Doors open at 8pm for an 8:30pm start. Tickets are £5 or £4 for concessions (and open mic readers!) Tickets available here or on the door.

Mat Riches is from Norfolk, but lives in Beckenham. He has previously worked in a plastics factory, a variety of pubs, and a book wholesaler, but currently works in market research and as ITV’s (unofficial) poet-in-residence. He’s also a trainee Bongosero. When he’s not doing those things, he’s either being a parent, a husband or running. Sometimes all of them at once. He co-runs Rogue Strands poetry evenings, and blogs at Wear The Fox Hat. His debut pamphlet, Collecting the Data was published by Red Squirrel Press in 2023. One of these facts is not true.

Matthew Stewart

Matthew Stewart works in the Spanish wine trade and lives between Extremadura and West Sussex. Whatever You Do, Just Don’t is Matthew’s second collection and was published by HappenStance Press in November 2023. In his review for The Friday Poem, Christoopher James states “There’s a warmth and humanity to these poems that make them accessible and relatable, with enough depth and bite to reward repeated visits.”