CHERRY Scott is excited.

The flame-haired mother and grandmother is speaking to me in chirpy, melodic, Romford tones, often in breaking into rhythmic patterns punctuated with poetic phrases - something she does very naturally - and ending sentences with wicked laughter.

She is getting ready to star in her own show, a multi-genre, multi-collaborative, spoken-word affair called Scott on the Rocks, held upstairs in the swanky ballroom of the Royal Hotel, Southend, on Sunday March 25.

"It's going to be like a big Cherry pie then?" I offer.

"Yeah Kel" she drawls, "it is!" (more laughter).

When the Southend based poet first started her creative public career as a spoken-word artist about 18 years ago in the area, the local poetry scene was still pretty tiny and niche.

Fast forward and it has grown hugely in comparison, with Miss Scott remaining a key player on the road of that evolutionary journey, picking up the nickname The Mouth of the South, (dubbed so by renowned musician David Woodcock), and a few awards along the way.

She has supported the likes of John Cooper-Clarke and Luke Wright, and has performed all over, from on Radio 1 to the colossal music and arts festival Latitude held in Suffolk.

Across the years, Cherry has witnessed (and sometimes been involved) in the birth and development of well-established local poetry events, such as the Southend based Sundown Arts which curates at a national level, to the writers and performers group Poetry In Commotion in Basildon, to more grass roots movements such as Jay Laker's poetry open mics held in Leigh. She has seen how a night out listening to spoken word artists these days is almost as common as going to watch live music or comedy... almost. Indeed, a combination of these art-forms often go hand in hand.

This is something Miss Scott aims to highlight with Scott on the Rocks.

She says: "I've recently got to level 50, (she means 50 years old), and following some health problems where I've suffered with my heart and thyroid disease, I wanted to do this show not only as a personal challenge to myself, and to showcase the accumulation of different projects I'm personally involved with, but I also saw it as an opportunity to show the diversity of poetry itself.

"The night will consist of the screening of the film Jack and Jill, an ambitious project that sees me performing with poet [and founder of the Poetry To Succeed] movement, Olmo Lazarus, doing a call and response poem about contemporary Britain. It was filmed by Matthew Rowley from MattBox Fims and directed by Samuel Gridley.

"We have well-known musicians Doozer McDooze and David Woodcock each doing a single performance with me too, and the House of Dialogue, a band I am in which sees two female musicians - Lou Woodger on guitar, flute and loop pedal with Kelly Kennedy Scates on percussion working with my words - performing a main set. House of Dialogue happen to just be releasing a new EP too, which will be available at the event. I shall be performing some pure poetry from my new solo EP collection Scott on The Rocks in between the acts as well.

"The finale sees me and Dan Newman together as Bingo Cherry, fusing electronica and house beats to the flow of poetry.

"Capturing all this we have The London Road Studio Boys, Joe Lamb on sound, Jay Laker on film and Jamie Adams on photography. Lighting up the whole of this extravaganza will be the talented and imaginative lighting director Andy Barak-Smith of IADWM.

"We will be asking for a £5 donations with all proceeds going towards paying the artists involved and the tech team."

Cherry's poetry ranges from issues of domestic violence to the observational and hilarious poems such as Mrs Lilac, about a sex-line operator.

"I worked for the domestic violence charity Women's Aid on the front line in a refuge for seven years and it's very much an issue that is close to my heart as both a survivor of domestic violence myself, and a soldier" she said.

"Through my work, I often feel the need to address the issue. Until male pattern violence or close violence is completely eradicated, it needs to be spoken about, and people need to be educated.

"At the Scott on the Rocks event, I will perform with the House of Dialogue for the first time, a very powerful poem called Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Rape. I have performed it solo before, and it always triggers something in the women in the audience, and I will then often find myself chasing after them to make sure they are ok afterwards. The message is about 'blame victim' culture - how it's 'her fault', and the poem is my response to that view, saying it wasn't the brandy that raped her, or the spliff she smoked, it was the 'nice bloke' who she went home with."

Cherry is quick to point out, how the night won't only consist of such heavy subjects.

"I don't want people to be put off!" she laughs. "There will be a lot of light, entertaining stuff too, such as the Bingo Cherry tracks, which will pick your feet right up. That gets a bit sexy, a bit risque..." she chuckles. "I think the audience will find the night a bit of a rollercoaster, where they will experience different emotions and I hope they will leave talking about it, with a lot to think about, feeling intrigued, happy, and if they are new to the poetry scene, eager to find out more about it other poets and events which are going on, and be keen to support them.

"I look back Kel, and my first solo show, Poets for Peace, was held in the basement of the Royal Hotel, where I did everything myself, wore many hats, the producer, the performer, the promoter. It was a small, very small, there in the basement, a beautiful thing. That must have been in 2002. To be back there in the Royal Hotel again, but doing my show up in the ballroom, well it means so much, and is such a karmic convention for me. I feel very blessed and proud to see the the completion of this cycle. It's true that cliche, don't give up! I mean what's next Kel? It can only be through the roof can't it?"

* Scott on the Rocks takes place on Sunday March 25 at the Royal Hotel, High Street, Southend. Doors open at 6pm with a start time of 7pm - 10.30pm.