Crooked Poets at the Crooked Man

We recently checked out Crooked Poets, the spoken word regular at Prestwich’s Crooked Man bar hosted by John Darwin. Taking place the first Tuesday of every month, it features a special guest and an open mic, mainly poetry but some prose too. You’re advised to get down early to bagsy a seat – and we can vouch for that, the place was packed!

Recent headliners have included Lisa Moore, Rosa Wright and “poetry twins” Hilary Robinson and Rachel Davies, reading from their moving collaborative collection, An Altogether Different Place.

Special guest for August’s Crooked Poets is Culain Wood, who describes himself as “a spoken word poet from Salford”. He quotes Joe Strummer, David Attenborough and Eric Cantona as his inspirations, but he also writes for his daughters, so they will always know what he stood for, and who he stood up to.

Culain Wood’s poetry is full of “integrity, humility and fragility”, says the Glastonbury Festival website, and he has performed there in 2022 and 2024, hosting the festival’s Poetry Slam alongside Dominic Berry in 2024. In the Rainy City, he has appeared at Punk in Drublic – they call him “one of the most exciting poets in the country” – and taken part in One Mic Stand and June’s for-one-night-only Kieren King-compèred Slamchester.

Also round that way, Wood hosts Rhyming Words at the Rat & Pigeon on Back Piccadilly  – RW#12 is on 11 August, 7pm, £5 in, with a line-up including former Verbose host Amy L King.