Bad Betty Live, 18th September

A dynamic night of live poetry and music, showcasing exciting acts from Notts, the UK and beyond in a warm, inclusive setting. BSL signed. “Fierce and bristling with life” – The Guardian “The very best of contemporary poetry” – The Book Hive Award-winning publishing house Bad Betty Press presents poetry and music. Featuring poetry from Karen McCarthy Woolf, RJ Hunter, Maureen Onwunali, Laurie Eaves, Kayla Martell Feldman and music from Narcissist Cookbook. Hosted by Bridie Squires and Jake Wild Hall. BSL interpreted by Steph Lehrle. A digital transcript of poems and lyrics will be available to download at the start of the event. Supported by Arts Council England. Book a ticket for just the show, or combine it with a workshop ticket to save on both. Combined tickets also give you access to Karen Mccarthy Woolf's masterclass. VENUE & ACCESS: This event is part of NAE's Friday Night Socials. It takes place in the Performance Space of New Art Exchange, on the first floor. NAE has a lift and accessible toilets. The building is fitted with induction loops for enhanced sound. Disabled parking is available on request. Full accessibility info here. New Art Exchange (NAE) is the UK’s largest gallery dedicated to contemporary visual arts from the Global Ethnic Majority. Based in Hyson Green, Nottingham, NAE champions inclusivity and equity in the creative industries, nurturing and celebrating talent from diverse backgrounds About Us page on our website. ABOUT THE ACTS KAREN MCCARTHY WOOLF Born in London to English and Jamaican parents, Karen McCarthy Woolf, FRSL, PhD, is the author of three poetry collections and editor of seven literary anthologies. Her novel in verse, Top Doll, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and her début, An Aviary of Small Birds was an Observer Book of the Year. As a postdoctoral Fulbright Scholar at UCLA she was poet in residence at the Promise Institute for Human Rights, where she wrote her latest collection, Unsafe (Bloomsbury, 2026): a ‘taut’ and ‘hypnotic’ (Guardian) poetic meditation on the sacred, the city and our access to nature. In 2025 she won a Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award and the Jerwood Prize for Poetry (England). She has performed her work everywhere from The Royal Festival Hall, Kings Place and Barbican, to venues across Asia, Europe and the Americas. Her broadcast credits include a reversioning of Homer’s Book of The Dead for BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week; Miss Birdie’s Letter, BBC Radio 3 Between the Ears and a multi-authored reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando shortlisted for a BBC Audio Award. She has worked on many collaborations, most recently as a librettist on Divine Feminine, a spatially-realised electronic and acoustic choral opera with the British-Iranian composer and turntablist Shiva Feshareki. Her poems are translated into Croatian, Dutch, Italian, Macedonian, Spanish and Turkish; have been exhibited by Poems on the Underground; produced as animation and dance; and dropped from a helicopter over the Houses of Parliament in a poetry ‘bombing’ by the Chilean collective Casagrande. RJ HUNTER RJ Hunter (they/she) is an award-winning writer, theatre-maker and performance poet based in Scotland. Writing from a trans-feminine perspective, RJ Hunter writes with urgency yet empathy, and is known for blistering performances that exhilarate any audience, having performed in venues around the UK with organisations including Loud Poets, Push the Boat Out Festival and Glastonbury Festival. RJ's debut poetry pamphlet, Flustercuck, was released in June 2023 with a sold-out launch event. Stupid Sexy Poem Show, Hunter's first full-length solo show, has been performed to sold-out crowds across the country, met with critical acclaim, including being deemed 'the future voice of the medium of spoken-word' (Corr Blimey). RJ Hunter is the 2023 Loud Poets Grand Slam Champion and the Runner-Up at the Scottish Slam Championship 2025. MAUREEN ONWUNALI Maureen Onwunali is a Dublin-born Nigerian poet and a two-time national slam champion. Her work has been featured by BFI, Pearson, Penguin, BBC, Roundhouse, TEDxMilton Keynes, Apples and Snakes, Obsidian Foundation, and the Poetry Society. LAURIE EAVES Laurie Eaves is a writer and editor from the village of Yapton. His work has been published by Bad Betty Press, fourteen poems, Fawn Press and Shooter amongst others. Most of his poems these days are sonnets based on the Sony PlayStation game Metal Gear Solid.He co-hosts the Dead Darlings podcast and hosts / produces Genesis Poetry Slam, Genesis Poetry Workshop,Homebrew Poetry and the Vogon Slam. His first collection, Biceps, is out on Burning Eye and his second, Metal Gear Sonnets, is out on Broken Sleep. KAYLA FELDMAN MARTELL Kayla is a founding member of Sovereign Writers Group and co-hosts the Process spoken word night with Tyrone Lewis. Her work has been widely published across the UK and North America, and been featured on the Dead Darlings and Artists That Work podcasts. She was shortlisted for the Heroica Poetry Prize in 2024 and won second place in the Crossing the Tees short story competition in 2023. They are a three-time Genesis Poetry Slam Winner and have had work commissioned by JW3, Canada Water Theatre, Watch Your Mouth, Vashti Media, and The Narcissist Cookbook. In 2020, she took part in the invite-only Roundhouse Poetry Weekender led by Bridget Minamore and Cecilia Knapp. In 2021, Kayla self-published their debut poetry collection, Tikva, and her second collection Same Story is out now from Verve Poetry Press. NARCISSIST COOKBOOK Mudslinger/songwrecker The Narcissist Cookbook uses five-rounds-rapid storytelling and powerful songwriting as a siege weapon trained on the barrier between the stage and the audience. With almost a hundred sold out headline shows across America & Europe in the last three years alone, 35 million+ streams, and a songwriting podcast (Jam Mechanics) that regularly breaks into the top 40, The Narcissist Cookbook is one of the UK's most successful cult artists and an irreverent, unpredictable and inimitable voice in modern songwriting and spoken word. "An exceptional display of artistic evolution, resilience and vulnerability" - Earmilk"Masterpiece ... transcendent folk storytelling" - Kind Line "The raucous ringleader of a new genre of music-slash-storytelling." The Source ABOUT BAD BETTY: Bad Betty Press is an award-winning independent poetry publisher, and curator of live literature events taking place across the UK. London-born, Nottingham-based, Bad Betty was set up in 2017 with the aim of showcasing risk-taking poetry, supporting poets’ artistic development and celebrating stories less often told. Bad Betty was Highly Commended in this year's British Book Awards' Small Press of the Year category, has been a Midlands Finalist the last 3 years, won the Michael Marks Publishers' Award in 2022, and is the parent of pamphlet imprint, Little Betty. “The epitome of bold independence” – The Big Issue “Serious quality” – LeftLion