Spoken Word, Poetry

Loud Poets' 10th Birthday

(Fri 16 Feb: 7:30pm - Unfortunately Bex Bidgood is unable to perform due to illness. Thanks to Callum O'Dwyer for stepping in!)

Celebrate 10 years of superb spoken word with the Loud Poets!

Fresh off the back of their multi-award-winning slam series, the Loud Poets are keeping it in-house for a fabulous evening of spoken word poetry at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Join host Kevin Mclean as he leads Katie Ailes, Bex Bidgood & Mark Gallie through a night of fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching poetry. With beautiful musical accompaniment by Jack Hinks!

Kevin Mclean is an award-winning spoken word poet and the host of Scotland's premier Spoken Word night Loud Poets. He has directed, produced, and performed work at the Brighton, Edinburgh, and Prague Fringe festivals, Glastonbury, Edinburgh International Book Festival, STV’s The Late Show, and BBC Radio Scotland’s Culture Show. In his capacity as Creative Director of I Am Loud Productions, Kevin has directed, produced and edited film for festivals and organisations from StAnza to Glenfiddich. Kevin is also an actor and voiceover artist who has worked with companies including Skoda, Orchard Pig, Premier Sports and Macsween Haggis.

Mark Gallie is an Edinburgh-based voice actor, poet, producer and editor. As Operations Manager and Co-Director of I Am Loud Productions, Mark organises and hosts I Am Loud’s Fringe shows and monthly events. He has performed across the UK and internationally as a feature performer at Glastonbury and VAULT Festivals and supporting Shane Koyczan during the Scottish leg of his 2019 tour. An accomplished editor, Mark has produced podcasts for I Am Loud, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Edinburgh City of Literature. He has also produced and edited digital events for multiple literary festivals including Winchester Poetry Festival and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.

Dr. Katie Ailes is a poet, researcher, producer, and educator focusing on spoken word poetry. Since 2015 she has worked with I Am Loud Productions as a producer, publicist and performer, and she currently leads their educational programming. In 2022 Katie was commissioned by Edinburgh City of Literature and Historic Environment Scotland to research, script, and host the podcast Building Stories. She has co-devised and performed spoken word shows with Loud Poets across the UK and abroad, including at Edinburgh, Prague and Brighton Fringe Festivals. Her poetry has been published widely and her poem Outwith was chosen as one of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Best of the Best Scottish Poems 2019.

Bex Bidgood is a spoken word producer, performance poet, digital artist and social media manager based in East Lothian. They have a track record of writing and performing ‘nonsense’ poetry, reflected in their debut pamphlet Poetry for Cows (2020). In addition to writing and performing poetry, Bex is a key member of the I Am Loud Productions team. She was instrumental in producing projects including Return to Form, the Loudcast, the 2022 Live Season and Loud Poets Happy Hour. They also produced the Building Stories podcast for Edinburgh City of Literature and Historic Environment Scotland and co-hosts Jingle Belles, a seasonal Christmas movie review podcast.

Jack Hinks is a UK-based singer/songwriter and producer. Known across the UK for his introspective songwriting; guitar playing, and cross-media experimentation, Jack is a staple name across many genres and scenes. Following the release of his multidisciplinary project Fabric and subsequent single Retail (an ode to the working creative), Jack has spent the last year releasing 5 singles that each represent the 5 stages of grief in the Kübler-Ross scale. Listen here: ‘Tower’ / ‘Plastercast’ / ‘God’ / ‘The Emperor’ / ‘Jigsaw’. Jack has shared stages with the likes of Chris Shifflet (Foo Fighters), Horse MacDonald and Neil Hilborn (Button Poetry).