I run participatory arts projects and teach creative writing. I’ve worked in schools, with older people, in mental health contexts, queer spaces, community gardens and more. I’m particularly interested in using poetry and stories towards building a more just, more sustainable, kinder world through community and solidarity, and I work to create spaces which are as safe and accessible as possible for people who are marginalised.
Collaboration is key to this kind of project – if you’re interested in working together, I would love to come up with something that fits your group or community. Please get in touch!
Recent projects include…
Meet Me at Lewisham Homes
The Albany’s Meet Me At… programme provides a programme of creative and social activities for people aged 60+. In 2018-19 I was a lead artist on one of these projects in supported accommodation – over twelve weeks, we did a wide range of activities combining writing with the participants’ interest in crafts, drawing, games, and more. At the end of the project, I put together Your Rabbit is Menacing the Neighbourhood, a book which included writing and art from all of the people who had been involved in the project. The title comes from one of the stories – you’ll just have to read it to find out what happened…
Residency: Back from the Brink
From 2018-20, I was an artist in residence with Back from the Brink, a nation-wide conservation project saving some of England’s most threatened species. I delivered five projects with local communities, exploring and celebrating the work that they do to make futures for the plants, animals, and fungi that we share our home with. These included a new anthology of speculative poetry and fiction, lanterns which spoke to endangered moths, a collaborative artwork celebrating the Black-tailed Godwit, and more.
Open Gardens Treasure Trail
Hari Byles and I – as the Earthlings collective – developed a project linking Bethnal Green Nature Reserve with the many community growing spaces around it. We were awarded the Live Art Development Agency ’s Garrett Centre Commission, and further funding from the Mayor of London’s Culture Seeds, to put together a series of workshops and collaborations, working with local growers to create installations from their stories of gardening in Bethnal Green. We brought it all together in an Open Gardens Trail, with a map designed by Soofiya, and workshops run by local people – all finished off with a feast and performances. You can read more about it and download Connecting Words, the zine we made to record it all, here.
