poet and founder member of Independent Electric
Group. A brilliant performance poet who writes with flair and wit and performs with
style and conviction. His first collection Damaged Glamour was published in 2023.

Charlotte Oliver lives in Scarborough, she was an Ilkley Literature Festival New
Northern Poet 2023, the lead artist for the Yorkshire Coast on Spoken Word Power
2024 and commissioned poet for BBC Radio York’s Make a Difference campaign.
Her first full collection My Hands Are Still Just Petals is out in October.

Mike Watts is the author of four collections of poetry. Described as the British
Bukowski, Mike gives us a view from the streets of Hull populated by ordinary people
living ordinary lives. Mike is a ferocious performer who fires out words machine gun
style and takes no prisoners.

Jim Higo is a writer, poet and performer. Multiple slam winner, BBC commissioned.
Hilarious, furious and brilliant, one of the best poetry performers in the country. With
side-splitting poems and rants dipped in dripping and cynicism, he leaves no
pretension un-shamed and no pomposity un-pricked.