Speech Bubble returns to the Cognito Bar at the SU next Monday (2nd March) for another evening of the finest open mic performance headlined by two special guests Dan Simpson and Vanessa Kisuule.

Dan Simpson is a spoken word poet and compere of poetry projects, as well as an event organiser, workshop facilitator and writer. His poetry deals with love and literature, science and stars, people and Pac-Man: all that good geeky stuff. He also crowdsources poetry, something he has already demonstrated when visiting Loughborough University back in 2013 for a Literary Salon at the department of English and Drama. With this method he creates a poem entirely from words submitted by the public on a particular topic or theme, through social networks, by email and in person. Taking only one day or a number of weeks, Dan finally cuts up and combines all the lines and words that have been collated, to create a new, coherent and crowdsourced poem.

Vanessa Kisuule comes under many guises: zealous and over-idealistic student, weary but always well-meaning café-barista, and ardent, inadvertent and lovestruck performance poet. She has won several slam titles including the Bang Said the Gun Award, Poetry Rivals 2011, Next Generation Slam 2012 and the South West Hammer and Tongue Slam Champion 2012. She has performed at an array of festivals (Glastonbury!) and renowned poetry events such as Blahblahblah at the Bristol Old Vic, Chill Pill in London and Hit the Ode in Birmingham and now she’s coming to our very own Loughborough Students’ Union.

Again, there will be opportunities for others to perform their work by signing up to a number of the 10+ open-mic slots available. All you have to do is email Charlie Staunton at: c.e.staunton-12@student.lboro.ac.uk to sign up for these. These will be on a first come, first serve basis so sign up quick so you don’t miss out!

The fun begins at 7pm in the Cognito Bar at the SU. Entry is free to Loughborough Students and £3 for visitors.