​Poetry reading for The Town And The City Festival with Janaka Stucky and Andrea Gibson, at Christ Church United in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA 19 Oct 2018

After my poetry reading at City Lights with Janaka Stucky in March to launch my latest collection Zoreh, we chatted with members of the audience and signed books for them.

One person who came up to talk to me, was Chris Porter and he said he was establishing a festival in Lowell, Massachusetts to honour Jack Kerouac. Lowell was Jack Kerouac's hometown, and the festivals name The Town And The City is the title of Kerouac's first novel.

Chris wanted me perform, so last Friday I found myself reunited with Janaka Stucky at Christ Church United in Lowell. Poet Andrea Gibson was also on the bill.

For the reading I performed a selection of work from Zoreh and The Lock And The Key. I also read a new poem in memory of Jack Kerouac, that I had written especially for the event. It will be in my next collection.

It was wonderful to be able to see Janaka Stucky perform again, he gave us some poems from his 2015 collection The Truth Is We Are Perfect published by Third Man Books. It was my first time seeing Andrea Gibson perform and it was interesting to see her in action and meet her prior to our show.

Earlier in the day, I had the great pleasure of going into the local WCAP Radio station Lowell. Chris Porter and I explained how we met, and Chris, who had grown up in Lowell, spoke about why he wanted to start the festival. I spoke of how inspiring I have found the Beat poets, particularly Kerouac.

As it happens, the Copper Kettle a bar next door to the radio station had been a regular haunt of Kerouac's in his day. It was surreal to be treading the same pavements he would've done. WCAP Radio was established in 1951 and their studio had photos of Lowell in the 50's and traditional recording equipment and records.

I felt so welcomed by them and all the people I met Lowell, it's an inspiring place, rich in history and I'm looking forward to being able to return soon.

Interview and poetry reading with Tony Moore on Soho Radio 22 Sep 2018

It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Tony Moore for his Saturday morning program on Soho Radio. We chatted about inspiration and my new collection Zoreh, I read Fifth Circle of Hell from that collection. I also read my poem "Ocean" from The Lock And the Key.

Poetry reading at Atlantis Bookshop, Museum Street, London 10 Sep 2018

On Monday night I returned to the historical Atlantis bookshop, to give a reading of my new work Zoreh. It had been a year and a half since my last reading at Atlantis in March 2017. So it was great to be able to share new poems with them such as Elegy, and Lilith in the Midheaven. It was packed with over 50 people present who gave me such a warm welcome, creating a lovely energy for the reading. Atlantis is an independent bookstore, family run. It is so valuable to the community and carries real history, with D.H Lawrence and W.B Yeats frequented the shop regularly.

Also that evening at Atlantis, artist Jeanie Laub's exhibition opened. I find her work very interesting, and it was very powerful to see a large collection of work hanging in Atlantis.

Performance at Byline Festival, Sussex 26 Aug 2018

Byline Festival is an annual four day Festival, held in Sussex over the last weekend of August. The festivals aim is to promote independent journalism and free speech. Headline acts and talks this year were given by Pussy Riot, Bonnie Greer and Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie.

Scarlett with poet Oakley after their performance

The wonderful Salena Godden was Poet Laureate for Byline Festival, she received a standing ovation for her headline performance at the festival on Saturday night. I was honoured to be one of her selected poets to perform in the poetry tent on Sunday night. I must confess this was the first festival I've ever been to. I gave a fifteen minute set, beneath a full moon and a very receptive crowd of people, creating a lovely atmosphere. I was so blown away by the other poets Salena had invited, particularly Oakley. It was a wonderful evening.

Salena Godden performing onstage at Byline Festival

Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship Roundtable Talks 09 Aug 2018

Last year I had the honour of being nominated for a Jerwood Compton Poetry grant. It was a pleasure this year to be invited to speak at the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship Roundtable talks.

We spent a wonderful morning discussing the topic of "Professionalism or die". We chatted at length about life as a poet in the world today. Pictured here with the wonderful and lovely Joy Francis who is Project Manager.

Poetry reading with Benjamin Aleshire at The Troubadour, Old Brompton Road 24 Jul 2018

I first met Benjamin Aleshire in Paris at Shakespeare and Company in 2016. I was there to give a reading to launch my second collection The Lock And The Key. I'd noticed him sitting outside Shakespeare and Co with a typewriter and a handmade sign that read: "Poet For Hire". Sylvia Whitman urged me to commission him, saying she's given him the topic of motherhood and he's given her the most profound poem in which he had expressed how she felt about motherhood. So i approached Ben and gave him a few sentences about the night of my first ever poetry reading on the 12th November 2013. The result is the poem "Worlds End" which is very dear to my heart. In addition to touring the world as a troubadour, Ben was recently featured in The Times and his broadsides and books are archived in the Special Collections of Yale University, the University of Vermont, and St. Lawrence University. He was awarded a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council, as well as the Chighizola Poetry Prize from the University of New Orleans.

So, when Ben contacted me and said he'd like to do a reading with me whilst he was in London I happily agreed. I was curious to hear how his words that worked so beautifully on the page would sound when he recited them. He gave a great reading and has a strong presence. He also shared a segment from his memoir. It was a pleasure to be in front of an audience at The Troubadour again, and share my new poems from my new collection Zoreh. It was truly a wonderful reading and I look forward to the next time I am reunited with Ben, whichever country it may be in.

Poetry reading at Handel&Hendrix Museum, 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, London 23 Jul 2018

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.

Poetry reading to celebrate SMEAR being sold at Urban Outfitters, Oxford Street 28 Jun 2018

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.

Poetry reading at The Troubadour, Brompton Road, London 25 Jun 2018

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.

Poetry reading at Shakespeare and Co, Paris 05 Jun 2018

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.

I can't wait to return.

Poetry reading at Listowel Writers Week, Ireland 02 Jun 2018

It was a joy to be invited to perform at Listowel Writers Week.

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.

Poetry reading at Leighton House Museum 23 May 2018

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.

Photo by Dave Brolan

Photo by Dave Brolan

Photo by Justin Batchelor

Photo by Justin Batchelor

Photo by Justin Batchelor

Photo by Justin Batchelor