A GROUP of young people organised a major poetry event in the unlikely setting of a former miners’ welfare hall.

Almost 100 people attended the reading in Blackhall Community Centre, in east Durham.

The event was part of East Durham Trust’s No More Nowt Happens project, funded by County Durham Community Foundation supported by East Durham Creates, a project funded by Arts Council England.

The project brings groups of young people together to plan and stage events with professional performers and artists in local venues.

The line-up included BBC Slam Poet of the Year 2018 Jess Green whose show, A Self Help Guide to Being In Love with Jeremy Corbyn, wowed audiences at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and who has played festivals like Glastonbury and Latitude.

Alongside Jess was Newcastle-based poet Rowan McCabe and disabled rights poet Lisette Auton. The event was hosted by County Durham Gong Fu poet Tony Gadd. Some of the young people involved also took to the stage performing their own poetry and acting as co-hosts to introduce the performers.

East Durham Trust chief executive Malcolm Fallow said: “To get this many people out to experience poetry in a former Miners Welfare Hall is astounding.

“The crowd was such a fantastic mixture of those who love poetry and those who had never experienced it like this before.”