The Coventry & Warwickshire Poetry Slam took place on Wednesday 25th March 2026, and Incy was invited to be a guest performer to read her poetry.
The Poetry Slam is an annual event where older school children (upper Primary and Secondary school) compete in a regional poetry competition. Small groups of poets write and perform a poem with first, second and third place prize awards.
Also in attendance was Coventry’s current Lord Mayor Cllr Rachel Lancaster and Warwickshire’s current Young Poet Laureate, Naomi Mba. The judges were Naomi, poet Spoz and author-illustrator Chris White. Emilie Lauren Jones was the host and also worked with each group of poets in the run up to the final.
Incy was the first person to take to the stage, performing her hilarious poem Mug on a Rug. The reception was fantastic and she was approached throughout the evening by adults and children complimenting her performance, poetry and confidence.
Incy opened the evening reading her poetry to an audience of 200 people! After this, Naomi, Spoz and Chris each read out a poem. The competition finals then began. The theme of this year’s competition was “Play”.
The winning team was from Stoke Primary School in Coventry who performed an outstanding rendition of their original poem. It was a 6 person team, each describing a different Shakespearean play. Every team member was articulate and their performance was full of personality. The last team member described Hamlet and his performance in particular was incredibly strong. He later revealed that both of his parents are actors and it was clear his own acting ability lent itself very well to his superb performance. The poem itelf was a unique melding of rhythm and rhyme, sumarizing Shakespearean plays, and overall, a tour de force. They were worthy winners. This was also the first ever Coventry school to win the trophy. Well done to Stoke Primary!
The first team on stage also gave a wonderful performance of their fantastic poem. It met the theme in a different way to the first place winners, who had chosen to write about theatrical plays, and instead focused on child’s play and friendship. They were excellent and we were surprised they weren’t amongst the top three. The judges certainly had their work cut out for them choosing just three winners, as all of the teams were excellent.
It was a super fun night for Incy. She loved meeting other children who also write poetry (even though they were at least three years older than she is), and she enjoyed playing with them during the intermission and talking poetry.
If you would like Incy to perform at your next poetry event please contact her manager at incyappleseed@pm.me