Time for '˜talking loud and saying summat'

Organiser Beam has joined forces with A Firm of Poets for the week long festival to get people stimulated about reading and writing and to celebrate it.

There will be four main themes this year.

The first is ‘We Need To Talk About Music’, which has been developed in partnership with the Louder Than Words Festival. It will be a day dedicated to writing, conversation, music and argument .

Another theme is ‘Beautiful Minds’ where festival collaborators Well Life, the Wakefield Well Women’s Centre and Dreamtime Creative bring together a panel of discussions and evening performances with special guests.

Wakefield Rising’ is a theme which will bring together local writers and performers and will include an evening programme of family activities, site-specific theatre, performance, live music, workshops and spoken word.

And the final theme is ‘Poetry for the People’ which is a celebration of spoken word with a glittering line up of writers and performers

Amongst the guests attending will Jamaican poet, journalist and author Linton Kwesi Johnson.

He will headline the ‘Poetry for the People’ event at St Austin’s Church on Saturday, September 23.

The day will also include special guests including Genevieve Walsh, Gudrun’s Sisters, John Hegley, Kate Fox and more - plus a DJ set.

Ralph Dartford from A Firm of Poets, says: “We want to create a programme that celebrates the spirit of Wakefield through words, music and debate”.

Talking Loud and Saying Summat runs from Saturday, September 23 until Sunday, October 1