North East

Renowned performers and educators in their own right, Kate Fox and Jeff Price have formed Radikal Words which delivers spoken word projects in education and community settings. For WORDCUP2010, they will coordinate a team of 10 talented poet coaches in the North East, whose students will compete in the North East Final for a chance to represent their region at the WORDCUP Final.

Team: SlamDogz, Poet Coach: Ah'freee

Team: The Black Books, Poet Coach: Degna Stone

Team: St John’s School & Sixth Form College AKA Drastic Camp & Petrifying Penguins, Poet Coach: Jeff Price

Team: New Writing North Young Writers, Poet Coach: Kate Fox

Team: Northumberland C of E School, Poet Coach: Mandy Maxwell

Team: Mainstream Misfits, Poet Coach: Nikki Hawkins

Team: Excelsior Academy, Poet Coach: Simma

North East Poet Coaches include:

Viv Wiggins

I have written poetry all my life but have only been performing it for 4 years. I wanted my poems to be heard in my style, my accent and my voice, although I also love collaborating with other people and hearing fresh interpretations. I started off with simple comedy rhymes but now perform a range of themes, both as an individual and as one sixth of Monkfish Productions’ ‘WordTank’ (www.bit.ly/WordTank), a multi-media spoken word collective. In the last year I am also proud to have been published in anthologies by Pink Lane Poetry, Zebra Publishing, Northern Lines and Forward Press. My love of poetry has opened up a whole new path for me in working with amazing young people to share our passion for the Spoken Word.

Andy Willoughby

I am based in Middlesbrough and have performed my work sometimes with musicians, sometimes solo around the region, the country and beyond. My international performances include Finland, for the ghost of the King of Rapala, Den Haag for the Haganum Festival along with the Meercat King, and Siberia.
I often collaborate with musicians and write plays and songs as well as poems. I have worked on numerous social and educational projects as writing and performance workshop leader/artist in residence for Ek Zuban and organisations like Tees Valley Arts, New Writing North, Creative Partnerships, and The Poetry Society. My full collection “Tough” was published by Andy Croft’s excellent Smokestack Books in 2006.

Kate Fox

Kate Fox is a stand up comedian, poet and journalist based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She has been a Poet in Residence on Radio 4’s Saturday Live since 2007, writing topical poems and performing them for two million listeners once a month.

She has several national Poetry Slam successes under her belt, including being a finalist in the 2007 Radio 4 Slam, winning the Cheltenham Science Festival Slam in 2007, and the City of Culture Slam in 2006. She’s performed stand up comedy and poetry at gigs all over the world, from the Southbank Centre in London to the Prague Fringe Festival, and still puts her decade of radio journalism experience to good use as a roving poet and commentator for the BBC, including commissions for BBC2’s Daily Politics show and their Hampton Court flower show podcasts.

Kate won New Writing North’s Andrew Waterhouse prize in 2006 and has had two sell out collections published by Zebra Publishing, “Why I” and “Why Not I”, as well as work published in Magma, Aesthetica and Rising. Her literary agent is Robert Kirby at United Agents. Currently Kate is developing work which blends her strong comedic and literary voices.