Ó Bhéal- First Fortnight Edition

On Monday the 11th of January (8.30pm-11.30pm), Ó Bhéal’s monthly poetry event will feature guest poets Geraldine O’Kane and Colin Dardis, for the First Fortnight festival.

The event is free and starts with the usual Five Words poetry challenge, followed by our guest poets and the later open-mic session.

The event will be hosted on zoom and streamed live via Ó Bhéal’s facebook page at www.facebook.com/obheal.poetry

If you’d like to participate with your own poetry, please email your request to info@obheal.ie and we’ll send you a zoom link on the evening.

Geraldine O’Kane is a poet, creative writing facilitator and mental health advocate. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies, journals and zines. She is one half of  Poetry NI, a multimedia platform offering opportunities and resources for poets in Northern Ireland. 

Geraldine has given a TED Talk for TEDx Belfast, and read at the Poems Upstairs Series in association with Poetry Ireland.  She was recipient of the Artist Career Enhancement Scheme ‘15/’16 from Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and one of Eyewear’s Best New British & Irish Poets 2017.  Her poems have been listed in the Melita Hume Prize, The Over The Edge Cuirt  2019 Reading and Glebe House Harmony Trust poetry competitions.

Her debut full collection Unsafe will be published by Salmon Poetry in late 2020. Her micro poetry pamphlet “Quick Succession” is available to purchase via Pen Points Press.

Geraldine is co-host and regular reader at the Purely Poetry open mic nights in Belfast. She has also curated two multi-platform exhibitions, (Poetic Perspective and Product of Perception) and is editor of Panning for Poems.

Colin Dardis is a poet, editor and sound artist. He is the co-host of the monthly open mic night Purely Poetry in Belfast, and co-editor of FourXFour Poetry Journal.

Colin is a previous ACES recipient from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. His work has been listed in the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing, the Erbacce Prize, Over The Edge New Writer of the Year Award, and the Saboteur Awards, as well as being published widely throughout Ireland, the UK and USA.

 In 2018, Colin was commissioned by ACNI and NICON to write a poem for the 70th anniversary of the NHS. In 2019, his poem Affinity  – commissioned by CO3 and ACNI – was presented to Senator George Mitchell at an award event to honour his leadership role in peacebuilding within Northern Ireland. 

 Previous collections include The Dogs of Humanity (Fly on the Wall Press, 2019), the x of y (Eyewear, 2018), Post-Truth Blues (Locofo Chaps/Moria Books, 2017) and Dōji: A Blunder (Lapwing, 2013).