Poetry Nights… And That Sort of Thing!
by Angus Bhattacharya
I’m quite excited! Last night we celebrated the 1st birthday of my spoken word, open mic poetry and storytelling night Tasseomancy at Tchai-Ovna: House of Tea.
To give a little backstory: in 2018, I attended the first poetry event I’ll term as that sort of thing. The night was called Inky Fingers in the Lighthouse Bookshop in Edinburgh. It was a gorgeous, cosy little venue that felt like you were being read bed time stories, really good ones and by a massively diverse group of performers and writers. Diverse in both identity and style.
The event lasted about 3 hours, I left completely inspired, warmed and affirmed. Some who got up were more experienced, some more comfortable, others kind of unhinged but all of them contributed to this incredibly welcoming atmosphere – a place of performance and words that seemed to float above any feeling of competitiveness or judgement.
Over lockdown, I felt the absence of those nights so strongly – that space of sharing had seemingly vanished. Half-way through 2020 I moved back home to Glasgow and looked to see if I could find the poetry scene here. It took a while as everything was still in flux but eventually my former flatmate in Edinburgh Garrow Wilson started working at Tchai-Ovna (a lovely little tea house in Glasgow’s west end). In 2021 he started running events there and a conversation ensued:
Angus: Hey man
Garrow: Hey pal
A: You’re running events at Tchai-Ovna yeah? Do you have a poetry night yet?
G: No we don’t. Would you like to start one?
A: …Yes…yes I would.
Angus Bhattacharya hosting a Burns’ Poetry Night at Nice N Sleazy’s, Glasgow.
That was the gist. Now one year on, I can say its been one of the best things I’ve done. It was fortunate to coincide with my MA Musical Theatre course at RCS as I was able to advertise the event to students on other courses both post and undergraduate. Many of them have become my firm friends. I see and am inspired by their work. It’s a pleasure to support them, as they do the same for me.
Which aligns with the thing I think I’m most proud of with Tasseomancy, its intergenerational appeal. Through Facebook groups like Poetry & Spoken Word Scotland and Writers Federation of Scotland I’ve been able to reach people of all ages, tell them about the event and sign them up to perform. It always warms my heart to have a story or a poem told by someone of 21 followed by an 80 year old back to back, and have both recite with such expression and passion. It’s a really connecting, wholesome and I want to say instinctive feeling that brings the room together.
As actors, we often refer to ourselves as story tellers but the lifestyle, auditions, managing, marketing, hoping, yearning, crying sometimes take over. It’s lovely to have a space where I can just get up to an audience and share a feeling, whether it is expressed particularly poetically or not, and I love being able to give that space to others.
It’s also helped me to build confidence in my own writing. For me and all the people who perform, it’s basically a free workshop, which kind of led to my first paid performance last week.
For Burns Night another friend who runs events, but at Nice N Sleazy’s, asked if I’d like to host a Tasseomancy event there. By the way Tasseomancy means the reading of one’s fortune in tea leaves. For this, I basically had free reign to do whatever I wanted as long as it had something to do with poetry. So I thought I’d split it in two – the second half being the regular open mic night we have at Tchai-Ovna. And for the first half I wrote and curated a performance surrounding the theme of ‘Scottishness’. As I said of Burns Night in what became a cabaret style show:
“…this day, this night is when we celebrate all things poetry and also all things Scottish, almost to the point that it sometimes feels like the one time Scotland indulges in its own stereotype.”
For this, I was heavily influenced by an interview given by Alan Cumming to National Theatre of Scotland where they said Robert Burns gave us a national Scottish identity. I’ve always been a massive Alan Cumming fan, but I wasn’t particularly convinced by that. Less the question of whether Robert Burns gave us one – more the idea that there is one Scottish identity. There is a thing, ‘Scottishness’, but I’m not really sure what it is, and why Burns Night has come to symbolise it though in looking at the poetry of Burns more closely, I did gain a deeper appreciation for his writing.
One thing I did know asking “What is Scottish?” was that I couldn’t take that on alone. One voice and perspective would be a limited way of posing that. So I had 5 artists collaborate with me, to whom I am so grateful, in fact shout out Tom, Ross, Caitlin, Kate and Hope. Two original works, and three brilliant performances of Ivor Cutler, Edwin Morgan and Jenni Fagan really helped to explore this question more wholistically.
And I haven’t answered it. In fact – watch this space because I do think what we made on January 25th deserves a redraft, a workshop and more life on stage! Even with that, it’s not a question to fully answer and certainly not in a single blog post. I could try but I’m not sure Lori would give me the web space. Scottishness is such a multiplex of interweaving moments of history, traditions and interactions but maybe Robert Burns did help harness and transmit that from his day to ours. In any case I’m not sure we can find direct answers for these questions. I think that is what poetry is for, expression and exploration outside the need for absolute definition.
With Tasseomancy’s first birthday in the books, I reflect on what Garrow and I have built, because it really is his night as much as mine – you can see his brilliant artwork on our Instagram linked below. It’s a space where being good doesn’t matter. Writing something and sharing it is good enough whatever it might be. It’s a space to nurture our creativity not critique it, and therefore elevate it, if that is indeed what we want to do. It’s all good if we just leave it in the space.
If someone reading this, has a certain idea of what they think a poetry night might be and says “I’m not into that sort of thing”, please come along and let us have a go at changing your mind. Our next event is Wednesday 1st of March at Tchai-Ovna: House of Tea, from 7pm, and then every other Wednesday until there is no more poetry left to be shared.
Instagram: @tasseomancy_tchaiovna
Actor, singer and poet Angus Bhattacharya has been performing since 2017 where they joined various student theatre groups while studying Ancient History at The University of Edinburgh. Since then, they have graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a MA in Musical Theatre in October.