The Speakers' Corner was formed to offer a platform for spoken word. We believe there is nothing greater than hearing the creativity of others, as well as providing the chance for performers, comedians, poets and dramatists to have their say.

We would like to offer a special thanks to Acomb Music that provided the kit to get us started. Also, special thanks to The Yorkshire Terrier pub for their support of Aesthetica related projects.

We are:

Oz Hardwick
When asked what it is that I do, I always have to hesitate and think about the answer. Most important to me is writing poetry - my first collection, The Kind Ghosts, came out in 2004 and I'm just tidying up the next one for publication in Spring or Summer 2006. Whenever I get the chance, I like to take the poems out in front of an audience, whether it's the Edinburgh Fringe, Ilkley Literature Festival, or the new 'Speakers' Corner' events we've set up in York.The latter also allows me to participate in the exciting business of encouraging others - something I'm involved with in informal groups, formal teaching and, particularly rewarding, editing the 2005 anthology, Truths and Disguises, which brings together eight new writers who I think deserve a wider audience. So, pretty much the standard life of the itinerant poet, then... though I forgot to mention the stories, the academic articles, the photography, the music... oh, and teaching pays the bills (just about).

Andy Humphrey
I was born and raised on the Wirral, and moved to York in 2006 after several years in exile in Milton Keynes. I am a research scientist by day and a poet by night, with poems published or accepted for publication in Aesthetica, Envoi, First Time, Monkey Kettle, Pulsar and Quantum Leap, amongst others. I have won several national poetry competition prizes including four First Prizes (Speakeasy Open Poetry Competition 2004; Blaenau Gwent Poetry Competition 2006; Envoi Poetry Competition spring 2006; Grace Dieu Writers' Circle Open Poetry Competition 2007) and was judge of the Speakeasy Open Creative Writing Competitions in 2005 and 2006. My short stories (written as A.J. Humphrey) have appeared in Dark Tales, Delivered, Scribble and Words. My favourite things include twilight, fairy stories, folk music and single malt whisky (not necessarily in that order), and my favourite colour is Indigo. My ambition is to prove that dragons really did exist and, in fact, quite possibly still do. You can find more details of me and my work at www.geocities.com/andyhumphrey1971.