CandleLIT Poetry Slam ft. Tom Dewey & Rebecca Rocker

The CandleLIT Poetry Slam happens on the first Wednesday of every month at the Bath Brew House, upstairs in the Tank Room!

Join us for the tense excitement of 9 poets going head to head with words, plus two featured artists which this month include featured artist REBECCA ROCKER and our headliner TOM DEWEY!

Tom Dewey is working class poet and playwright whose work has been featured on BBC iPlayer and BBC Radio. Tom began writing and performing spoken word aged 19, and within two months was the youngest ever regional slam champion. His spoken word journey has seen him deliver a TEDx Talk, perform to a sold-out Roundhouse in London and have his poetry displayed on billboards in Bristol. In 2025, Tom began posting his poetry on Instagram where he quickly amassed over 250,000 views, including 100,000 views of the poem BOTTLES performed at Spit Nights. Tom’s poetry has been said to suggest “Presence and absence...everything and nothing. Dewey is a young man under an old sun who catches its ancient light.”

Rebecca is a slam-winning spoken word poet from Swindon. She is the current Mayor’s Poet and produces Swindon Wordsmiths (@swindonwordsmiths), a local poetry and comedy night. Writing from her lived experience of infertility, miscarriage and motherhood, Rebecca’s candid poetry examines personal stories of struggle and disappointment through a lens of honesty and hope. Rebecca recently founded Torn Curtain (@torncurtainco), a non-profit using poetry and performance to help people open up and let the light back in. She is currently developing community poetry projects in Swindon, focused on creating safe spaces to weave words, share stories and connect communities.

9 poets get the opportunity to slam each month. You can pre-book a slam spot by purchasing a Slammer’s ticket. If they are sold out there will be 3 more Slammer spots available on the door on the night, first-come first-serve! Our event doors open at 7pm, and the event begins at 7.30pm, so if you want to grab a slot be there by the time doors open for a chance.

The slam winner gets a 10 minute paid set at the next month’s slot, a trophy (of sorts), and entrance into the Grand Slam to compete for the title of Bath Slam Champion.

The rules:

• You have 3 minutes. You have a ten second 'grace period' after the 3 minutes ends. After that, points are deducted for every 5 seconds you go over. For example: -5 points at 3.11. -10 points at 3.16. Your time begins from your first word or gesture to the audience (including introductions but not including a concise content warning).
• You must be the original author of the poem (if a group poem then you must between you have created all the content).
• No AI written content.
• If you reference or quote someone else's work, it should be a very minor amount of the poem and where possible be credited unless an obvious well known quote that everyone would know isn't your work.
• No nudity.
• No props. No costumes. No backing tracks or instruments.
• No hate speech, defined as disparaging a group or person with less power than you. Examples include (but are not limited to) racism, transphobia, ableism, homophobia, ageism, descrimination based on religion or nationality.
• Please use the microphone, as this is for accessibility of our audience members using hearing aids that connect to the PA system.
• The majority of your poem should be spoken. It may contain less than 25% singing. No backing tracks or instruments.
• Whilst you do not have to perform in English, the judges can only judge what they can understand. So we recommend having a majority of English in your poem.
• Last rule is a traditional rule within the poetry slam community: the point is not the point, the point is the poetry! Remember that by having an audience's captive attention for 3 minutes you have already won. So enjoy it!

The event organisers have the final say on disqualifications and they can disqualify any poet for any reason.

https://linktr.ee/CandleLITSlam

https://www.thebathbrewhouse.com

We have 40% off concessions available for people who face financial barriers to the arts - please email [email protected] or DM us on Instagram for the code to apply at check out.

Please note that if you request a refund more than 48 hours before an event we will approve it, but the fee that eventbrite took when you bought your ticket they do not refund, so you will only recieve the amount that we recieved for your ticket. This is hidden information on the check out page so we've added it here for clarity.

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Host or Publisher Kathryn O'Driscoll