Writer & Creative Facilitator
It’s the Yorkshire Festival and Refugee Week next week which means that there are a host of brilliant events across the North which celebrate the diversity, stories and talent of the region. There is a wonderful week-long Migration Matters festival in Sheffield and Wakefield, and as part of this Verse Matters is running a …
Continue reading “Refugee Week, African Stories in Yorkshire & Postcolonial Education”
This is the proof of a review that was recently published in Stand 14.2 (2016) in Leeds: Van Winkle, Ryan and Lauren Pyott, eds. This Room is Waiting: Poems from Iraq and the United Kingdom. Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-908754-49-3. 128pp. Bell, Henry and Sarah Irving, eds. Forewords by Liz Lochead and Maya Abu Al-Hayyat. …
Continue reading “Review: Poetic Collaboration in Iraq and Palestine”
I have guest slots at two fantastic poetry nights this week – Cafe Lux (Pudsey) with A Firm Of Poets on Thursday 14 April 7-9pm, and Lyrical Presents: Rachel Bower & Amy Kinsman in Sheffield on Friday 15 April. Come and celebrate the brilliance of poetry in Yorkshire. There will be open mic slots, good words and warmth. Cafe …
Verse Matters is back tonight (Thurs 7 April) for another fantastic night of poetry, music and solidarity at the Moor Theatre Delicatessen. There will be fantastic performances from Rosie Garland (Poet), Robert de Born (Poet/ Musician) and Sarah Sharp (Musician) as well as sparkling open mic performances from Nicole May (poet), Steven Kay (fiction), Sez Thomasin …
This is the proof of my recent review of Isidore Okpewho’s Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology (Rochester, NY: Rochester UP, 2014), published in the Leeds African Studies Bulletin 77 (Winter 2015/16). In this formidable book, Isidore Okpewho, distinguished expert on African literature, offers a detailed account of the historical, …
We had a wonderful first night at the Moor Theatre Deli to celebrate International Women’s Day 2016 as part of SheFest Sheffield. Amy Kinsman (Poet) performed a fantastic set of poems and Fiona Helsing shared her amazing, powerful music. River Wolton (Poet) read her wonderful poems and there were also brilliant open mic performances from Ayan Abdi (Poet) Suzannah Evans (Bank St Arts), Marina Poppa (A Firm of Poets), Ben Jackson (Forest Sounds), …
On 2 April, myself and many of the poets who have performed at Verse Matters are reading poems in Sheffield for the Poem-a-Thon for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, raising money for ASSIST who work with destitute asylum seekers and refugees in Sheffield. ASSIST is a fantastic charity which has been working in Sheffield for …
I was recently a guest presenter on Sheffield Poetry TV for a special episode on Verse Matters. The Verse Matters episode is now available to watch online (https://vimeo.com/155382260). Check it out for fantastic poems from Louise Clines, Sarah Thomasin, Kate Garrett-Nield, Kevin Titterton, Rachel Garner, Shelley Roche-Jacques, Gee Nah, Liz Searle and Janet Murray.
We had a brilliant last night at the fantastic Mugen Tea House on Scotland St on Thursday 4 February. Sai Murray read some inspiring poems and a very funny (but sobering) short story, Arian Sadr gave a mesmerising performance on his Tonbak (Persian goblet drum) and Daf (circular frame drum), and and London-based Hannah Chutzpah performed some funny and incredibly …
There are lots of fantastic events happening at Universities across the North of England which connect local and international issues. On Friday 26 February, the School of English at the University of Leeds is hosting an event on Remembering Human Rights in an Age of Crisis in partnership with the David Oluwale Memorial Association. Speakers include Gary Younge, Caryl Phillips, Corinne …
I’m excited to announce that we’re moving Verse Matters to the fantastic Moor Theatre Delicatessen in March. We’re super happy about the move, which will give us more space and allow for even more collaboration, and it’s more central for all those people who come to Verse Matters by train. It will be the same Verse Matters – coming together in solidarity to share the …
Rachel Bower