Maria (00:04.226)
Okay, so hi Richard and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. Many thanks for coming on. How are doing?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (00:10.364)
I'm fine, thanks for having me on your podcast.

Maria (00:15.18)
you're very welcome. I've been really looking forward to this. And here we are in the Rising Arts Centre as well, which is my first time here.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (00:25.724)
Yeah, that's a nice little venue for us. It kind of suits the the community atmosphere of the group I'm trying to build. Yeah, so it's run entirely by volunteers. it which, you know, which suits with a free entry poetry event when we're trying to get volunteers to perform poets, volunteers to listen.

Maria (00:48.996)
I know it's brilliant. that's, I mean, obviously in Reading, have many amazing things. This is one of them. But is there any particular thing you like about living in Reading?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (00:59.508)
Redding's a good place to live for a number of reasons. It's a nice sized town that you can get around all the things in the city centre. There is quite a big art scene. There's history scenes with the Abbey and the museum and the things. Got a nice railway station to get, lets you get to a lot of places fairly easily. It's a nice convenient and it's got a huge open mic scene which is very useful for me trying

create my own open mic poetry event and also means I can go to a lot of others and practice or perform or advertise myself.

Maria (01:40.004)
Which is great, so could you tell our listeners a little bit about you and your background?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (01:45.684)
Okay, so my name is Richard Stevenson. I use the stage name, the legend that is Richard Stevenson. I'm a chartered engineer. took up poetry as a hobby when I moved to Reading about 30 years ago, basically as a way of getting out, meeting people, because obviously I was in a new town and had to find something to do. And since then, the hobby's grown. I've

a lot more people through poetry and say I'm not, I am now running the Dreading Slam group who meet first Sunday of the month in the Rising Sun Arts Centre on Silver Street.

Maria (02:27.824)
I know, it's where I've never been. I need to come to one of your meetings actually. But could you tell everyone a little bit more about the dreading slam group, a bit about its background?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (02:35.764)
OK, so yeah, it's an open mic event, which means anyone who wants to perform gets to read. poetry competition now. Basically, to make it a competition, three members of the audience judge the poets out of 10. And that does add a bit of randomness because a different set of audience would give a different winner.

But that, as I say, is all the fun of the fair. As well, if you're new, we also have an entry slot for people who don't want to compete. That's just there. You just read. And the rules for competing are three minutes long. You're reading your own work. For the other slot where you're not competing, you

You can read three minutes because again, if you want the experience of standing up in front of the stage, can you can read what you know is a popular poem by someone else. And we have something else which I think is unique to us called the quick fire round. It's judged by the loudest cheer. So every month is a different subject and you have poems are up to five lines long, which means limericks just fit in as well as haiku

Well, you don't even need to do a traditional verse as long as it's up to five lines. so, the audience cheer the ones they like. The one that gets the loudest cheer wins that month event, which doesn't actually have a prize. So next meeting August the 4th is the theme is holidays for that, you want to take

Maria (04:25.52)
Yeah, what I really like about the groups and not something I realized before I started going to all these different meetings is the structure that you have and I think for someone who is looking to dip their toe in that's really important because they can go in like I said they can go take a step in with the non -competition round and then build themselves up so there is something for everyone at every level which is great.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (04:49.586)
Yeah, and or again, the the five lines, you can go more than once or the quick fire. But also you can just run on stage, run off for it's it's more high energy, whatever you do, because obviously part of the point of view is if you are worried about the stoplight with that one, you're not in the spotlight very long with the noncompetitive. I mean, the audiences are always friendly, always welcoming of new poets anyway. But it's. You know.

It adds that extra bit of tension if you're worried about getting a bad score or coming last, which somebody has to, which is fair

Maria (05:27.354)
So obviously you've been leading the dreading slam group. Have you found any challenges in the time that you've been leading it at all?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (05:36.66)
The biggest challenge is always publicity and building a building community is another one, just trying to get into a challenge, which we are, that is now working. We, I mean, we had COVID as well. So I lost, if you like, the first generation of people were there when I brought it up and now have a mostly different group of poets. you you want some kind of new poets every month, any month anyway to

to hear different stories. a lot of the regulars will read a different poem or different poems each month. so yeah, key things, publicity. I've had to learn how to use social media. I mean, before, when I joined it, the Dreading Slam did have a very active Facebook page, which it's still there, Dreading Poetry Slam, which is the best way of doing a community event.

because then, yeah, you can actually have chatter and, we, I've also built the other ones, Twitter, as I still call it, and Instagram and threads were at dreading slam master drawn with just dreading because I couldn't work out the rules for having two words as your name there and nowhere on the master on help pages actually tells me what those rules are. So what it to yeah. Anyway,

Yeah, we're reading slam. mean, there's other ways of publicizing. mean, what's on reading? do. Let's try and think. Every so often I use newspapers, options. There are lot of Facebook pages that exist only to list events. And I wonder how many of the people who read them are just, what's it called? Just promoters like me. But yeah, it's getting that publicity.

