An Evening with André Naffis-Sahely

Open Mic Event

Website: https://wordsworth.org.uk/blog/events/andre-naffis-sahely/

Our contemporary poetry reading series ‘Go to the poets, they will speak to thee’ is running throughout 2022, curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every month!

In his youth, William Wordsworth was an ardent supporter of the French Revolution. In The Prelude, he writes that this time ‘Twas in truth an hour/Of universal ferment;/mildest men/Were agitated; and commotions, strife/Of passion and opinion, filled the walls/Of peaceful houses with unique sounds’. The Prelude is full of moments like this, where we learn how huge events cast their shadows and their light on Wordsworth’s intellectual and emotional life.

Our guest poet this month is André Naffis-Sahely who will be reading from his latest collection High Desert (Bloodaxe, 2022). High Desert is a book that draws the threads of personal and social history and braids them closely together to create new patterns and new ways of seeing. The collection free wheels through key events such as the First Red Scare, the Tulsa Race Massacre and the West Coast’s wildfire epidemic to create poems that hold up world and personal history up to the light.

Our open mic theme this month is ‘where were you when…’ – sign up to read a poem that explores the moment when a personal and historical story weave into and around each other. Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance.

Price: £5.00 / £0.00. (5 free places available)

Time: 7:30pm