Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists are a Black Country-based arts collective who are passionate about their region, and about the ability of the arts to enrich and transform people’s lives.

The core members are Wolverhampton’s Emma Purshouse, Darlaston’s Dave Pitt and Willenhall’s Steve Pottinger who have individually won prizes for their poetry and theatre writing.  Collectively their Edinburgh show was nominated for a Saboteur Award.                                                                                                                                            The Pandemonialists run a regular spoken word night at the Pretty Bricks pub in John Street, Walsall.  Dave Pitt said, “It’s a great pub with a good range of real ales and ciders, and the upstairs function room is ideal for our night”. The night in question is called Yes, We Cant (cant being a Black Country expression for talking and also the name for a type of brick!). 

“It’s a pass the hat event,” said Emma Purshouse, “So people pay what they can afford.  We really do attract top-notch spoken word artists from around the country, and have been delighted by the calibre of people who have come and performed for us, which includes Radio 4’s Elvis McGonagall.  We tend to invite people that haven’t come to our area before, so it’s often somebody the audience won’t have seen.”

Yes, We Cant happens on the first Sunday of every month and starts at 7pm.  There are ten five-minute open mic slots available, as well as the headline slot and the ‘half ender’ slot, which is for a local poet with a book.  The night has an emphasis on fun and there is even a poetry competition as part of the proceedings, with particularly duff prizes for the winner! 

Steve said, “Walsall has some great poetry and literature events going on and we’re proud to be part of that scene.”

Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists run workshops and events across the country.  To find out more information about projects that they have undertaken, including their highly successful Arts Council England funded Black Country Broadsheet go to pandemonialists.co.uk. 

PPP have also created a poetry map of the region detailing some of the regular events happening in the West Mids and offering information about writers from this neck of the woods so do take a look.  pandemonialists.co.uk/mappa-mundi/ The map was illustrated by the uber-talented Catherine Pascall Moore, originally from Walsall.

  If you’d like to receive information about PPP’s forthcoming events then you can sign up for their newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/PoetsPrattlersAndPandemonialists