Keep our reporting free for everyone to read  Upgrade to paid

ON OUR RADAR

City Slam 2025

Exeter City of Literature, Taking the Mic and Spork! co-host a third city-wide spoken-word poetry competition.

Leigh Curtis

Exeter City of Literature, Taking the Mic and Spork! are co-hosting a third city-wide spoken-word poetry slam at Exeter Phoenix on Tuesday 29 April.

Twelve local poets will compete to win a £150 prize and a spot at this year’s Slamovision, an international slam competition featuring poets from UNESCO cities of literature across the world.

Special guests include previous Exeter City Slam winner Edward Tripp, UK slam champion Bradley Taylor and Mslexia prize winner Bryony Littlefair.

Poster for City Slam hosted by Spork!, Exeter City of Literature and Taking The Mic on Tuesday 29 April 2025

Exeter City of Literature is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities network and one of 53 UNESCO Cities of Literature worldwide.

An independent charity since 2021, it collaborates with cultural organisations and local communities on a range of creative programmes.

Projects include a literary map of Exeter and Devon, a campaign to supply books to Warm Spaces in Devon and regular silent book clubs.

It also hosts an annual book market showcasing independent bookshops from across the county. Previously held at Powderham Castle and Positive Lights Project, the market now has a permanent home in Cathedral Green.

Taking the Mic Taking the Mic

Founded in 2009, Taking the Mic holds monthly open mic sessions at Exeter Phoenix, with weekly sessions online.

Hosted by spoken word artist and former Bard of Exeter Tim King, the events are open to a variety of acts including poets, comedians and musicians.

Spork! is a community-led producer of spoken word works. It was founded in 2018 by Exeter poet and artist Chris White.

It holds events in Exeter venues that feature local talent with line-ups from across the UK and offers a programme of writing and performance workshops and an artist development programme.

Spork! has programmed drag queens, brass bands and rappers as well as some of the best spoken-word artists in the UK and beyond, including Buddy Wakefield, Vanessa Kissule and John Hegley.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

This year’s City Slam begins at 7.30pm on Tuesday 29 April 2025 at Exeter Phoenix.

Tickets cost £10, or £5 for students or under-25s. Early-bird tickets cost £8 and are available until Tuesday 1 April.

For more information and to book visit the Exeter Phoenix website.

Keep our reporting free for everyone to read

Exeter Observer's public interest publishing is paid for by a growing community of readers who each contribute to its running costs.

They enable us to keep our journalism free for thousands of people who might otherwise never know about the things we report.

But it's not enough. We need more paying subscribers to keep our readers informed about what's really going on in our city.

135 of the 300 paying subscribers we need have taken the next step and signed up to support the independent journalism our city needs.

Help keep our reporting free for everyone to read by joining them today, from less than £2/week. We can't do it without you.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.

Exeter College and Petroc campuses map

Exeter College and Petroc merger set to create largest college group in South West

Colleges hold public consultation on creation of new organisation which they say would educate 16,000 students at Exeter and North Devon campuses and employ 2,000 staff with £100 million turnover.

Proposed Clarendon House student block aerial view

Proposals to replace Clarendon House with 297-bed student accommodation complex submitted for approval

Developer Zinc Real Estate arrives at final proposal for up to ten storey Paris Street roundabout redevelopment after nearly two years of informal public consultations and meetings with city councillors and officers.