https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/nottingham

My first time organising in Nottingham, and an extraordinarily resonant experience it was working with Hannah Trevarthen and the team at UNESCO Nottingham City of Literature, to whom basically I owe the whole adventure. Nottingham Contemporary was our venue, really a stunning space, and the process of curating allowed me to connect with a new scene of poets as well as old friends. In the end it came together in the spirit of community and newness that I’m trying to make synonymous with my festival and the Camarade model. 7 performances, 14 poets, a good audience and a proper range of approaches to poetry, collaboration and liveness. Everyone seemed happy at the close, with small creatures in hand. Well worth a look at the videos and photos at the link above.

For my own part I did an improvisation of talk poetry and dance poetry with my old friend and collaborator Colin and it came out good I think. We used the space, we made it from what was there, what had been said, the depth of what was happening. He is an extraordinary poet and performer.