The Common Press Poetry Night has become a popular event for writers and poets to showcase their work and launch poetry collections.
Join us on 26th January from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM for an evening of poetry & OPEN MIC, hosted by Manganaro. Manganaro is a poet, performer, and event organiser. They’ve headlined events across the UK and their writing explores themes of identity, bilingual experience, everyday nuances, drawing on the personal side
of political.
If you’d like opportunities to sign up on the night and hop on stage to read at the poetry night, please arrive at 7:00 PM to sign up. Please note that while we will do our best to accommodate as many readers as possible, we cannot guarantee that everyone on the list will have the chance to perform. The theme of the night is New Beginnings.
A natural born performer, entertaining, engaging, and charming. They traverse the spectrum of emotion through poems on gender, queerness and isolation with ease. Political punk poetry in the softest, warmest hands. - Kathryn O’Driscoll, 2021 UK slam champion
About Manganaro (Host & Featured Poet)
Photo by Ellie Applegate & Kathryn
Manganaro is passionate about uplifting the local grassroots creative community, evident in their involvement with events across Bath, Bristol, and beyond. They co-founded Bath’s leading poetry open mic night "Chimes," where they co-edited and self-published an antholog of attendees’ work. Get to hear readings from their latest collection ‘This is Where I am From’. Copies will be available to buy on the night.
Cover design by Gemma's Funky Art
Manganaro is a force. The passion behind their poetry silences a room (until it erupts in applause). This is an artist working at the edge of their abilities, always pushing boundaries, always seeking the deeper truths. If you get the chance to see Manganaro perform, do not hesitate. Go. - Dionne McCulloch, through the cracks
Manganaro was a 2025 Queer Bath award recipient, the 2024 DIVA Magazine Lesbian Visibility Week poetry competition winner, a two-time finalist for the 2026 Creative Bath Awards, and have supported artists such as Alice Oswald and Max Porter. Their work has been featured on BBC upload, longlisted for the 2025 "Interwoven" competition by Renard
Press, in exhibitions as part of Fringe Arts Bath and have performed in venues from Tobacco Factory Bristol to No. 1 Royal Crescent. Within their residency at Emerge, Manganaro explored the radical history uniting zines and writing, producing a collection of poetry postcards.
- Doors open at 7pm
- Readings with Manganaro from 7:15pm - 7:45pm
- Open mic from 8pm - 8:45pm
- Social until 9:30pm