Second one, yeah, building a community. We've got a couple of things there. In addition to the dreading slam, on the first Sunday of the month, in the middle of the month, on a Saturday morning at 11am, we meet for Poets in the Park, just an old fashioned round the table poetry circle where everyone gets to read poems and then pass on to the next guy. in that one, we all take turns.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (08:05.276)
That's run by John Giles, who was in dreading slam for a very long time. He runs that and again, there's big overlap of the people. On our Facebook page, we have a caption contest where basically we'll put a picture off and it's a funny picture, but not always. The last one actually was a picture sent by Catherine, of our, one of the perks who's left.

to Kent, but she used the Facebook group to stay in touch with us. And we've used one of hers, a very beautiful picture of sunset and we did a caption on that. The captions are two lines, couplet, two lines that rhyme because we've got to try and keep it in the theme with being poetry. But again, that gives the competition and the way that's judged is basically if you like someone else's entry, you just use the Facebook like and the

the poem with most likes, Wins, which yeah, just fairly simple.

Maria (09:11.104)
I'm impressed with how much you do because I think what people forget sometimes is that obviously this is a volunteer role effectively for you. You're leading the group but you're doing all of this on your own time and like you said with setting up a mastodon and things like that as well you need to figure out how to use them and be regularly using them. So drilling down into the social media just a little bit more because I think most people that would be their first port of call to get to know other poets.

and to maybe promote the work, what have you found has or hasn't worked for

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (09:44.368)
Okay, actually one that I haven't mentioned has worked very well, which is something called Meetup group, www .meetup .com. That is designed for people running events to put their event on or people looking for events. And if you don't publicize any event, it's free to use. So you can always try and you can just put a place and an event

You know, it'll search things you interest. So for example, Caversham writers that I'm a member of, I found through being on Meetup group and lots of my hobbies, board games are on there. So yeah, meetup .com. And I just publicize all the events, the dreading slam, the poetry in the park. Poetry in the park varies what day of the week it is. So I put it there, I put on Facebook to let people know.

And again, other events, other open mics, for example, Tutu's Ethiopian Table in Palmer Park, where we have poetry in the park. There's also a meal and open mic organized about once a month, and that's at varying time table. And if I'm free that day, I'll arrange a table for the Dreading Slam poets that day. It's also one of those things.

to look for a volunteer if I know I won't be there to get hopefully someone who is often at the event to host it themselves.

Maria (11:22.48)
There is a lot to think about, yes. So what do do on social media to promote your stuff or have you found has worked or hasn't worked?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (11:31.332)
first thing is I do end up saying first fund out of the month half past seven at the Rising Sun Art Center. I usually put the postcode RG12ST as well, because there are actually a couple of other Rising Suns in Reading. One of which is a recently opened pub, which used to be the Suns renamed itself the Rising Sun. And there's a pub which has been closed since well before lockdown, very close to the station, which was called the, well,

Is or was called the rising sun. It's been say it's been shut for years. Yeah, it's So again putting the postcode in Well, that's normally it's the way I find things nowadays if I you know the address find the postcode easiest because with that The computer maps will tell you where something is. So yeah, So that's one thing repetition pictures, I mean today's post i've done the cross stick which is where the

Maria (12:02.883)
It still is, yes.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (12:29.926)
words, the letters of the first word of each line spells something out. I think I've got a cross stick based on the words fire, find inspiration, read, yes, finding inspiration, reading anything. can't remember what the E was. I probably did a better one, but you can do that and then just say, let dreading slam react your poetic slam. the,

it called Caption Contest and of course the other social media I advertise the fact that we're having a Caption Contest. should also mention Jill Passman who I've met through Cavisham Writers has given me a lot of help on the social media parts of the slam because before I she she'd run a gardening business and needed to publicise yeah gardening services until

built up enough crowd to rely on the, what's it called, word of mouth, which is another good thing. Yeah, another thing. The venue's got a good website. So that'll mention the venue's got a good website. So they'll, they'll publicize their own events. And of course, when they put something on Facebook or Twitter, you republicize it, like it, and they will often do the same for us because, know, like

It works for us to have a successful venue. works for the venue to have successful events. What was I going to say? Yeah. So the other thing I should mention, the venue is, way we're helping them out is on August the 10th, there is a festival at the Rising Sun Arts Center known as Here Comes the Sun that they have just about every year as a fundraiser. And yeah, so

Dreading Slam poets are taking part in that because we get a chance to perform and they get an act and having poetry. Because last time I've had poetry, storytelling, a lot of music, of course, I did expect for any festival, face painting for children and a few other things like that. Unfortunately, when I say we will be at the writing.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (14:51.718)
son on the 10th of August. I won't be on one holiday then, but yeah, wedding slam will be again. That's Jill. Who's so I've mentioned before is helping with social media is, is the stage manager for that event. I mean, she also did stage management when we were, what was the show East Reading festival again, another one in Palmer parks, another chance to read in front of the public, which is one of those things too many people have had bad experience of poetry when

Yeah, one message is we need to get out is that actually poetry can be fun.

