Caribbean poetry, haiku, graveyard poems and much more at broadcast festival
Turn on, tune in. From Thursday to Sunday 21-24 March, Chapel FM Arts Centre in Leeds will host Writing On Air, a different type of literary festival - different in the sense that the festival will come to you.
No buses, no trains, no motorway cafes, cold coffee, queues – no weather. No global footprint! No excuses.
This broadcast festival has a packed four-day schedule, that spans 60 events on the theme of Hearing The Voice. Whose voices are loudest in our society? Whose voices don’t get heard? How do we find our own voice? There are poetry readings, discussions and workshops from a range of writers fromYorkshire and further afield. It was hard, but here are just a few highlights:
Thursday 21 March: Stories from Stone - five authors sharing poetry and prose inspired by Undercliffe cemetery in Bradford. Savages Out Loud – an open mic session hosted by the Leeds Savage Club.
Friday 22 March: Strangers in a Strange Land - What does home mean? Poems by adults discovering their creativity in English, with Pascha Taylor. Half Moon Spoken - Eleven Half Moon poets read and talk about each other’s poems. Stupidity is not the problem - a poetry with music event, hosted by Jimmy Andrex and based on the international bestseller, Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman.
Saturday 23 March:- Haiku Half Hour - poet Joe Williams challenges a selection of local writers to create micro-poetry. (join in at home.) Angles of Light, a reading of Caribbean poetry from new and emerging poets including Mervyn Morris, Mervyn Taylor, Shara McCallum, Ann–Margaret Lim, Kendel Hippolyte, Geoffrey Philp, introduced by Kingston poet Juleus Ghunta, (pictured).
Sunday 24 March:- The Prose Poem - Oz Hardwick and Hannah Stone offer a celebration of the form, along with a discussion of its characteristics and expression.
For those lucky enough to live within striking distance of Leeds, some events will take place in Chapel FM’s Radio Theatre in front of a live audience. Ticket price is discretionary. Further details and a full schedule can be found here.
For the rest of us click here, where we can listen live, or listen again … and again … and again.
