With the closure of performance venues and bars across Ireland due to the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19, the spoken word scene has adapted to bring performances and opportunities for artists online. One innovative spoken word artist in particular has gathered together some of Ireland’s leading performance artists to create an online opportunity for lovers of the art to engage and enjoy new works.

Beau Williams, an American performance poet based in Dublin, is the creator and founder of the Virtual Poetry Marketplace. His efforts in finding a way to bring the spoken word to the masses on social media while the country is in quarantine have proved a popular way of reaching new audiences.

Leading the way with the Virtual Poetry Marketplace, Williams is offering his performance and writing services. He has taught poetry workshops and performed his work all over Ireland and the US for over a decade. He has competed at the National Poetry Slam four years in a row and at the Arkansas Grand Slam twice. He was the All-Ireland Poetry Slam Champion of 2018/19 and represented Ireland in three countries.

He is the author of two poetry books and has a Masters in Creative Writing from University College Cork. In 2017 he was the Writer in Residence for the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland.

Poets and performers are having a tough time surviving in this new weird climate. Nobody is leaving their houses and so the Virtual Poetry Marketplace is a way to support writers and performance artists.

Artists currently taking part are Waterford-based writer and performer Sasha Terfous, one of Ireland's important figures in the spoken word community. With her knowledge, eloquence and passion for creative expression, Sasha aims to narrate life's experiences and has been known to both stun and silence readers and audience members.

Terfous' work takes many forms, however, her ability to impact with the rhetoric of her words still stands firm. Her voice is a powerhouse of knowledge and emotion and her use of poetry is to not only narrate, but to also educate and inspire others to reflect upon themselves.

Conor Quinlan is an All-Connacht Poetry Slam Champion and representative in the All-Ireland Final 2019. His theatre credits include, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (ThereisBear) and King Of The Castle (Druid Theatre Company).

His screen credits include Jack Taylor (Telegael) and The Siege of Jadotville (Netflix/Parallel). He was a co-writer for Sooner or Later (Project Spatula), now streaming on Amazon Prime. Conor wrote and starred in the Connection Interrupted, which won ‘Best Film’ at the Little Cinema/Galway City of Film 48hour Challenge 2018.

Felispeaks a.k.a. Felicia Olusanya is a Nigerian-Irish poet, performer, playwright from Longford. In 2018 she was nominated ‘Best Performer’ by the Dublin Fringe Festival for her performance in BOYCHILD, a co-written play by Dagogo Hart.

She has performed her poetry at Concern 50th Anniversary in Dublin Castle alongside speakers UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, president of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, President Bill Clinton and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.

Trudie Gorman is a Dublin northside native and works as a community and youth worker. She is the co-founder and director of Flying South, Dublin’s open forum mental health arts collective. She believes in the transformative power of poetry and the arts. Her poetry captures the personal and political interplay of gender, class, and love in an unequal world.

She has performed her poetry across Ireland and the UK. She was selected to take part in the Fringe Fuse series and also performed at Body & Soul as part of Beats Verses Rhymes. Her poem, “The Opposite of Survival” was shortlisted for the Creative Future Writers Award 2019. She was also selected for the Poetry Ireland Versify Series 2019.

Emmet O'Brien is not your generic poet, bursting into the scene in March of 2017. He is a member of Word Up Collective and represents the Off Key Collective. He has released a book, entitled a perspective from the corrupt mind of the youth where he discusses various taboo subjects such as substance abuse, religion, and everything to do with the session.

O'Brien is best known for his performance poetry video "the North side". He has had many festival shows, playing Electric Picnic, Knockanstockan, Body & Soul, and All Together Now.

Samuel Yakura is a Nigerian born poet and performing artist residing in Ireland. From co-curating the Waterford Speakers corner poetry gig which is one of the new events for Summer in the City, Waterford, to winning the first Talkatives Slam Competition in Dublin put together by Boundless & Bare, Slight Motif and WeAreGriot, he's been buzzing in the art scene. Towards the end of 2019, he was among the six poets shortlisted for Poetry Ireland’s Versify 2019.

Presently, he is the newest member of WeAreGriot, a poetry collective consisting of himself, Dagogo Hart & Felicia Olusanya - curating poetry/rap events - Talkatives, and writing plays for Stage Productions with their newest work DEITIES underway. He is passionate about spoken word and performance poetry and strongly believes it is today’s re- evolution from page poetry to engage society’s narratives and the human condition in ways only the Arts have potential to, and he’s committed to giving his voice to the cause.

How the Virtual Poetry Marketplace Works

Step 1: Pick a poet. The Virtual Poetry Marketplace has a list of Ireland-based performance poets to choose from to create a piece of custom and original work.

Step 2: Give your chosen poet a theme or writing prompt that you'd like your own personalized poem to be written about or give them free rein to write their own piece.

Step 3: After you have chosen a poet to create a new piece of work you can donate between €1 - €25, or whatever you can, via their Paypal account.

Step 4: Within 24 hours, you will receive a brand new poem written just for you.

Contact Beau Williams beauwilliamspoet@gmail.com for more information or to pick a poet of your choice from the selection below:

Sasha Terfous: paypal.com/sashaterfous
Conor Quinlan: paypal.com/conorquinlan91
Beau Williams: paypal.me/bwpoet
Felispeaks: paypal.me/FeliciaOlusanya
Trudie Gorman: paypal.me/trudiegorman
Emmet O'Brien: paypal.me/emmetobrienpoetry
Samuel Yakura: paypal.me/samuelyakura

Ireland's Virtual Poetry Marketplace

How the Virtual Poetry Marketplace Works