Commissions
Now - April 2023, Bedlam Reimagined
Working with folk musician and composer Keith Allen, on his project exploring conceptions of mental health in relation to the Bedlam ballads, to craft poems and perform traditional pieces about Bedlam and other asylums across Britain.
January 2023, I once believed
Worked with conductor Toby Thatcher, on performances of extracts of 19th Century literature, including Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Christina Rossetti. Publication forthcoming.
March and April 2022, Lewisham Borough of Culture Celebrations
Had conversations with Lewisham residents in four care homes, and spoke to them about their stories of living in Lewisham, which I crafted into poems for them to take home.
January-June 2022, You Should Go To Everywhere: poems from Manley Court care home
For Deptford Literature Festival, Spread the Word commissioned me to work with the artists Zoë Gilmour and Charlene Low, running workshops in collaboration with the care home team. I crafted a booklet of poems celebrating the experiences of residents & carers through the collaboration of poetry, song, conversation & dance we made together.
April 2021, The Sick Room
Worked with conductor Toby Thatcher, on a video performance of a monologue from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, as part of an online project exploring concepts of illness in 19th Century literature.
January 2021, Threads Poetry Special, Threads Radio
Performed a poem for a programme hosted by the Repeat Beat Poet and Tice Cin about poetry in the pandemic.
November 2020, Interview with Wedding Ritual Blog
Wrote about my writing, influences and performances as a guest in their series of artist profiles.
July 2020, Barbican Cinema On Demand
Commission: a poetic film to accompany the online streaming of the film The Juniper Tree. I read the ‘Reverend Jon Steingrimmson spends the winter of 1755, in a cave at Gardar’. You can read about this in the Guardian.
July 2020, Outposts, ‘All my beginnings’
Performance in a poetry film for Outposts, a queer YouTube channel, which features Tice Cin and Troy Cabida.
July 2020, Sound Art Radio, ‘OK Galexa’
Commission: reading ‘They hid his heart in a whale, then made him eat the blubber’, as part of the third episode of OK Galexa, a docudrama crafted by the sound artist and writer, Femi Oriogun–Williams.
July 2020, Dragon Café and Dragon Café in The City
Performance on ZOOM for the Dragon Café, an organisation supporting people affected by mental illness.
April – May 2020, The Lockdown Listen Podcast
Commission: Two poems for this series, the first explores teaching, the second experiencing loss during lockdown.
November 2019, Logbooks Podcast, Episode 3
Commission: performed my poem ‘God Birth’ for this podcast, which explores LGBTQ+ life in Britain as noted by volunteers at Switchboard. This series won Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2020.
September 2019, Hornsey Parish Choir
Commission: wrote the libretto for a Christmas carol, ‘The Ice Carol’, with the composer Georgina Bowden.
July 2019, Bedtime Stories for the End of the World Podcast
Commission: ‘Sealing’, written for an episode where Andrew McMillan, Ella Frears and I shared our poems.
May 2019, Caged Birds Do, Brighton Festival
Performed poems written to celebrate Dr Maya Angelou, with Zena Edwards, Hibaq Osman, Bridget Minamore.
Oct 2018 – Jan 2019, Barbican Guildhall CLP: Modern Couples exhibit
Commission: read poems in response to this exhibition throughout the gallery, over 3 nights. Watch ‘Still Wife’:
November 2018, Barbican and Radio 3, BBC Symphony Orchestra: Total Immersion
Wrote libretto for a collaborative performance of David Lang’s Memorial Ground, with the BBC Symphony Chorus, at the Barbican. I performed a poem with the choir, and was interviewed by Radio 3 for the broadcast.
October 2018, Time Out London
Commission: prose poem ‘Field’ in Time Out, honing in on the horrors of online dating in London.
June – September 2018, Barbican Guildhall CLP: Dorothea Lange/Vanessa Winship exhibit
Commission: writing and performing poems in response to this exhibit, across the different rooms of the gallery.
July 2018, Barbican Guildhall CLP: Subjects to Change 2018
Commission: ‘Tender’, a poem responding to the news in July. Content note for veiled references to sexual abuse.
April – June 2018, Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning Project: A Change Is Gonna Come
Worked with Jacob Sam–La Rose, Boy Blue and Barbican Young Poets, to devise a dance and spoken word performance. We performed shows at the Pit, Barbican, and at the Barking Broadway.
August 2016, Brasenose College, University of Oxford
Brasenose College gave me a travel grant to visit Iceland, to write poems about its myths. My poem ‘Einar Thorvaldson dissolved’ is published in The Kindling, ‘Mortify’ features in the Oxford Review of Books (ORB).
Whilst at university, my work was published in: the Isis, the Cherwell, the Oxstu, Panopticon, Seven Voices.
