Lizzie Lovejoy

“Out of Your Head! has been an incredible experience for me for a variety of reasons. The most visible one is career progression; I entered an OOHY! competition and was fortunate enough to be awarded a paid set. This chance to perform my work to a pretty significant crowd really gave me alot of confidence and encouraged my writing. When I was invited back as a featured artist months later I was thrilled and could really tell how my own writing and performance had progressed.
Another reason is that I struggle with groups and conversations. I am an immunocompromised person and after the past few years we’ve had, it’s been really scary to get back out there. But OOYH! has created a space for community and conversation, I was able to engage with people I would not have otherwise had the ability to approach and I learned so much about their lives, their poetry and performance styles. It has been not only an educational space for me but a community driven one. The final reason was that it gave me a shared space to be with my parents and other generations. Although I wouldn’t describe it as a family event, it has been an event that helps my family to connect and be creative.”

Lewis Brown

“I’ve been going to Out of Your Head! since I started performing poetry in Newcastle, and in the time I’ve really come to view it as my home night. Amy has cultivated a warm, welcoming and inclusive atmosphere which has allowed an amazing community of poets and other creatives to grow up around the monthly open mic night. Space for performers to practice, try out new material, find inspiration and grow in confidence is vital to the health of any artistic scene, and Out of Your Head! has certainly been that for me, and many others! I can’t think of a better night for experimenting as a performer, or a more welcoming night for queer and neurodiverse performers.

Amy is committed to providing opportunities for new performers to find their voice and, for many, their first paid set in front of a real crowd. They take an equitable approach to booking headline acts that gives everyone a fair chance and always results in a stellar lineup packed with talent and underrepresented voices. Whenever you are on your poetic journey (be it as a writer or just somebody looking for some live entertainment that’s a little bit different), I would recommend coming along to Out of Your Head!”

Cooper Robson

“OOYH! is a special night to me. It almost feels like an informal ‘Poet School’; homework in the form of a call out theme, an A* could very easily land you a paid set. Grades don’t matter though, each and every one of the artists find growth through performance and the challenge of a topic, the momentum at each event is visible and inspiring, and just like school, whoever I end up sitting next to very quickly becomes my friend. It’s warm and welcoming.

The division between audience and performer melts as OOYH! feels to me a budding community. The energy of which is more open than a pair of swingers and more vulnerable than Achilles wearing Adidas sliders. I love it. On a personal level I feel blessed by what OOYH! has given me. Confidence to call myself a poet (well… Gobshite), my first ever paid set, radio exposure and god knows what else, my past present and future (thematic pun intended) are interwoven with OOYH!“

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