A day of poetry workshops at artsdepot on Saturday 26th July

Promotional image for Poetry from Page to Stage at Artsdepot

An exciting day of poetry workshops with an open mic finale to share your work in front of a live audience at the artsdepot Creation Space.

Whether you have never put pen to paper to write a poem or enjoy a regular writing practice, this is a chance to create new work in a relaxed and supportive environment with three individual workshops, each led by a published poet.

Urban Nature with Lisa Kelly:

Join Lisa Kelly for this generative workshop to explore how our local urban environment is alive with nature to inspire our writing.

From weeds in cracks in the pavement to flowers in window boxes, and beyond – nature is all around us and often thrives in unexpected places. We will look at poems that approach nature in traditional as well as more radical ways and create our own responses to the broad spectrum of nature writing. Whether or not you have green fingers, come along and let your inner naturalist flourish.

Lisa Kelly (she/her) is a poet and editor based in London. Her second collection, The House of the Interpreter (Carcanet) was a Poetry Book Society Summer Recommendation in 2023. She is a board member of Magma Poetry and was shortlisted for the 2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry for Best Single Poem – Written with her poem, “I wanted to show you a donkey in the field”. She is a judge for the 2025 Forward Prizes for Poetry.

Comic Poems with David Floyd

Join David Floyd for an interactive workshop exploring comedy in poetry.

The secret of comedy might be about timing and delivery, but what makes us laugh out loud in poetry? Does it depend on the writing? Or on the delivery? Sense of humour is subjective, and there are many types of humour within poetry from the ironic to the subversive. In this poetry workshop, we will explore different poems and different comic effects achievable on the page from the use of white space to suggest timing to humorous rhymes. We will explore how we can push our comic potential through writing prompts and have the opportunity to share our comedy poems at the open mic finale. Come and have some fun!

David Floyd (he/him) lives in London and is Managing Director of Social Spider CIC. His pamphlets are Protest (Hearing Eye) and War in the Playground (Hearing Eye). He is a board member of Magma Poetry and he performs regularly at open mic spots in north London. He has a special interest in performance poetry and the intersection between page and stage poetry.

Self Portrait as a Concrete Poetry with Patrizia Longhitano

Discover the art of Concrete Poetry with Patrizia Longhitano.

When we think of Concrete Poetry, we usually think of visual art rather than an oral or audio creative language, but if we look at its history, we find plenty of examples where concrete or visual poetry becomes an innovative and cutting-edge instrument to craft your performance – pushing the barriers and limits of what poetry is or can be.

This workshop will explore various examples of visual poetry especially from the Futurism movement like Marinetti and Govoni.

Through exercises we will try to test and seek different ways to perform and enhance poetic pieces while pushing the boundaries of what poetry can be with the aim of creating a final piece as a self-portrait in poetic form.

Patrizia Longhitano (she/her) is a pansexual Latinx immigrant poet and visual artist who lives in London, currently working as assistant manager at the Poetry Pharmacy in Oxford Street.  Since summer 2023, she has been the host of Venn Diagrams, a monthly poetry event at the Torriano Meeting House in Kentish Town, London. She is a board member of Magma Poetry.

Playing with Poetry: Workshop Sharing

Hear from workshop participants as they share their poems and writing developed through the Playing with Poetry day.

They will be joined with short readings from poets and workshop leaders Lisa Kelly, David Floyd and Patrizia Longhitano, as well as special guest poet Leo Boix.

Leo Boix (he/him) is a Latinx-British poet and translator. He is the author of Ballad of a Happy Immigrant (Chatto & Windus), a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice. His second collection Southernmost: Sonnets (Chatto & Windus) launched this summer. He is a fellow of the The Complete Works Program and a co-director of Un Nuevo Sol, a scheme to nurture new Latinx writers.

This event is free to attend to any ticket holders who attended the Urban Nature, Comic Poems, or Self Portrait as a Concrete Poetry workshops. This event is £5 for non-workshop attendees.

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