Projects and partners

Slam-O-Vision is the spoken word version of Eurovision, hosted by the UNESCO Cities of Literature where each city slams their way to the grand title, Slam-O-Vision Champion!

2024

2024 was the 6th year of Slam-O-Vision and was held in Manchester City of Literature. The winner was our very own Irish Language poet, Cormac MacGearailt with his poem, Caoineadh na gCrann (Lament for the trees). 

Watch Cormac's performance

Slamovision Final December 2024: Manchester

2023

Dublin’s entry for Slamovision 2023
Poet: Leon Dunne
Poem: Let's Talk about Masculinity
Result: Leon came 3rd
Watch Leon's performance

Slamovision Final December 2023: Nottingham

In his 1893 collection, ‘The Rose’, WB Yeats included the poem ‘To Ireland in the Coming Times’. Borrowing its title, Dublin in the Coming Times was a free, citywide programme of creative writing in which Dubliners, young and old, can created their own stories and poems as they looked to the future of their city as it continues to evolve.

To get the ball rolling, author Roddy Doyle invited some writers and artists to contribute short stories reimagining the city. Their work was published in  ‘The Irish Times’ throughout 2016. 

Free creative-writing workshops were run for adults in a number of Dublin City Public Libraries and other participating organisations include Fighting Words, Science Gallery, Little Museum of Dublin, Axis Ballymun, Croke Park, the Olivier Cornet Gallery, Marsh’s Library and a number of workplaces around the city. A selection of the pieces created in these workshops is featured in these publications. 

The project, which  was a partnership between Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, Dublin City Libraries, Dublin City Arts Office and Fighting Words,  intended to enable Dublin’s citizens, both adults and children, to participate in illustrating a vision of the city as a place that, although it might change and adapt to new circumstances, will continue as a living, creative environment and a place for the storyteller and poet.

 Dublin in the Coming Times

Following on from a GAA themed literacy tool book which all 6th class students received in Dublin in 2023, creative writing workshops were organised with Fighting Words. Over a few months, several schools visited their local library to create their very own Croke Park inspired stories and with the help of Fighting Words have produced a wonderful collection, It started in Croke Park, featuring robots, hurlers, concert goers, heroic players and even hamburgers.  

In a city of writers, these budding junior authors have allowed their imaginations to run riot over the pages so readers can feel the sense of the world of Croke Park and beyond. Their collection ‘It started in Croke Park’ was published in March 2024 and is available for borrowing in the city libraries. 

Funded by The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media. 

It started in Croke Park Book 
Sky Blue Stars Literacy

Knock and enter is a collection of prose, poetry and memoir contributed by participants in the creative writing groups attached to a variety of Dublin City Libraries, most of whom write, and then read their contributions aloud, for their peers on a weekly basis. This anthology was written and compiled against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, and some of the collection is directly influenced by the lockdowns, the confusion, the grief and the social dislocation that has come in its wake. In the words of author Declan Burke who supported the writers in editing this collection, ‘much of the response to Covid-19 has been unexpected – blackly comic tales of emotional triumphs, surreal visions of alternate realities, quietly moving testimonies to the indestructibility of the human spirit.’ 

Funded by The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media 

Knock and Enter Book

In August 2024, Fighting Words and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature partnered up to create Dublin's first LGBTQIA+ Zine Summer Camp. The week featured guest speakers from zine fairs around Ireland and a coordinator from GAZE film festival, as well as the hands-on zine making workshops where participants were given materials and supported to create their own zines. The final showcase included zines which ranged from macabre to whacky, from artistic to political, from real life to meme culture. Original narratives were produced, such as a contemporary retelling of Carmilla and a Western with gay cowboys, as well as think-pieces about big ideas like bodily autonomy and how to build empathy. More important than the zines themselves, of course, was the chance to connect with people like oneself, to chat and dance to a purpose-built playlist.

Creating in-person spaces for queer young people is crucial for their well-being and development. These spaces provide a safe environment where LGBTQ+ youth can freely express themselves, connect with peers who share similar experiences, and build a sense of community. Feedback from the participants themselves echoed this sentiment. The value of "having a queer space where we can just be ourselves" and "making real friendships outside of online spaces" was often expounded, and many tears were shed on the final day, with promises to keep in touch and an energy to continue to share their voices and work.  

Funded by The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.