POETRY & PERFORMANCE 28 - 30 SEPT 2018 INTRODUCTI0N Contains Strong Language is back! Building on POETRY & PERFORMANCE the huge success of last year’s inaugural festival, 28 - 30 SEPT 2018 Hull welcomes 18 poets – the Hull 18 – along with local, national, and international artists to join in The UK’s biggeSt poETRY anD this celebration of poetry and spoken word. performance fesTiVal of nEW wriTing retuRNs TO HUll iN 2018. The special alchemy that makes a great festival combines artistic talent, brand new commissions, world premières and appreciative BRinging OVER 30 EVents TO The CiTY audiences. Contains Strong Language was originally planned to oveR 3 DAys, leading pOeTs aNd return in 2019, but the interest and excitement generated last year forced a re-think. We couldn’t wait to do it again. woRLd Class spoken word aRTIsTs wiLL Take TO tHe stage aLONgsiDe In returning to Hull, the festival provides important continuity and legacy from City of Culture 2017. Hull’s reputation as a vibrant, brand nEw VOices. creative and innovative city —a poetry city— continues to grow. BOOK your TiCkETS aT Contains Strong Language is the BBC’s national poetry and spoken BBcCSL.evenTBRite.com word festival, with coverage on national and local radio and TV. It is bbc.co.uk/containsstronglanguage a partnership between the BBC, Wrecking Ball Press, Arts Council, Absolutely Cultured, 14-18 NOW and The British Council. #containsstronglanguage Please see the website for information about live captioned events. Festival Directors Susan Roberts and Shane Rhodes 3 Cover image: Kat François © sloetry.co.uk Kat François Cover image: THE HULl 18 poeTs THE HULl 18 poeTs AMANdA dAlTon ChARNell lucien ISaiah Hull KaRen mcCaRthy WooLf KaT fRAnÇoiS LoUise waLlwein Amanda Dalton’s poetry publications Charnell Lucien is a spoken word Isaiah Hull’s first poetry collection Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in Kat François is a performance Louise Wallwein MBE is an include How To Disappear and Stray. artiste, tutor, motivator, social issues Nosebleeds will be published London to English and Jamaican artist, broadcaster, playwright and award-winning poet, playwright Recent BBC audio dramatisations advocate, youth empowerer and by Wrecking Ball Press. Back at parents. Her book An Aviary of director. Kat was the first person to and performer from Manchester, include several Henry James novels mentor. Born and raised in central Contains Strong Language by Small Birds was shortlisted for win a televised poetry slam in the renowned as an explosive artist and her CSL commission Tove Trinidad, Charnell began writing popular demand, Isaiah returns the Forward Felix Dennis and the UK and also won the World Slam who detonates her audiences’ Jansson’s The Summer Book. Amanda at the age of 13. She is currently to Hull with Young Identity, the Fenton Aldeburgh first collection Championships. imaginations. Glue, her acclaimed will be in conversation with Sophia working on her first book To Self, spoken word organisation formed in prizes. Seasonal Disturbances was one-woman show, was performed at Jansson at Hull Central Library. With Love. Manchester. published in 2017. CSL in 2017. IShion hUtchinson JaCKIE kaY JaCob Polley Malika boOker SHiRLeY MAY SiMON ARmitage Born in Jamaica, Ishion Hutchinson Born to a Scottish mother and Jacob Polley is the author of four Malika Booker is a British poet and Shirley May comes from Simon Armitage CBE was born is the author of poetry collections Nigerian father, Jackie Kay MBE acclaimed poetry collections: The multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese Manchester’s Speakeasy Collective and lives in West Yorkshire. He has Far District and House of Lords and was adopted by a white couple at Brink, Little Gods, The Havocs and Grenadian parentage. She and is Visiting Fellow at MMU. She is published over a dozen collections Commons. Awards include National birth and brought up in Glasgow. and Jackself, which won the 2016 co-founded the writers’ collective part of Commonword’s development of award-winning poetry, most Book Critics Circle, Whiting Writers Bantam, published in 2017, is her T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Somerset Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. Her agency. Shirley writes from a recently The Unaccompanied. He Award, PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, first collection since being named Maugham Award-winning novel Talk poetry collection Pepper Seed was Caribbean Diaspora reference point, is Professor of Poetry at Leeds and Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize and a Scottish Makar, the Scottish Poet of the Town. shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney expressing being part of the Black Oxford Universities. Guggenheim Fellowship. Laureate. Centre prize. British Canon. JaY BErnarD JaY T john Joe Hakim TANYA shirley ViCky FOsteR VlADimiR LuCIen Jay Bernard is a writer from London. Jay T John is a non-binary poet Joe Hakim is a writer, poet