Maria (15:26.768)
That's an interesting message. What I really like is about the advice that you were just giving is the fact that we all think that word of mouth is best and I do myself as well and obviously it is best as soon as you get the word of mouth going but getting the word of mouth going to start with is really hard. So I think your tips on getting someone to help you with social media because that is the first instance where people are going to find you, the website.

as well, partner with someone like the Rising Sun maybe who already has a following. That was a really good tip too, I like

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (15:58.066)
Yeah, yeah, we do not have a website. We basically our Facebook pages are nearest, but yeah, the rising sun, of course, will tell you the rents and I have to keep putting on our Facebook page. I have to keep that up to date to prove we're still there, which is another thing. you have it. Yeah.

Maria (16:15.977)
Yeah, just the pile adds up doesn't it for what a volunteer leader of a group has to

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (16:21.924)
Absolutely, yeah. It seems like when I'm trying to check, I've heard about something, I want to check if it's still going. And if I go to their Facebook page and their last thing's advertising their event two months ago, I are they still going? So I've got to know that, realize that, I've got to keep my own event. Fortunately, you can put stuff in advance. So at least I can do it when it's convenient for me.

Maria (16:47.258)
That is really handy.

Maria (16:52.506)
So obviously we've spoken quite a bit about your role and what a good job you're doing as leader of Treading Slam, but you are, I would say, first and foremost, a poet. So you've got a poem to read out for us today, haven't you? Would you mind reading it for us?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (17:01.852)
Yeah, absolutely.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (17:06.108)
Yeah, I have. I will. I'll be delighted to. So I had a poem very recently in Reading Today, which was called Kiss. It was actually the middle one of a trilogy. I will read the whole trilogy out. This poem yearns to hold you, rap its romantic words around you. The poem rejoices that it's found you. Warm words, warming your heart with a warm embrace.

Hold the paper in your hand, fold the paper in your hand, see how smugly it fits. The poem belongs with you, deep inside you know it's true, and an image you will understand when you hold this poem in your hand. This body of work, your body, two in one embrace. This poem yearns to kiss you, to leap from the page with passion, the ink still wet with desire.

flying from the pure white page to reach your welcoming lips and return satisfied for a moment. The poem wants the warmth of a reader with the breath of new life, looking for a spark of inspiration. As mutual feelings saw, the words steep once more wanting an encore. Words ask if they can dance. Will you give them the chance? Put its words on your lip. The rhyme should be heard.

So share the spoken word. Tongue of reader, tongue of poem. To become warm. This poem wants to be with you, keeping you warm the whole night through. There's nothing it would deny you. A candle in the dark, an inspirational spark. How could this be wrong? An understanding so strong. You know they belong. And how much it means when the muse shapes your dreams.

Inspiration of the poem, mind of the reader, to become

Maria (19:13.2)
That's a really beautiful poem. I know I've spoken to you a little bit about that before in our previous conversations. Could you please give us a bit of background to the poem? Because I really like that story.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (19:24.148)
Ironically, I was at a poetry workshop, which is a regular starting point for my poem. And this was done by the Arvin group who do residential courses for all types of writers. And in it, the poets were asked to say something they thought a poem couldn't do. I went around the table, I think I

The poem can't change the world. But then we had to pick something someone else, a poem, couldn't do and turn it into a turn it into a poem. so that's where the middle poem of that trilogy comes from was one of the other poets said this poem could never kiss you. So I did have a poem that actually wants to kiss you rather than can actually kiss you. So maybe they were right. Maybe they were wrong with what the poet can't do.

