Brighton poets gather in support of refugees
Spokeswoman Vanessa Gebbie: “The Komedia is hosting the largest single gathering of poets in the city's history - from international names to first-time writers, as well as lovers of poetry. All of them are reading poems to bring in sponsorship that will help displaced people.
“From multi-award winning poet Grace Nichols to Attila the Stockbroker, from actor James Wilby to his year's Forward prizewinner, Sarah Howe, an unbroken relay will continue until 10 pm, marshalled by a rota of comperes to keep each reader to precisely eight minutes of stage time. Poets Inua Ellams and Edin Suljic are former refugees.
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Hide Ad“Fundraising continues on the day with a tombola and silent auction stocked by local businesses and individuals and pop-up poetry book shop, which promises some rare and collectible titles.
“All proceeds made on the day will go to The School Bus Project, an innovative mobile education initiative. Sponsorship raised by performers - £26,000, and rising - goes to the Refugee Council using the crowdfunding platform JustGiving, which enables 25% extra in Gift Aid.
“The Poem-a-Thon is on Sunday, December 11 from noon to 10 pm, at The Komedia Bar. Entry is free. It is being run organised by a group of poets from Brighton and East Sussex.”
Vanessa offers the following guide to poets and timings:
* Grace Nichols has published many books for both adults and children and has received several awards for her poetry including the Guyana Poetry Prize, The Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a Cholmondley Award. Her latest poetry collections are: Picasso, I Want My Face Back and I Have Crossed An Ocean both published by Bloodaxe Books who will also be publishing her new collection The Insomnia Poems. She was poet-in-residence at the Tate Gallery, London, and is among the poets on the current GCSE syllabus. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Hide Ad* Attila the Stockbroker started shouting poems in 1980 between bands at punk gigs and has done over 3,300 gigs in 24 countries and published 40 LPs/CDs and seven books of poems. His autobiography Arguments Yard was published last year.
* James Wilby has starred in many films including Howards End, Maurice, A Handful of Dust, Regeneration and Gosford Park. He has also appeared many times on stage and in numerous TV series – most recently ‘Legends’ and ‘Victoria’. He recited poems by Byron and Louis MacNeice for the Charleston festival and poems by Philip Larkin for a Channel Four programme about the poet.
* Sarah Howe's first book, Loop of Jade won the 2016 T.S. Eliot Prize and The Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. Born in Hong Kong in 1983 to an English father and Chinese mother, she moved to England as a child. Her pamphlet, A Certain Chinese Encyclopedia (Tall-lighthouse, 2009), won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors.
* Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a cross art form practitioner, a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of the Midnight Run — an international, arts-filled, night-time, playful, urban, walking experience. He is a Complete Works poet alumni and a designer at White Space Creative Agency. He has published three books of poetry and several plays.
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Hide Ad* Edin Suljic grew up in the multicultural, multinational society of former Yugoslavia, moving to the UK at the onset of the tragic Yugoslavian war in 1991. He studied engineering and theatre, then worked on building trains and in experimental theatre. A committee member of Exiled Writers Ink, in London, he is currently, working on a play and with the Collective, Bards Without Borders.
Final schedule Brighton Poem-a-thon
12.01 Elana Crowley
12.11 Hugh Dunkerley
12.21 Ruth Oliver
12.31 Marion Tracy
12.41 Louisa Tomlinson
12.51 Stephen Plaice
13.01 Michaela Ridgway
13.11 Helen Dixon
13.21 Maude Casey
13.31 Jamie Osborn
13.41 Clare Whistler
13.51 Fawzia Muradali-Kane
14.01 Samira Said
14.11 Maria Jastrzębska
14.21 Ricky Purnell
14.31 Tess Jolly
14.41 Helen Oswald
14.51 Kay Walton
15.01 John Prebble
15.11 Olivia McCannon
15.21 Sonya Smith
15.31 Niyat Asfaha
15.41 Clare Eddison
15.51 Ruth Valentine
16.01 Mandy Pannett
16.11 Camilla Lambert
16.21 Ellen Jones
16.31 Caroline Maldonado
16.41 Lynn Bartlam
16.51 Sarah Hesketh
17.01 Sasha Dugdale
17.11 Edin Suljic
17.21 Annabel Pribelski
17.31 Tab Betts
17.41 Lorna Martin
17.51 Sarah Howe
18.01 Clare Best
18.11 James Wilby
18.21 Grace Nichols
18.31 Janet Sutherland
18.41 Ros Barber
18.51 Kay Syrad
19.01 Vanessa Gebbie
19.11 Ella Dorman-Gajik
19.21 Gareth Strachan
19.31 Séan Baldwin
19.41 Sophie Brown
19.51 Inua Ellams
20.01 Attila
20.11 John Davies
20.21 Deborah Martin
20.31 Marie Ellis
20.41 Sophia Hill
20.51 Daisy Behagg
21.01 Michael James Parker
21.11 Tanaka Mhishi
21.21 Elena Bianco
21.31 Stephanie Norgate
21.41 Sally Jenkinson
21.51 Simon Barraclough
22.01 Jackie Wills
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