Website: http://www.newwordorder.co.uk

New Word Order was set up by Poetry Vandals Kate Fox and Karl Thompson last year with the aim of getting more people involved in spoken word performance via a series of workshops and regular gigs. Literature North East spoke to Kate about the origins of the group and their plans for the future.

Why did you set up New Word Order?
Shortly after I joined the Poetry Vandals in February last year, Karl Thompson (Vandal of four years standing) and I sat down and had our first proper chat. We discovered that we both wanted to do more with performance and slam poetry and run workshops for people to get them involved. 'Big Word' in Edinburgh feed their slams (a kind of performance poetry competition in elimination rounds) by encouraging workshop participants to compete and we knew there were lots more people in the North East who'd like to speak their own words if they were encouraged to come forward. Karl's a trained actor and I've done stand up comedy so we knew we would bring different but complementary performance experience to the workshops, as well as very different writing styles.

How did you get those first events off the ground?
Gateshead Libraries were really up for the idea, because they saw it fitted with their Reader Development plans, and funded our first workshop in May last year. 16 people brought pieces to work on in an afternoon workshop and performed them at an evening show at the Caedmon Hall in Gateshead. The atmosphere among the participants was fantastic. And they were so varied that we knew in future we should aim to work with anyone at all who wants to speak their own words, whether their emphasis is more on writing or performance.

We've had published poets like Angel Readman trying out new ways of reading, Harry Palmer, the writer in residence at Frankland, experimenting with a performance piece, people writing performance poetry for the first time, prose writers who want to have more confidence at public readings...

It's also fantastic when people go on to use the skills elsewhere. Sarah Millican, whose play Spent will be produced by Cloud Nine at the Customs House later this year, read a comic monologue at the first workshop and has now gone on to do several stand up comedy gigs. Jadzia Race read her poems at the Blue Room in December and said she'd been given the confidence to go for it by doing our October show.

What is it that NWO does that you couldn't achieve with the Poetry Vandals?
Jeff Price once called New Word Order the training arm of the Vandals! We put an emphasis on workshops to help develop performer/writers and, inspired by the Hydrogen Jukebox in Darlington, we commission new work, written specifically for performance. We have space for longer and more experimental pieces. We also run a monthly slam, as an alternative to the traditional open mic spots, which we hope will encourage people to hone their performance skills. We've found that New Word Order audiences and participants are discovering the Vandals and vice versa.

Another difference is that we're about spoken word as well as poetry, so our gigs include stand up comedians, storytellers and comedy writers. We've also spotted a new genre which emerges when you ask people to write and speak about their own truths - we've called it urban storytelling!

Spoken word is a much contested definition but I think it describes the variety of what we do very well. From 'page' poets to 'performance poets' to slam poets to novelists to stand up comics, they're all coming to speak their own words. The only thing that worries me about the term is that it might erase the 'writing' element of what we do. One of our key aims is to encourage quality new writing. It's no less new writing because someone intends to eventually speak it.

You recently received an Arts Council grant. What are you going to do with all that money?
We're going to run regular spoken word workshops and shows. Myself and Karl will run sessions on different aspects of performing and writing, and we'll have other writers and guest performers running them too. We'll keep on with our monthly Last Thursday show and pay for guest performers. It's nice to be able to host the Newcastle premiere of some of the Hydrogen Jukebox commissions. Jo Colley will be performing Electric Ladyland, her poetry/music/physical theatre piece about Sylvia Plath, Ethel Rosenberg and Mary Pickford in March, and Andy Willoughby will be giving the Newcastle premiere (and second ever performance) of his verse epic The Twocca Crow King in April.

Also in April we'll host the world premiere of a piece developed by the Newcastle writer/performer Claire Morgan over several New Word Order shows. Handbag Voodoo is an innovative, satirical, multimedia performance poetry piece and we hope it'll inspire other people to push the boundaries in spoken word and combine quality writing with interesting performance. We'll be commissioning several other local writers to create longer pieces for us this year and are offering one that's completely open to anyone who has a good proposal and wants to apply.

You've done a number of collaborative events with other arts groups (eg Hydrogen Jukebox, the forthcoming Acoustic Circus event). Are these one-offs or is this something you intend to pursue in the future?
Collaboration is a key element of what we do because one of our main aims is to get spoken word out there to people who might not otherwise discover it. Whether it's handing out poems in the street which we did on National Poetry Day, to working with different types of artist. Part of the purpose of the Acoustic Circus gig, as well as to challenge the six artists involved, is to introduce the audiences to each other. Acoustic Circus audiences, who regularly go to see acoustic music, will probably really enjoy what we do, but wouldn't necessarily think of going to see poets perform.

It's great to bring different artists together too. The Funny Women gig at the Cluny in March (for International Women's Day) will see stand ups and poets on the same bill. Lots of our shows include both, to their benefit. It's been gratifying, for example, to see three local stand up comedians stretching their existing verbal and linguistic agility by writing poems and performing in our slams.

Hydrogen Jukebox has given myself and Karl a platform to try out new pieces and working with musicians and hopefully we'll be able to repay the favour by giving them a platform in Newcastle. It would also be nice to see all the spoken word organisations in the North East working together more. There's the possibility of something big happening in September so watch this space!

What's it like trying to accommodate your work with New Word Order (not to mention the Vandals) with your regular working life? You're on the radio every morning from 6.20am - how on earth do you find the energy to gig in the evenings?
I finish at Galaxy at about 10.30am after getting up at 4.45am and quite often sleep in split shifts of a couple of hours in the afternoon and then four or five at night. What with workshops and meetings in the afternoons though, I don't always get chance. Last year was amazingly full on: joining the Vandals, starting New Word Order, running comedy workshops at HMP Frankland and starting an MA in Creative Writing and I was exhausted a lot of the time. My big New Year's resolution was to get more sleep this year and make more time for writing. Maybe the best solution though would be for the length of a day to be extended to about 30 hours!

New Word Order is currently offering an open commission to a poet, writer, stand up, storyteller or other spoken word artist. For more details, see separate news story.

For details of New Word Order events and workshops, see Literature North East listings or the New Word Order website.