Maria (20:23.552)
That's a lovely story, I really like that one. And I think it's always nice for us to question why we like something, if anything, just to help other people understand it from our point of view. And I've done a little bit of poetry before, I'm not a poet, but I say I've done a little bit before. And what struck me most about poetry when I did it is you start to focus really in depth on the words, their connection to each other.

the rhyming, the number of syllables in it, you just get really familiar with the language and different meanings of different words. So that for me, it really helped me to understand the English language in a different light. Why do you think poetry is important? What do you think?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (21:03.258)
I find it as a means of communication. mean, obviously, poem can or can't be real. So you can you can say something that maybe about you might be inspired about you or something that's completely fictional. So you you're not necessarily giving anything of yourself away. I like being in front of the audience when you get a good audience reaction, you feel better, they feel better because you're getting a better performance. You normally get this positive.

positive spiral. Also, yes, being part of a community is always good. Just succeeding. The poetry itself, well, yes, you have to have a hobby. I chose poetry when I moved to Reading for work. I needed a hobby that would get me to meet more people, really, because that was the point. saw one of my colleagues suggested I look at what was on the evening courses.

So I looked through, thought, yeah, for example, I have an interest in history. I could have gone to some lectures and learned some more about bits of history I was interested in, but you wouldn't have had that communication, that discussion with the other poets. yeah, it was a smallish group like the Rise and Self, there's 20 of us there. It's small enough not to be intimidating. can speak to a lot of the audience, you can chat to each other.

You can feel you're knowing people.

Maria (22:42.212)
I think that's a lovely answer. What I really like about it is that you focused on that the difference between say why you chose it over history is that it helps you to communicate. And I totally agree with you. think doing poetry really does help you. And let's face it in today's world, we all need to learn a bit of communication, don't we?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (23:02.22)
Yeah, well, the ways of communicating have changed so much. I I remember before lockdown, if you wanted to use a video conference at work, the Birmingham office and Manchester office both had a video machine and you had to book it in advance for your meeting. You had to find one of the few people who knew how to set them up. You had to arrange, call the Manchester office. And then as soon as lockdown begins,

Just about everyone's got zoom. Everyone can click on the link. Here's the picture. Yeah. You learn a few things about putting on the silly backgrounds, et cetera. And again, now you have teams at work. The idea when I was in the British rail office that management wouldn't have trusted the staff to work from home yet. Now it's normal. And it's normal because it's possible by things through teams. mean,

Still good to actually meet people in the office occasionally, but it's also got the advantage of you. You don't have to be, you don't have to be at work every day if you're waiting for parcels, an obvious one. It's a bit of a strain if you had to, I don't know, let someone, let a glazer in because you had a broken window, you had to take a day off work. Whereas now you work from home. At some point you'll stop work for 10 minutes because you've got a knock in the door, let the glazer in, show the windows on, go back to work.

and then he'll let you know when it's done. know, it's so much easier that way. Yeah, I am good.

Maria (24:34.266)
it is. It does give us a much better work -life balance, it's opened us up to so many more opportunities. So it's easier now for people to get started I think with things because they can do it easier like from the comfort of their own home. So if anyone's interested in exploring Peritree little more, dipping their toe into it, what would you recommend they do? You've given some great points already but just to summarize.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (24:38.468)
Absolutely.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (24:59.42)
Yeah, I mean, think coming and listening to live events is good. And then you can feel because you can feel if you feel confident enough to read, it's not that uncommon for someone who's a budding cat to come to our event. Ask not to compete because they're a bit nervous. And because I have the non -competitive event fairly late, they can see actually it's a friendly audience that like to take part or so. Yeah.

Finding other writers' groups is good. It does make it convert. try and think, yeah, I meet up, I found Kavisham writers through that, which was another source of writing inspiration, again, for the other writers. That they being writers in general, you'll get people who are working on their one great novel, you'll get poets, you'll get people who are just interested in the writing process, you'll

script writers. There's quite a variety on that, which I think is good. again, the chance to share your works. There are some online events occasionally. I prefer face -to -face, but personally it also depends how easy it is to get there. So yeah, meetup .com, Facebook are very good at finding events. And what's on Reading, if you're in Reading?

If you're not in Reading, obviously What's On Reading is designed for the Reading area, but unfortunately not every place has got something as comprehensive as What's On Reading.

Maria (26:42.36)
It is brilliant. I use What's On Reading all the time for my bits and bobs. do you have, if you could give one key takeaway for people to go away with to action or something to think about, what would that be?

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (26:57.938)
Just say, well, better to share your hobby. So find a group you can join with, generally.

Maria (27:07.694)
Perfect, I think that's a lovely answer. So thank you so much, Richard, for coming on. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I'm certainly going to actually myself put some of those points into action and hopefully come and see you at Dreading Slams, see if I can get on the stage myself.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (27:21.234)
Yeah, you'll be more than welcome. yeah, next one's 4th of August, but first Sunday of every month if you're doing something then.

Maria (27:34.288)
Thank

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (27:35.89)
Okay. Thank you for having me on your podcast.

Maria (27:41.72)
And we did it. Okay, stop.

The Legend That Is Richard Stephenson (27:42.302)
All right.