Around 20 year ago, poets Malika Booker and Roger Robinson saw the need for a space where writers outside the establishment could grow, discuss and learn. One Friday night, Malika offered her Brixton kitchen table as a meeting place – and the writing collective Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (aka MPK aka Kitchen) was born.

Both Malika Booker and Roger Robinson have since become poetry prize winners – Booker for the Forward’s best single poem in 2020, and Robinson for the 2019 TS Eliot prize. Meanwhile Malika’s Poetry Kitchen has ushered in a new generation of voices, with other members and alumni shortlisted for major poetry awards.

Now a poetry anthology - Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different – is being published to celebrate 20 years of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. It is being launched at Temple of Art and Music (TAM), at Newington Causeway, London, on Thursday 5 August at 6.30pm. The anthology has been edited by Maisie Lawrence and Rishi Dastidar, and the event will be hosted by MPK’s director since 2010, Jill Abram. More details