Writers' Café

The Writers' Cafe was founded September 2004 at the ARC (Arts Centre) Stockton on Tees by Paul Williams, Trev Teasdel and Carmen Thompson as dynamic mixed media and Spoken Word event. Trevor and Paul wanted to bring spoken word toa wider audience and encourage collaborations between different types of artis and break down the barriers. Early session, completely unfunded until 2007, mixed poetry, music, film and drama shorts, streettheatre and much more in a packed and fast moving show with an alternative comic as the compere. It soon became one of the top spoken word and music venues in the North East of England. In April 2006 we changed venues, now based at the Georgian Theatre, Green Dragon Yard in Stockton - the cultural quarter of the town and the base of the music collective - now known as Teesside Music Alliance and the Stockton Riverside Fringe Festival. The Writers Cafe is now run by Trev Teasdel with support from Ann Wainwright, Dawn Taylor, Brian Stubley, Andy McCall Smith, Linda French and up until recently Ruby Diamond (Compere). We've had poets on such as the Fugitives (a punk poetry/ music group from Canada), Attila the Stockbroker, Keith Armstrong, Nick Toczak, kevin Cadwallander, The Poetry Vandals, Bob Beagrie and Kev Howard to name a few. Music from singer songwriters Izzy Isgate, Hooper, Tommy Marshall's Ambassadors, The Good (from Australia), Steve Marron, and many more.