Tavistock poetry and spoken word open mic nights are giving the people of Tavistock a chance to express themselves and get their voices heard, writes Kat Archer.

The open mic nights began in June this year and occur on the second Sunday of each month at 7-9pm.

The performance poetry nights were started by couple Millie Byrnes and Derren Jasper.

The couple are relatively new to the area, having only lived in Tavistock for a year but have already made a positive difference to the Tavistock community.

Millie and Derren used to attend poetry and spoken word nights in Plymouth and Brighton and when they moved to Tavistock thought they would ‘give it a try in Tavi’ and created VERSE: Tavistock’s open stage for performance of spoken word poetry.

Millie said: ‘When we first put it out there we didn’t know how this would be received.’

‘We found Tavi a friendly place so we felt confident to give it a try.’

Millie, who writes her own poetry, but is no expert said: ‘I just write what I feel and that’s what lots of people do.

‘We know people are out there writing their own poetry.

‘People who want to get together and share poetry and connect to eachother.

The nights have already been a great success and have proved a perfect way of getting to know people. The first two events took place at Too Hoppy, with the most recent event that happened on Sunday at the Market Inn pub, but it seems future events will be taking place at Too Hoppy once again.

These open mic nights are enabling the community to get together and share their creative works, or simply just watch and enjoy.

Free of charge and all welcome, the creative evening is a chance to express yourself in a warm and accepting environment.

Millie said: ‘We don’t know who is going to turn up, so its so lovely when people walk through the door.

‘We’d like to attract some younger people too.’

After previous evenings, Millie expressed that ‘people leave feeling inspired’ by what they’ve heard and people can really ‘resonate with each other’.

The couple are really happy with how the events have gone so far. Around fifteen to twenty people on average turn up to these events and there are hopes that more people will come once the word spreads and people of the community will want have a go at some performance poetry.