Winning Words 12 for 2012
The National Lottery is celebrating its investment in the arts and sport by creating a poem that will be showcased at the Olympic Park during The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The National Lottery has joined forces with Winning Words, a National Lottery-funded nationwide arts programme, finding 12 poets for 2012 who will craft the...
InTents
Working as a poet and educator with Artichoke on an exciting new project called InTents. This is the schools initiative as part of Peace Camp, a coastal installation commissioned by the London 2012 Festival. Peace Camp involves thousands of illuminated tents being put around the coast for 4 days from July 19-22 each one with...
Shake the Dust
Acting as Artistic Director on Shake the Dust, a nationwide youth poetry slam, giving young people the opportunity to work with leading spoken word poets to write and perform their work. Shake the Dust is about bringing together young people from up and down the country; shining a spotlight on voices that would otherwise be unheard....
Perform a Poem
Perform a Poem is a website resource that gives school children the opportunity to upload videos of themselves performing poems and to watch other children’s poetry performance videos. I worked with a primary school for the day, helping them to generate poems to perform, which they went on to record. This is a great project...
Barbican Young Poets
The Barbican Young Poets project, or Barbican Poets as we’re used to calling it, is something I established in partnership with the Barbican in 2008 after moving on from the Roundhouse Poets programme. More than just another poetry workshop, it’s a community of emerging poets, designed to push participants’ creative abilities to new heights. Exploring...
Faith
Commissioned for the launch of International PEN’s Free the Word! festival at Shakespeare’s Globe in April 2009. I was given a brief to write about freedom of speech, religious beliefs and the power of protest, in not more than around 14 lines.
Can I Have A Word: Radical Nature
2009 marks the 7th year of ‘Can I Have a Word?’ the Barbican’s poetry project designed to inspire children to write, improve literacy standards and encourage creativity.
Camden SLAM 2010
Following on from 2009′s inaugural Camden SLAM, I’m reprising my role as artistic director for the second year of the project.
The Vineyard
The Vineyard (or ‘yard as we tend to refer to it) is an international community of writers I established in 2006, consisting of a stimulating mix of emerging and more developed poets, as well as a range of different poetic stances.
Morpeth Residency 09-10
I fulfilled a residency with Morpeth last year, and I’m back again for 2009(/10). Similar deal as the last residency – I’ll be working with two classes of students for the first half of the year – up until February – then working with two new classes until July.
Evolving Words
Evolving Words is a poetry writing and performance project that engages 14-25 year olds in celebrations marking Darwin200 in 6 UK cities. Participants work with a poet and a science educator in each city and perform their poems at a range of local events during 2009. I’ve been engaged as a creative consultant by Elizabeth...