Multicultural Heritage and Questions of Identity

I’m totally delighted to be featured in Jennifer Wong’s nuanced, complex study of the writings of British poets of Chinese heritage, along with Sarah Howe. Featured in English: Journal of the English Association, 2020, vol. 0 no. 0, pp. 1–25. Thank you Jenny!

Poetry London

I’m delighted to be on the cover of this Autumn’s Poetry London. There is some fantastic work in this issue, including poems from sam sax and Zimbabwean poet Togara Muzanenhamo, a long poem by St Lucian–Canadian poet Canisia Lubrin, and new work by Inua Ellams, Fiona Moore, Susannah Dickey, Mark Waldron, Declan Ryan, Gboyega Odubanjo and Sean O’Brien, among many more.

Mixed Race Reads

Happy to be included in this review of books about the Mixed Race experience – fiction and non fiction – thanks Bad Form Review.

Poetry London launch 15/10

I’m really looking forward to reading (via Zoom!) at the Poetry London launch with Romalyn Ante, Layla Benitez-James, Canisia Lubrin, Togara Muzanenhamo, and Sam Sax. TIme to try out a few sonnets from the new book…

Songs of the Migrant Worker

Dash Arts have just realeased this podcast of myself, Zerritha Brown and two Turkish artists, Imran Ayata and Bulent Kullukcu, discussing/comparing the Windrush experience and that of ‘Gastarbeiter’ (German-Turkish migrant community). Listen out for the Gastarbeiter music, song lamenting the migrant experience n Germany, and Zerritha Brown talking about the lineage of reggae music from Jamaica to Britain. Recorded at Rich Mix last year @DASH_ARTS

New article James Berry

I enjoyed writing about James Berry and Windrush for the Young Poet’s Network. It made me think about what young people might or might not know about the British Empire and its legacy – and how James’ work is as relevant today as it ever was.

Buying the Wind

I’m so pleased to be writing for this collaboration with the composer Sarah Angliss, a new work for voice, string quartet and live electronics. Through music and words, we’ll be exploring the UK’s deep connection with wind and tide – elemental forces that make up the UK’s defiantly porous border.  We’ll excavate partial archives, half-memories, extant folklore, combining music and poetry to conjure all that’s been carried to our shores.

A Persistent Myth: Buying the Wind

The title of this project refers to the ancient sailors’ superstition of throwing a coin into water to assuage the spirits and bring a fair wind – a ritual that’s persisted for centuries. Sarah was inspired by some notes in Edward Lovett’s Magic in Modern London (1925). In his book, the folklorist and city explorer records sailors in Billingsgate nailing coins to the mast to bring a good passage.  The former home of London’s fish market, Billingsgate was built on a Viking settlement. Lovett also writes about women on the East coast of Britain selling sailors ‘magical’ knotted string. The string could be untied, knot by knot, to vie for better sailing winds. Knotted string was also sold in Newfoundland, itself a Viking settlement. Arguably the ritual of ‘buying wind’ persists to this day, in disassociated form, every time we throw a coin into a fountain.

We are looking for other instances of ‘buying wind’ in books, poems folk tales or local folklore. If you know of an instance, we’d love to hear from you.

Homage to Italy

I don’t expect I’ll ever own a Ferrari, so the closest thing is a poem in Ferrari magazine. Possibly the strangest commission I’‘ve ever had. But I love Italy, and loved writing a homage. Thanks to all those who suggested Italian poems and poets, and friends from Scuola Holden, mentioned/pictured here… (cringey interview warning!)

Ways into Memoir

I’ll be teaching an intensive weekend course on memoir, November 7th and 8th. We’ll look at lots of different forms, from ‘traditional’ memoir to experiments with poetry and visual story-telling. Life writing has evolved into such an exciting form of story-telling so I’m really pleased to be able to explore the genre in depth. Details here: https://poetryschool.com/courses/x-lit-ways-into-memoir/

Upcoming workshops

Teaching a few workshops for the PBS over the next week – tomorrow (2/07) 11am – 12.30pm and Wed 8/02 11.30am – 12.30pm and this saturday a whole morning with Liz Berry 9.30am – 1pm.