February marked the end of an era for mixmatched but a beginning of a new one at the same time.
This was our last spoken word night as a CIC with the theme of reincarnations and new beginnings. We will be back soon, rest assured, but it was a beautiful night with a wide variety of performers of all genres: a celebration of all the things we do!
We opened with a comedy section, where the hilarious Andrew Thompson did absurdist material about potatoes and grammar (you had to be there). Next up we had Neil Long, a man who sung us an ode to Wetherspoons and his love for Henry Hoover. Mixmatched’s very own Emma Robdale treated us to some delightful poetry and art before Pat Smith took the stage and closed the comedy.
First time mixmatched performer Fred Lambert opened the next section with some original and brilliant prose which then left Aaron Kay giving us a whimsical speech on his autistic misconceptions growing up. Jen Dong treated us to some beautiful writing on neurodiversity, being bilingual and hypolexia beforeDavid Topelito closed off with some moving poetry of their own.
Finally comedy and music collided. Adam Dorr, mixmatched’s newest host, gave us some 5 minutes of material on growing up catholic and Kent comedy legend Jo Phaure went next with some cynical ADHD stand up.
The night closed and singer songwriter Ru treated us to some charming original music accompanied by some guitar.
Thus mixmatched is over and a new era begins. The audience were ecstatic and we all had a lovely supportive time and new friends and old gathered to celebrate the wonderful neurodivergent space we had gathered. Many thanks to all who have attended our workshops, spoken words and festivals. And for all the wonderful venue owners including those at the mooring for helping us so much in the last few years including our final event.
What’s next? Mixmatched will be back in some form. We can guarantee that. Please stay in touch with us for future events of empowerment, hilarity, chaos, and quirkiness. Thanks to all the attendees past and present- we could not do this without you and we hope you join us in our new beginnings….