and Tanya Shirley has published two Vicky Foster is a poet from Hull. Vladimir Lucien is a writer, actor Their work is multi-disciplinary, who hails from a fishing village in spoken word performer from Hull. poetry collections: She Who Sleeps Her first collection Changing Tides and critic from St. Lucia. His writing critical, queer and rooted in the West Trinidad. Inspired and moved Festival appearances include With Bones and The Merchant of was published by King’s England has been published in regional and archives. Works include multi-media by the works of other writers across Latitude, Big Chill and Edinburgh Feathers. In 2017 she was awarded Press. Vicky performed to acclaim international journals. His debut piece Surge: Side A, winner of the the Caribbean Diaspora, their Fringe. In 2017, Joe travelled to a Silver Musgrave Medal from The at Contains Strong Language 2017. collection of poetry Sounding Ted Hughes Award 2018 and short greatest aspiration is to create art as Trinidad with the Roundhouse and Council of the Institute of Jamaica She is the host of Women of Words. Ground, published by Peepal Tree film Something Said. resistance. Wrecking Ball Press for the Talking for her outstanding contribution in Press, won the 2015 Bocas Prize for Doorsteps project. the field of literature. Caribbean Literature. 4 5 FIrst StORy ShoWCAse FRoNT Row BbC MusiC DAy FRI 28 SEPT FRI 28 SEPT HULL CENTRAL LIBRARY HULL COLLEGE FRI 28 SEPT 13:30 - 15:00 19:00 - 20:00 LIVE HULL PARAGON INTERCHANGE Albion Street, Hull HU1 3TF The Horncastle Building, PERFORMANCES THROUGHOUT FREE ADMISSION (Ticketed) Charlotte Street, Hull HU1 3DG THE DAY FREE ADMISSION (Ticketed) Since 2016, the national literacy charity Ferensway, Hull HU2 8NH First Story has been working with Join the audience for a live broadcast FREE ADMISSION secondary schools in Hull. Students have of Front Row, Radio 4’s flagship Arts worked with acclaimed authors and poets programme, featuring an exuberant mix of As part of BBC Music Day, Hull Paragon BBC Music Day brings the nation together for a year, culminating in a collection of interviews, discussion and performance. Interchange will be participating in Platform to celebrate the power of music to change professionally published anthologies. to Perform, where choirs from across the lives. From celebrating community music Here’s an opportunity to hear that young UK are collaborating with over 40 railway projects and initiatives, to working with writing talent. stations to entertain commuters on BBC big-name musicians through a host of Music Day. Look out for spine-tingling performances and activities across TV, local choirs, Ian McMillan from BBC Radio radio and online, BBC Music Day shines 3 and BBC Humberside, live in Paragon a light on our relationship with music, and Interchange during the day. explores the impact it can have on our lives. 6 7 IMAGE REQUIRED HOme town STory FRI 28 - SUN 30 SEPT A captivating theatrical journey through THE VeRb the back streets of Hull. Discover the HULL CITY CENTRE poetry and voices that shout from the BbC rADio 3 live LOCATION WILL BE REVEALED AT BOOKING rooftops, whisper round the corners and VARIOUS TIMES FROM 12:00 - 18:00 echo through the squares. FRI 28 SEPT Audiences will gather to embark on a FREE ADMISSION (Ticketed) HULL COLLEGE journey of discovery of Hull’s lesser 21:45 - 22:45 known places and the stories of its LIVE characters along the way - meeting poets, wordsmiths and artists en route who will The Horncastle Building, bring the poetry to life. Charlotte Street, Hull HU1 3DG FREE ADMISSION (Ticketed) Written by award-winning poet and playwright Louise Wallwein. Ian McMillan presents Radio 3’s The Verb broadcasting live from Hull. Featuring Commissioned and produced by musician Gruff Rhys and poets Joe Hakim, Absolutely Cultured. Louise Wallwein, and Jackie Kay. 8 9 THE BLaCkwood JaCob Polley SAT 29 SEPT HULL COLLEGE 11:00 - 12:00 The Horncastle Building, Charlotte Street, Hull HU1 3DG FREE ADMISSION (Ticketed) The Blackwood grows a new branch of the story of boyhood friends explored in Jacob Polley’s award-winning collection Jackself. It is set in a world both recognisably modern as well as starkly folkloric and weird. As well as a moving drama, The Blackwood is a haunting ‘landscape in noise’, created by musician and sound designer John Alder. With Ashley Margolis. John Alder played guitar, sang BbC TEach with backing vocals and was co- songwriter with British rock band Joseph Coelho ‘The Jags’, going on to play session guitar and sing backing vocals for producer Steve Levine. SAT 29 SEPT BBC Teach is launching a new series of An award winning composer on films for teachers, featuring the popular BBC nature documentaries for HULL CENTRAL LIBRARY poet Joseph Coelho. Joseph has created Wildlife on One, John has also 10:00 - 11:00 some great new poems to help KS1 been a composer, sound designer and KS2 children with their literacy and and video artist for theatre Albion Street, Hull HU1 3TF creativity.