Bards Without Borders, Co-director, (15/07/15 – Present)
? A poetry and theatre collective responding to Shakespeare with poets from refugee and migrant backgrounds, coordinated by Two Gents Productions, Counterpoint Arts and myself. I lead on two successful Arts Council grants, and supported the professional and creative development of the poets through workshops and one-to-
one support. We devised the performance with the poets and I co-produced a tour of 20 arts venues ranging from Birmingham Library to the Ledbury Poetry Festival.
Keats House Poets, Keats House Museum, 30/05/10 - Present
? Core member of the Keats House Poets, a collective of eight London based poets supported by Keats House Museum, initially through Cultural Olympiad funding.
Experience delivering poetry projects with adult learners:
? Historic Royal Palaces, 12/11/16 – Present: Commissioned to research, write and record a 20 minute poetry podcast in the voice of a woman imprisoned in the Tower of London, for a new series to explore the unheard stories of the Historic Royal Palaces, due to launch in Autumn.
? The British Library, 19/10/16 – 11/01/17: Designing and delivering eight workshop that helped an Asian Women’s group of mixed language ability explore the theme of food and cookery in UK and Asian culture.
? Sense, Poetry Workshop Facilitator, January - July 2015: Delivering a multi-sensory story telling workshops for Sense- the deaf blind charity, for adult learners with profound and multiple disabilities. Sessions were with
groups in Spalding and Greenwich and we used stories to interpret collections at local museums.
? St Georges Hospital 03/02/15 – 18/03/15: Delivered six writing workshops on the theme of travel and memory
for dialysis patients at St Georges Hospital from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds.
? Refugee Radio, 11/05/2015: creative writing workshop workshop on memory, identity and food with service users of Brighton based refugee support group with a range of English language abilities.
? Courtauld Institute, workshop facilitator, May - July 2014: Designed and delivered two sold-out half day writing
workshops at the Courtauld Institute to explore new ways of responding to an exhibition titled ’Impress- print
making expanded in contemporary art.’
Freelance poetry work in schools and with youth groups:
? National Literacy Trust, 12/01/17 – 02/02/17: Designing and delivering poetry workshops for five different primary schools on personifying the Great Fire of London as a part of the Young City Poets projects which encourages children to engage creatively with heritage sites, in this case The Monument.
? Bromley School for Girls, 12/06/16 - Present: working with head of English to develop a new contemporary poetry syllabus for Year Seven and delivering supporting workshops and performances.
? Foyer Foundation, Oxford, 26-27/10/15: delivered story and lyric writing workshops alongside a music producer
for the ‘Audio-Soap Box’ project, where young homeless writers created an installation about rights locally.
? Knole House, National Trust 17/06/15 – 30/10/15: Poet in residence writing and performing commissioned poems inspired by the house and delivering creative writing workshop on the history of gender rights.
? Ark Academy, 08/10/15: delivered a Year Nine Poetry Day workshop and judged their poetry competition.
? Royal London Hospital, 01/11/14 – 20/12/14: Delivered seven workshops in pediatrics for 5–15 year olds on light, windows and space. Commissioned to write a poem for the ward and kept a blog for the children’s work.
Human Rights Consortium, School of Advanced Study, co-editor and event organiser, 01/11/12 – 12/11/15:
I created a partnership between the Keats House Poets, the School of Advanced Study and the Bloomsbury Festival,
and co-ordinated human rights poetry events for four years. Co-editor of “In Protest: 150 poems about human
rights” an anthology produced by the Keats House Poets and the University of London’s Human Rights Consortium
and launched at the 2013 Bloomsbury Festival. I organised a nationwide tour and workshop series including the
Stanza Poetry Festival, and discussed the book on panels with English PEN and The Frontline Club.