Writing the North: The Deli Is Dead, Long Live The Deli – Column

The Deli Team studio. Credit: Linda Casper.

Each month Keith Fenton, a Leeds-based performance poet, broadcaster and host of Poets Talking Bollocks podcast, explores the events, people and debates shaping literary culture in the North. In this month’s instalment, Keith reflects on his personal journey into the creative industry, the rise of new literary communities and the importance of seizing unexpected opportunities.  

Friday 13 June 2025, Chapel FM Arts Centre, Seacroft – a number of us are telling stories in the beautiful upstairs space, having prepared with half a dozen weekly workshops led by Peter Spafford, Chapel FM’s Director of Words. Peter himself tells a story, an old folktale about a young boy who meets Death on the beach, and knows Death is coming for his sick grandfather. The boy fights Death and wins, but the result is a world on pause. We learn that without death, there is no life.

I first met Peter in January 2020, for a planning meeting for a monthly radio show he produced called The Deli. My partner Helen and I had been invited by our friend Sophie Abbott to join the team making the show. Each month there would be a theme word – e.g. Mend, Fresh, Weave, Still – and the team would choose pieces to read on that theme. This could be their own work, or other people’s. At this time, I was writing more prose than poetry, but the short time we each had on the air helped me decide to read mostly poetry. After the first show I had read on, I listened back, excited to hear how well my poems sounded. But they… well, they weren’t dreadful, if I’m being kind to myself. But they weren’t that great either. I decided I needed to get better at them, without yet deciding I was a poet.

James Fernie at all the “stories”. Photo: Keith Fenton.

Within two months, the world had changed. Confined to our homes, the Deli continued, thanks to technology which could link us all up from our homes, and I had more time to devote to writing. I also found time to go on courses, including an excellent one run by York St John University – one of the tutors being one of this country’s finest poets, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, whom I am glad to say I have since been personally able to thank for their contribution to my development – and to attend Zoom workshops and open mics, linking me with excellent poets up and down the land. I decided there was not enough poetry on my shelves, and began to order pamphlets and collections, many of which having been published by the poets I was meeting at these events.

The following year, I became a presenter and producer of a sports show called Sports Talk, which brought me into contact with sporting communities all over Leeds and further afield across the North, discussing a wide range of issues such as access, inclusivity, and mental health. I began to contribute readings to other shows on East Leeds FM (now East Leeds Community Radio), Chapel FM’s radio station, to be the subject of interviews, and to take part in community projects across East Leeds. As the centre opened up again, there were also performance events and open mics, and I started to perform at these. By 2022, I was an established presence there and across lots of events in Leeds. I could scarcely believe how my life was changing, and what a boost to my mental wellbeing this all was (there is another side to this, as life was getting very busy and stress can sometimes definitely be an issue).

I found I was a part of many communities, separate from each other, and it struck me that it would be better if these communities cross-pollinated. On 12 June 2023, something happened which gave our grassroots poetry scene a “creation story”. I use inverted commas because there was already a scene, and there still are scenes beyond what we do (I see those as friends we haven’t made yet!), but it has come to feel like a creation story. A friend of mine was running an open mic (for spoken word and music) at the Packhorse (the one off Briggate) and, thanks to encroachment from punters who weren’t involved, the night was dying on its arse. Out in the smoking-area during a break, I was putting it down to experience when a crowd of people came bowling down the ginnel into the pub. The last of these was someone I knew, a spoken-word genius called Denetta Copeland aka D3, and I grabbed her and said she had to save our night. I introduced her to the friend running the event; Denetta did a set, then one of her mates turned out to be an excellent singer, and the night turned into a “happening”.

Ben Jackson at all the “stories”. Photo: Keith Fenton.

Deciding not to allow this sort of thing to be a matter of chance again, I collected numbers of everyone at the event whose number I didn’t already know. Two days later, 14 June 2023, I set up a WhatsApp group called Words, Beats, Tunes, Truths, with about 15 names. It spread. In August 2023, we reached 100 members. As I draft this column, on the group’s second birthday, 14 June 2025, there are 608 members. A further 300 or so have been on the group at some point, and left. It is Leeds-centric, but takes in the North of England, and beyond. Most members are poets, from novices to very accomplished operators, but there are also musicians, film-makers, artists, DJs, photographers, producers, and theatre people, all creative types imaginable. Even The State of the Arts’ staffers! Collaborations have happened, collectives have been set up, nights established, publications and releases been promoted, friends been made and, most importantly, creative communities connected. Even the CEO of the National Poetry Centre, Nick Barley, interviewed by TSOTA recently, is on the group, thinking of ways to connect our community to the Centre.

None of this would have been established without that invitation to join the Deli. This month we are making the last Deli, after a 15-year run. The theme is Break, to reflect the idea that it may return, but for now, it is dead. As Peter’s story teaches us though, without death there is no life, and the Deli has given me a personal legacy which has brought me into contact with communities I could barely have imagined five years ago. This includes becoming involved in several storytelling communities all at once, which are now also beginning to come together, and which led me to be involved in the event at which Peter told that story. The biggest lesson I take from this, and the reason I continue to collect and connect brilliant creatives, is that if life gives you seeds, don’t worry about what may or may not grow.

Just plant them. 

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For more information about Chapel FM Radio Player you can follow their website and listen to The Deli 134: Break on their archives. If you want to support more community events and projects why not check out Brave Words CIC and Meanwood Festival.