If you aren’t already a live poetry enthusiast ‘Hit the Ode’ with its friendly vibe and heavyweight lyricism might well turn you into one. This is Bohdan Piasecki,the tri-lingual host of Birmingham’s most eclectic and consistently entertaining poetry and spoken word night’s final night at the helm and he hasn’t let the rhythm slip once. Regularly coaxing some of the world’s most engaging poets to perform upstairs at a pub in our city centre, his disarming and witty wordsmithery has provided a warm welcome to these special nights and we wish him well in his new venture with Beatfreeks. Hopefully whoever takes over will continue the task of bringing together the most exciting local poets each month and build on the already excellent reputation that Apples and Snakes’ Hit the Ode has as a delightfully unique event. Three poets; one local, one from elsewhere in the UK and one from another country. It makes for an engagingly eclectic array of spoken word performance. This Thursday there’ll be local hero, award winning writer and one of the most influential poets of his generation, Luke Kennard representing Birmingham, with Rachel Long from the the Octavia women of colour poetry collective who most recently invited millennial female poets to Tate Britain to respond to Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’ and completing the triumvate is Sweden’s worldwide poetry slam sensation Olivia Bergdahl. It will be a word feast and a fitting farewell.

Thu 18 May 7.30pm at the Victoria, 48 John Bright St, Birmingham B1 1BN www.facebook.com