The Handel&Hendrix Museum is located at 25 Brook Street, in Mayfair. It is dedicated to the lives and works of baroque composer George Frideric Handel and rock and roll guitar god Jimi Hendrix. The building was home to both men during particularly prolific points of their careers, during which they changed music forever. Their living spaces are separated by a wall and 200 years.
The Museum runs as a charity, and in addition to being open six days a week, and housing an intimate look at the lives of both men, they regularly host acoustic music gigs and sometimes photographic exhibitions. They had never held a poetry reading before, but i felt it would honour Hendrix in a dignified way, especially given his great love of Bob Dylan, who's records dominated Hendrix's collection. I was so happy curators Nicole and Sean agreed. They were wonderful to work with and so enthusiastic and felt that my poetry reading should be held in what had been Jimi Hendrix's bedroom from 1968-69.
The museum and myself invited a variety of artists, musicians and poetry lovers to attend the reading, and on Monday night we gathered in the vibrant bedroom of a young man who had changed the musical landscape and so many lives in such a short span of time.
I started with my poem Shackles and read a large portion of my new work from my third collection Zoreh. I shared my love poems and political poems for a beautifully receptive audience sitting at my feet. I also reflected on what it must have been like for Hendrix, a young man of colour, to rise to the heights of a stellar musical career, when Jim Crow laws had only just been brought to an end in 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Hendrix certainly found freedom and self expression in London. After my reading it was lovely to meet and speak with those who had attended. I was honoured to be the first poet to read there, and look forward to returning.
To celebrate Urban Outfitter stocking all female anthology Smear we gave a poetry reading at their Oxford Street branch. My poem Greta and Me is featured in Smear, it also appears in my new collection Zoreh under the title, Ode to a Woman. It was such a pleasure to hear the other ladies' poems, and get to talk to the other incredible women who had poems featured in this anthology, such as Lisa Luxx and Rosalind Jana.
Afterwards we retreated even further into our poems, our journeys, our dreams. The evening ended in Bloomsbury with fine food, conversation and company, before a full moon black cab ride home, bound for love.
It was such a pleasure to perform again at Anne-Marie Fyfe's Coffee House Poetry night at The Troubadour. Places for the reading are given by invitation only, and this was the last night of the season till October. I was thrilled to be reading alongside journalist Mark Hubbard, who prior to delivering his poem "Public Property" gave an anecdote about the time he once interviewed Colonel Gaddaffi ("Mark you're sweating, are you frightened of me?") It was also a joy to hear and read alongside rising newcomer Katarina Grabowski.
The theme of the evening was Silence, poems along that theme. I read my poem Cut Up: "the silent scream of images too terrible to be unseen". I dedicated the poem to Tamir Rice and Antwon Rose. Today would have been Tamir Rice's 16th birthday, and today was 17 year old Antwon Rose's birthday. Both unarmed boys were shot by policemen (Tamir Rice when he was only 12) that had previously been deemed unsuitable and unstable to work on the police force. Both officers falsified documents to get a job with a new police department. Officer Michael Rosfeld who shot Antwon Rose three times, had only been sworn in to that department three hours previously. These senseless murders have in part been caught by footage obtained by mobile phones, they've been picked up and shown over and over again in our 24 hour news cycle and are instantly accessible on social media.
While I hope this raw footage brings the murderers to justice, this also means sometimes someone's last moments on earth, filled with fear, can be scrolled over, retweeted, and even put on mute. In the smallest of ways I was glad to remember Antwon and Tamir, and I was reassured that the audience tonight at The Troubadour shared my feelings, and was gratified by audience members that came up and discussed it with me afterwards.
I first visited Paris when I was 13, I brought a romantic watercolour of Paris in the rain, years later I returned again, and it is with pride and delight I tell people I am reading at Shakespeare and Company.
This was my third time. But it was was the start of so much. Everything really. All roads lead back to Sylvia Whitman's faith in me, giving me my first chance in January 2015. Sylvia and her husband David weave magic, they have safeguarded and expanded a sacred place created by her father George Whitman in 1951.
