Poetry And Spoken Word
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Upcoming Event: Andrei Codrescu
The Romanian poet reads and discusses his work
Mon 16 Apr 2012
7:00pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
'One of our most prodigiously talented and magical writers.; Bruce Shlain, New York Times Celebrated Romanian poet Andrei Codrescu will read from his upcoming book So Recently Rent a World: Selected Poems, 1968-2012 and will talk about his work-in-progress 'The Archived Future (with life in footnotes)': an essay about the digital future and how to live with it. …
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Upcoming Event: Free Speech and Literature: The Night Class
Tue 28 Feb 2012
6:30pmThe Sassoon Beer Board Room
Every Tuesday, 6.30pm-8.30pm 28th February - 3rd April This six-part course, led by Dr Sophie Mayer, will consider some of the best known and most dramatic challenges to free speech: attacks on poems, plays, novels and films. You will consider how and why the idea of creative freedom operates differently in different spaces and for different audiences: the…
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Past Event: A Hint of Danger:
An Evening with Ludwig van Beethoven, Leoš Janáček, Leo Tolstoy and Ted Hughes
Mon 19 Dec 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
The Literary Consultancy is delighted to invite back The Tamesis Quartet and Edie Campbell for an unforgettable evening celebrating passion and love – with a hint of danger. The Tamesis string quartet, featuring highly acclaimed violinists Nadia Myerscough and Anna de Bruin, Matthew Quernby on viola and cellist Christopher Allan, stunned us with their performance of works by Debussy and…
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Past Event: Translation workshop with Brian Holton
Translating What's Not There: reticence in classical Chinese poetry
Thu 17 Nov 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
Gain an insight into the fascinating world of classical Chinese poetry, and get to try some poetry-translating for yourself. Brian is an experienced workshop leader, and is passionate about his subject. You’ll come away from the evening inspired and amazed. No knowledge of Chinese is required. Brian Holton has been translating Chinese literature into English and…
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Past Event: How Power Corrupts
IFSOFLO Friday: The Power of Local
Fri 13 May 2011
5:30pmFree Word Hall
The second of two roundtable events for literature organisations and all those interested in the future of the word. This event will bring together community activists and literature organisations. Does the Big Society mean stripping away bureaucratic impediments to communities’ creativity and self-determination, or leaving the disadvantaged to sink or swim? How does it relate to libertarian community…
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Past Event: How Power Corrupts Week
Fri 13 May 2011
1:30pmFree Word Hall
The first of two roundtable events for literature organisations and all those interested in the future of the word. An invited audience will discuss where academic publishing is today and to what extent it is in crisis. We will ask: What is the impact of the publishing process on the academic author? To what extent do publishing platforms dictate research…
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Past Event: No Time Like the Present - Margaret Storm Jameson
Wed 11 May 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
We continue our journey through PEN's ninety-year history in the company of the President of English PEN during the defining years of 1938-44. Margaret Storm Jameson was an indefatigable campaigner, a suffragette and committed pacifist, who argued for literature as a tool in post-war reconstruction and helped a number of threatened writers escape Nazi Germany. She also published over forty…
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Past Event: How Power Corrupts: Drop-in Sessions at the Power Clinic
Wed 11 May 2011
2:00pmFree Word Hall
Come to the Free Word and share stories, anecdotes and reflections, listen to poets, view art work and add to the ongoing conversation. …
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Past Event: How Power Corrupts: Power & Hubris
Tue 10 May 2011
5:30pmFree Word Hall
Lord David Owen and Dr Ricardo Blaug on political power and the corruption of citizenry.Having served as Foreign Secretary, founded the SDP, and negotiated for peace in the former Yugoslavia, Lord Owen is a major political figure. Once a practicing neurologist, in 2008 he published In Sickness and In Power, which coined the term ‘hubris syndrome’. A revised and updated…
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Past Event: Poetry and the State
Wed 6 Apr 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
Some states encourage their poets, others simply ignore them; others imprison and murder them. The latest issue of Modern Poetry in Translation examines the complex relationship between poetry and the state. Does poetry over-privilege individual experience? Can the state ever allow the poet the true autonomy the poem demands? Join readers Stephen Watts, Sasha Dugdale, Martina Thomson, Chris Beckett and…
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Past Event: Shaking Things Up
A Poetry Reading By Jayne Cortez
Wed 30 Mar 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
Introduced by Lawrence ScottThe George Padmore Institute and the Free Word Centre are delighted to host internationally acclaimed poet and activist Jayne Cortez at her only London event in 2011. Introduced by the prizewinning writer Lawrence Scott, Jayne Cortez will read from a selection of her poetry which spans over four decades, and which tells of the struggle for black social…
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Past Event: Generations
At The End of the Rainbow
Wed 9 Mar 2011
9:30amVenue TBC
Nitro and All Change have commissioned three pairs of exceptional artists – Alex Wilson and HKB FiNN; Zena Edwards and Arun Ghosh; Robert Mitchell and Yemisi Blake – to creatively engage with three community groups in Islington – young parents, older people, and people from migrant communities - to explore what is ‘At the end of the Rainbow’.…
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A Shop Selling Speech
As Associate Playwright at the Bush Theatre, Sabrina Mahfouz spent January in her other motherland, Egypt, to research a theatre project inspired by the uprisings of the past year. As Sabrina discovered, so many things had changed - for better or worse - and so many things were exactly the same - for better or worse.
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“Why write about schools and not airports?” Riz MC performs at launch of Writers Bloc
Listen to Riz MC performing a new poem speed-written in response to the launch of international writing and education project Writers Bloc at the Free Word Centre.
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Too Much Freedom for the Land of the Free
In advance of her course on Free Speech and Literature, Dr Sophie Mayer finds out why Arizona State has banned The Tempest from its school curriculum.
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Small Change: Arts Funding and the Oil Industry
Performance poet and environmental activist Pete Bearder (aka Pete The Temp) reports from the launch of Culture Beyond Oil at the Free Word Centre
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Shake the Dust youth poetry competition launches
Hosted by Apples and Snakes, Shake the Dust is a massive youth poetry competition that involves people from the spoken word world at every level. In this blog post, Apples and Snakes' Digital and Marketing Assistant Dan Simpson lays out the competition process and sheds light on its role in empowering poets and educators alike.
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Sparks by Ian Duhig
Poet Ian Duhig discovers the ‘sparks’ of inspiration come from the unexpected.
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Imprisoned Burmese poet Zarganar released
The Burmese poet Zarganar, an honorary member of English PEN, has been released today as part of an amnesty for approximately 2,000 political prisoners.
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“If you try to find me, you’ll find me defiant…”
Spoken word artist Kate Tempest performs Line in the Sand – film produced by Apples & Snakes. More videos from Apples & Snakes …
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Laura Dockrill performs at Whose Muse Is It Anyway?
Poet, author and performer Laura Dockrill performs a love poem at Booktrust’s improv poetry night at Free Word Centre, Whose Muse Is It Anyway? …