PROGRAMME DETAILS

On the 31st of December 2017, Norah Lea said to herself “I am going to attempt spoken word poetry” and so she did. Struggling to find her own voice, Norah Lea’s poetry is sometimes sad, sometimes sexy, but most times on a journey into the hearts of new audiences in Norah’s current life, who might have been past lovers in previous lives.

Norah Lea is featured in the following SWF event(s):

Shivram Gopinath is a writer, spoken word performer, and twice-winning Singapore National Poetry Slam Champion. His poetry has been heard at the Singapore Writers Festival, Borobudur Writers and Cultural Festival, and Jaipur Literary Festival among others. His most recent work is Mein Shaayar to Nahin (I Am Not A Poet) - a collaborative project that combines spoken word and music from Tamil and Hindi cinema as a way of exploring the Indian experience.

Photo credit: Nir Cang

Shivram Gopinath is featured in the following SWF event(s):

Theresa Lola is a British Nigerian poet and facilitator, and is the current Young People’s Laureate for London. She is an alumni of the Barbican Young Poets programme, and was joint winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. She has produced commissions for the Mayor of London and Tate Galleries. Her debut poetry collection In Search of Equilibrium (Nine Arches Press, Feb 2019) is described as "a glorious hymn to being alive and wounded".

Photo credit: Hayley Madden for Spread the Word

Theresa Lola is featured in the following SWF event(s):

Jacob Sam-La Rose (born 8 June 1976) is a poet, educator, and editor. As a consultant for creative writing and literature, Sam-La Rose has run workshops and held residencies internationally at hundreds of schools and other institutions. He is particularly well known for his work with youth "slam" poetry initiatives, and his advocacy for the positive impact of new technology on literary practice and collaboration.

Jacob Sam-La Rose's poetry has been translated into Portuguese, Latvian, French and Dutch. Based in London, he's a poetry professor at Guildhall, a poetry editor, and directs the Barbican Young Poets' programme. His poetry collection Breaking Silence is studied at A' level. Much of his current writing involves experiments with coding and generative text.

Photo credit: Amaal Said
 

Jacob Sam-La Rose is featured in the following SWF event(s):

Danez Smith is a black, queer American poet. They are the author of the poetry collection Boy, which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for poetry.

​Photo credit: David Hong

Danez Smith is featured in the following SWF event(s):