Bosom Buddies presents ‘The Spoken Word’

Poetry Review

An evening of poetry about life experiences and more was held at Bosom Buddies’ poetry night.

It was a combination of the different arts that abound so vibrantly on this Rock – I just don’t tire of the amount of times I highlight the variety of creative interests we have amongst those keen enough to take these on board as a hobby, whilst others trying their luck on a more professional journey perhaps.

Karl Ullger, James Foot, Kenneth Mackintosh and Pauline Gomez presented their paintings which were later put up for auction.

However, before that, we were entertained by no less than 13 poets or raconteurs giving their all – some really performing their work as they acted through the narrative.

These days there are so many prolific poetry writers on the Rock it must have been a hard task for Sonia Golt and her team to choose just a handful to come along to the Mediterranean Rowing Club to present their work for us.

It was a stage set-up without a stage.

The soon-to-be performers were all sat in a semi-circle at one end of the hall, whilst we watched and listened attentively opposite them, sat in about a dozen - all taken - rows of seats, just like a mini theatre.

As I said, it was an evening of performances with each poet and musician taking turns to step up to the lectern and microphone. Some performed and projected better than others, bearing in mind there were more than a dozen performers, but all had their own original work to execute and they all achieved what they hoped to achieve and were very well appreciated by an attentive audience.

Their individual styles were presented in English, Spanish and, of course, Llanito (or Yanito, we still don’t know which).

Topics ranged from words of love and kissing, grannies, our Gibraltar and identity, world conflicts and much more. They all performed twice in a well-organised fashion with a little music and singing at intervals, from John Robba and Yusef Moulden, to accompany the poet’s word delivery.

Further acts on the night were Jayne Wink – who also performed in a re-enactment about dementia along with an invited guest, David Bentata, Liam Byrne and his wife Nicole, Audrey Alecio, Naomi Duarte, Kenneth Mackintosh, Poetry evening organiser Sonia Golt, Jaqui Anderson, Levi Attias, Davina Barbara, Claudia Schiel, Rebecca Faller Calderon and Leyla Costa Gomez.

The evening was hosted by playwright Julian Felice in his witty style. The interval included a raffle and the art auction was left till last and raised a few hundred pounds.

I too enjoyed my cheese and wine and what turned out to be a grand feast of the spoken word, in the main.

A well thought-out, very pleasant soiree, fit for an autumnal evening gathering of like-minded folk.

I asked organiser Sonia Golt how she came up with the idea of bringing together different arts in one performance.

“Well, to tell you truth, I thought the audience might get a bit bored if we just presented so much poetry in one go during the evening,” she said.

“So I thought, why not add some music and visual arts to enhance the presentation and add a little to an otherwise evening of just poetry on the night?”

And so it came to pass.

Evidently, that initiative of an original format turned out to be an excellent idea which also raised £2,000 for The Bosom Buddies Cancer Trust.

Well done to all. Sonia, the nonstop working machine, will unquestionably come up with more ideas to raise funds for a worthy cause, her Bosom Buddies charity.