This is where Burroughs started writing Naked Lunch. Where Anais Nin and Allen Ginsberg crashed in a spare beds. It's twinned with City Lights. At City Lights in March I read with Janaka Stucky, and now at Shakespeare and Co I got to share a bill with Salena Godden. I saw Godden and Stucky perform at the 50th anniversary of the Wholly Communion at the Roundhouse in 2015.
Ever since then, when asked which modern poets I most admired it was those two names that always passed my lips. They were the brightest flames in a pretty extraordinary night. Oh yes, and I didn't meet either poet till the night of each reading: Janaka on 20th March half an hour before we did our set at City Lights; and beautiful Salena at around 6:15pm on Tuesday 5th June, upstairs in the kitchen of Shakespeare and Co. She was vivid in her yellow robe, and I recognised the adrenaline in her eyes that was pumping through me.
The poems I performed were predominately from my new books Zoreh.
It was such an experience. The shop was packed, through mics and a PA system our words were amplified throughout the shop, there were seats outside the shop. From my point on stage I could see people standing on the street watching and listening. It was hot and still. I was aware of Salena watching me, her vivid yellow robe in the periphery of my vision.
After my reading, I took a seat next to Mister Godden, Salena's husband, and was able to soak up the poems from her new collection Pesimissim Is For Lightweights. It is a collection so vital to the times we are living in, urgent, funny and poignant. Salena had our largely female audience cheering and weeping in turn. I was on the edge of my seat nodding along to her words that are truth. It was honestly very emotional to sit and sign books after the reading, meeting women who had lived what Salena and I had both written.
One woman in particular asked me to sign her copy of Zoreh, not at the front, but on page 12, on my poem Paper Tigers. She couldn't finish her sentence as she broke down, but her friend told me her name was Alica, echoing the Alice I was trying to reach in that poem. I know I am the luckiest girl in the world, because this thing I am compelled to do, can also be of service too. A teacher came up to us and told us that the group of young girls on the left side of our audience were her students, and asked us to pose with them for this picture.
Thank you to the women that came up to me and said that this was her first ever poetry reading and now she wanted to attend more. Thank you to Salena for your faith in coming to Paris with me, it was a beautiful dream to share it with you. Thank you Sylvia and David, Nathan and Katarina, Adam and Alex.
It was a joy to be invited to perform at Listowel Writers Week.
Listowel Writers’ Week was founded in 1970 and is recognised as the primary event in Ireland’s literary calendar.
The annual event is located in the North Kerry town of Listowel which is the birthplace of many of Ireland’s most prominent writers past and present including Dr. John B. Keane, Dr. Bryan MacMahon, Professor Brendan Kennelly, George Fitzmaurice, Maurice Walsh and Robert Leslie Boland. This year the festival saw appearances and performances by literary hero's of mine such as Eimear McBride, Edna O'Brien and Fergal Keane.
My poetry was on Saturday at 6pm held at the beautiful St.Johns Theatre and Arts Centre. I read a mix of all three of my collections for around 50 minutes.
It was wonderful to feel the energy back from the audience that were in attendance and answer questions after my reading.
Thank you to the entire wonderful team that make this incredible festival happen. A special thanks goes to war correspondent and all round wonderful man, Fergal Keane, for he recommended me for the festival. Fergal was at Listowel discussing his new book Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love. Fergal reported on The Rwandan Genocide, and that experience formed his book Season Of Blood ( which I thoroughly recommend if you want to truly comprehend how the genocide originated) more recently he interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya Genocide that she has allowed to happen under her government. I know he is now back in a war zone reporting but it was special to spend that time with Fergal in his home town.
It was wonderful to read my new poems from my third collection Zoreh in the magnificent setting of Leighton House Museum. We had a full house, and what an audience it was. They soaked up every word I said and Leighton House provided us with the perfect acoustics.
Thank you to the team at Leighton House to help make this possible and everyone who came.
It was such a pleasure to give a poetry reading at the iconic Troubadour for the London launch of Zoreh. It was my first time premiering poems such as Elegy and Lilith in The Midheaven. I also read from The Lock And The Key and Rocking Underground. I felt incredibly grateful to have loved ones present, along with fellow artists and poetry lovers, and sign copies of Zoreh for those that bought books.
