Press
Press Release
02/08/2008
Costa launches the Liverpool Poetry Cafe
Costa's Bold Street store transformed into poetry cafe to mark Liverpool's Capital of Culture status
Tuesday 5th February 2008: Costa, the UK's largest and fastest-growing coffee shop brand, is pleased to announce the launch of the Costa Liverpool Poetry Cafe.
From Monday February 11th 2008, Costa's Bold Street store will host poetry events and readings on the second Monday and fourth Thursday of each month for the remainder of 2008 to celebrate Liverpool's European Capital of Culture status.
The launch will be marked by a special Celebrating the City themed opening night event on February 11th where poetry fans are invited to bring along a favourite Liverpool focused or Liverpool-authored poem to read on the evening.
The Costa Liverpool Poetry Cafe venture is the brain child of Alex Scott-Samuel, a passionate poetry enthusiast and public health researcher at Liverpool University.
"Ever since we became the European capital of culture, I've been keen to badge Liverpool as England's poetry city," commented Alex. "Liverpool already has a thriving poetry scene but no focal venue for poetry events. Costa's link with poetry through its sponsorship of the Costa Book Awards and the Costa Poetry Award, coupled with its number of stores throughout the city, made it the obvious partner for the poetry cafe idea."
He continues, "I'm hugely excited about this partnership with Costa and the possibilities it offers. I hope this will not only put Liverpool on the map as the capital of culture but also as the capital of poetry."
The Costa Liverpool Poetry Cafe concept has been modelled on the Poetry Society's poetry cafe in Covent Garden, London.
A programme of events ranging from readings, discussions and open mic sessions is currently being developed and already includes events with well-known local poets Gladys-Mary Coles, Aileen La Tourette, John Redmond and Deryn Rees-Jones.
It is hoped the poetry cafe will also attract authors and poets, such as Roger McGough and Brian Patten, already coming to Liverpool to participate in Capital of Culture events.
Alex Scott-Samuel is working with poetry groups and societies throughout Liverpool to develop themes and content for events. The project has had strong support from the city's libraries who will also be involved in generating content and ideas for events.
Costa is producing bespoke posters and flyers to publicise the events across Liverpool, and a community board will soon be going up in the Bold Street store where customers are invited to post ideas for events, feedback on the programme or simply pin up a favourite poem.
It is hoped that admission to events will be free however some special events may be ticketed.
Kevin Hydes, Brand Marketing Manager at Costa, said: "We're very proud of the Costa Poetry Award and when Alex approached us with his poetry cafe idea we jumped at the chance to support such an innovative poetry initiative. We hope the Costa Liverpool Poetry Cafe will be an inspiration to Liverpudlians who are passionate about poetry and also attract new audiences to the genre."
The Costa Liverpool Poetry Cafe's launch event, Celebrating the City, is free and open to all. The event will start at 19.30pm on Monday February 11th 2008 and finish at 21.30pm. For more information, see local publicity or visit the Bold Street Costa store.
www.costabookawards.com
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For further press information please contact:
Amanda Johnson
Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity
Telephone: 07715 922180 (mobile)
Email: amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com
Or
Alex Scott-Samuel at 0151-724-2777or 0151-794-5569 or alexss@liv.ac.uk
Notes for Editors:
The Costa Book Awards:
* The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.
* The Costa Book Awards have the single aim of celebrating the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland and have five categories: Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.
* The 2007 winner of the Costa Book of the Year was A.L. Kennedy for Day (Cape).
* The winner of the 2007 Costa Poetry Award was Jean Sprackland for Tilt (Cape).
About Costa:
* Costa is officially the largest and fastest-growing coffee shop brand in the UK.
* Costa was founded by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971. With 660 stores in the UK and over 220 internationally, Costa has enjoyed a remarkable period of growth since it opened its first store. It now operates in 20 countries.
* Costa's in-store baristas are all coached in the art of coffee making at the company's unique Costa Coffee Academy based at its own roastery in Lambeth, London.
* Costa won the 2007 award for Best International Franchise Operator.
* Costa is part of the Whitbread family of brands.
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