Northern Poetry Symposium 2023: CELEBRATING COMMUNITY
11th May 2023, Northern Stage 2, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Join the Poetry Book Society and Newcastle University to celebrate COMMUNITY on the 11th May at the Northern Poetry Symposium. We’re uniting all strands of the poetry community from readers to writers, students to publishers in a day of inspiring poet-led panel discussions and performances. It’s a unique opportunity to hear world-class poets discuss their craft and tackle key issues, so come and join our global poetry community!
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
INTRODUCTION
10am
Newcastle University Chancellor Imtiaz Dharker offers a warm welcome to our poetry community
FESTIVAL FOCUS
10.15-11.15am
How can poetry festivals foster a sense of community and reach new readers? The symposium launches with a dynamic skill-sharing session from leading poetry events programmers who will share all the latest best practice for hybrid poetry festivals. Clare Lees, Director of Institute of English Studies at the University of London, chairs this discussion with Royal Society of Literature Events Manager Lily Blacksell (Stressed,Tested, Rough Trade Books), Forward Prize winner and Kendal Poetry Festival’s Co-directors Kim Moore (All the Men I Never Married, Seren) and Clare Shaw (Towards a General Theory of Love, Bloodaxe).
FELLOWSHIP
11.30-12.30am (4pm IST)
Next stop, India! The British Council’s Literature Programme Manager Rebecca Hart chairs this exciting case study of global poetry community in action. We’ll be joined virtually by two of the British Council’s India-UK International Publishing Fellows: Hindi translator, poet and Copper Coin Publisher Sarabjeet Garcha and Marathi translator, poet and anti-caste Dalit publisher Yogesh Maitreya from Panther’s Paw Publishing. Plus the award-winning poet and Sanskrit translator Mani Rao (Wave of Beauty, HarperCollins). This is your chance to discover an exhilarating range of Indian poetries, consider how to engage marginalised communities and learn more about poetry in translation. Let’s build an international fellowship of poets!
LUNCH
12.30-1.30pm
A free lunch will be served in the Northern Stage theatre mezzanine for all symposium ticket-holders
POETRY COLLECTIVES
1.30-2.30pm
Director of the Complete Works and Nuevo Sol British LatinX writers, Nathalie Tietler kickstarts the afternoon with a panel discussion celebrating poetry collectives. Malika Booker (Pepper Seed, Peepal Tree Press), who founded Malika’s Poetry Kitchen to nurture generations of poets since 2001, joins the Forward prize winner and Ledbury Critic Stephanie Sy Quia (Amnion, Granta) and MPK alumni poet and playwright Inua Ellams (The Actual, PitM), who launched a Global Collective Poem during lockdown; and the award-winning poet and artistic director for Barbican Young Poets, Jacob Sam-La Rose. We’ll explore the shared challenges and successes, how poetry collectives have re-shaped the current poetry landscape and how we’re stronger together.
INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES
2.45-3.45pm
Our final panel tackles how poetry can represent and reach more diverse communities. The PBS Summer Choice Airea D Matthews joins virtually from the US to share her searing examination of race and economic inequality in Bread & Circus (Picador). We’ll also hear from LGBT+ Poet Laureate Adam Lowe’s new collection Patterflash (Peepal Tree). Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa on neurodiversity, notions of “blackness” and how to decolonise the page in Cane, Corn & Gully (Outspoken) and Jamie Hale (Shield, Verve Press), founder of the UK’s first “Disabled Poets Prize” and CRIPtic Arts, will reframe perspectives on poetry and disability. How can we make the poetry community more inclusive?
FINALE PERFORMANCE
4-5pm
Join us for a powerful collective poetry experience to close the day’s discussions, featuring poems from Malika Booker and an exhilarating choreo-poetry performance by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa.
**Tickets go on sale 5th April. Save the date!**