It was such fun to visit the London Live Studio and be interviewed about my new book Zoreh, to talk about my writing process and my upcoming poetry reading at The Troubadour on May 1st.
I'm really excited to be launching my third collection Zoreh with a reading at the Troubadour on Tuesday, May 1st.
The Troubadour is such an iconic venue, Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan have both performed there. Before I lived in London I remember visiting the Troubadour, hearing poets read and being in awe of them.
I wanted to invite you along to the reading, it would be so nice to have you there, and I'll be reading new poems from the book which I have never recited before.
It was a dream come true to launch my third collection of poetry Zoreh with a reading at the iconic City Lights in San Francisco.
I’d asked Janaka Stucky to read with me as he’s a phenomenal poet I’d seen perform in May 2015 at the 50th anniversary of the Wholly Communion. The reading was held upstairs in the poetry room at City Lights and was so full people were sitting on the stairs.
Peter Marvelis introduced Janaka who started the reading. He drew the audience in and then blew them away reading from his collection The Truth Is We Are Perfect and his limited edition chapbook O My Prison dedicates to Jean Genet.
Afterwards I got up, to read my poems, before doing so I explained how City Lights is the Madison Square Garden of poetry venues, but for me City Lights holds so much more.
I started with Shackles, Feathers, and Cut Up and then went out to introduce and perform my new poems. Afterwards it was wonderful to shake hands and meet the diverse audience members. For some it was their very first poetry reading.
Reading at City Lights was an honour, a dream come true and a catalyst for more things to come. Thank you to Peter and the entire team of incredible people at City Lights.
Believing poetry is for all and all art is for all and all art should be accessible, I offered to do a poetry reading for the teenagers that make up the youth advisory board (YAB) of MoPop Museum in Seattle.
When I first went to MoPop (then still called EMP) in November 2015, I was blown aware by how immersive and beautiful the museum was. It was very well equipped and educational but not in a clunky, demonstrative way. It offered opportunity: young people visiting could play instruments and record music in the studios at the museum. It's because the YAB directly influence the teen program and contribute original content for The Soundboard and the museums online network. High school-aged youths can serve on YAB for two years.
In 2015, we watched students that had attended the after school programs get up on stage and give a dazzling performance at the Founders Award, holding their own. It moved me to tears.
So as soon as I knew I would be returning to Seattle I reached out to artistic director Jasen Emmons, who I’d enjoyed discussing Bob Dylan with extensively, and said I’d love to give a reading for the youth program.
It was arranged that in addition there would be a Q and A after so the students could ask me about living and working as a poet, being self published, running my own publishing company etc. I read a mix of my poems from all three collections and put into context the writing process and events and emotions that had produced them.
I was very moved to see one of the young men I’d seen perform back in 2015 sitting in the audience, he was first to raise his hand and ask a question after my reading. I was asked such thought provoking questions from the students and I found them incredibly inspiring.
I wish to thank Alisha Agard, Jacob McMurray and Jasen Emmons. I look forward to my next encounter with MOPOP Seattle, and the incredible souls that make it so magical.
I first visited Elliot Bay Books in 2015 during my first visit to Seattle. Now just as I was then, I was taken with the welcoming, artistic atmosphere of Seattle. On the cusp of the release of my third collection it seemed the right time to return and debut my new poems. I read for an hour starting with Shackles, and featuring other poems from Rocking Underground and The Lock And The Key. And of course a lot of new poems from Zoreh, many being read in public for the first time.
I’ve loved spending time in Seattle and my Seattle audience were so receptive and engaging. It was great to make new friends. I’m so thankful to Rick Simonson and Tracy, Liz, Sage and Tony, and Justus, the entire wonderful team for such a warm welcome. I love the atmosphere they’ve created, I can’t recommend Elliot Bay Books enough, more than a shop it’s a community (with the best matcha lattes) that has been part of Seattle now for 45 years.
I’m so grateful to be part of the Elliot Bay Tradition and have stood and read my work from the same lectern that Joan Didion, Allen Ginsberg, Haruki Murakami and Seamus Heaney have read from.
Photo by Justin Batchelor
Photo by Justin Batchelor
Photo by Justin Batchelor
Photo by Justin Batchelor
