Young artists to bring open-mic poetry night to stunning grounds at Blakesley Hall

The Ramblers Ball – a popular open-mic poetry night created by Digbeth’s social enterprise café Evolve – is back next week, and this time it is hitting the road! 

Taking over the stunning grounds of Blakesley Hall for one-night only this month, The Ramblers Ball will be bringing beats, eats, and treats with it.

The stage will be set for three show-stopping main acts including Birmingham’s very own Casey Bailey. Joining him as headliners will also be Hannah Swings, who many will recognise from Nationwide Building Society’s recent national advert, and ThinkWriteFly, aka Adrian B Earle.

Set against the beautiful backdrop of Blakesley Hall, one of Birmingham Museums Trust’s stunning heritage sites, the poetry event will bring together the history of Birmingham with the future of the UK’s spoken word scene. Guests will be able to enjoy one of the city’s most treasured sites, while taking in the unrivalled verse and even taking to the stage to give it a go themselves.

The open-mic night will be open to poetry amateurs and prose-fessionals alike, with pre-bookable spaces on the stage available for all, as well as opportunities to sign up on the night. Whether its flash fiction, a short story, or poetry, local people will be given a platform to perform their work.

What’s more, all the profits from the event will go directly to Evolve, to help fund its mission of helping young people facing barriers to employment onto the career ladder.

Evolve’s project lead, Kate Hemming, is looking forward to the exclusive special of The Ramblers Ball. She said:

“After three successful events, we’re so excited to see The Ramblers Ball be taken on tour. We’re looking forward to collaborating with the team at Blakesley Hall for an exciting evening promising all our favourite things: poetry, pizza, and picnic blankets! We can’t wait to welcome old friends of The Ramblers Ball as well as a host of fresh faces, budding talents, and new friends.”

Now back for the fourth time, the team behind The Ramblers Ball is keen to see that it keeps growing, helping more and more people to find their voice, and introducing the established talents of the spoken word scene to new audiences. Casey Bailey, one of the organisers, will return to the stage again after his stellar previous performances at each of the three past events. Born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, Casey is a poet, spoken word performer, author, facilitator, rapper and secondary school leader.

Alongside him will be Hannah Swingler. Also born and bred in Birmingham, Hannah’s ‘haunting but hopeful’ storytelling spans themes such as memory, female identity, relationships and heritage of spaces. Known for her campaign with Nationwide Building Society, Hannah has performed live across the country, and even coached the University of Birmingham’s uniSLAM team to victory in 2018.

The trio is completed by Adrian B Earle (aka ‘ThinkWriteFly’). A man of many talents, he is the Producer & Managing Director at VerseFirst Productions and Co-founder/Publishing manager of the Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. Adrian focuses his poems on the patterns in our modes of speech, our evolving relationships to each other, and what it means to be part of the ‘other’ in an age of technology that amplifies some and silences others.

“We’re so pleased to have Casey headlining again, and we can’t wait to hear from Hannah and Adrian too. We’re certain that their performances will be ones not to be missed and we look forward to having them grace The Ramblers Ball stage for this very special event,” concluded Kate.

The Ramblers Ball will take over Blakesley Hall on Thursday 11 July from 6pm. With pizza, poetry and a beautiful setting, it is set to be the best of The Ramblers Ball yet.

To book in for an open mic slot, email hattie@eastvillageagency.com. Tickets are just £4, so to book your ticket, head to bit.ly/RamblersBallBlakesleyHall.