Contains Strong Language

Contains Strong Language is a brand new spoken word festival running from National Poetry Day on 28 September-1 October.

Published: 28 February 2017

The four-day festival will celebrate both new and existing work, packed with world premieres, concerts, outreach activity and television commissions.

Contains Strong Language will be produced by BBC Radio in partnership with Hull UK City of Culture, Hull City Council, Humber Mouth, British Council, BBC Learning, Wrecking Ball Press and a number of poetry organisations.

A Clockwork Orange - BBC Philharmonic and BBC Radio 3

In the year in which we celebrate the centenary of Anthony Burgess’ birth, BBC Radio Drama in collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic, present a UK premiere of his cult novel A Clockwork Orange.

In 1987 Burgess published a dramatisation of his own classic text which included songs and music also written by the Manchester-born novelist and poet. This will be the first time Burgess’ Clockwork Orange music has been performed along with the play in the UK.

Commissioned by BBC Radio 3, the radio theatre performance of A Play With Music will also be the second time it has been performed since his death, and the first time his songs have ever been broadcast. It will be recorded with an audience in Hull University’s Middleton Hall on Saturday 30 September and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in Drama On 3 the following evening (Sunday 1 October).

As well as including Burgess’ own songs, this dramatisation will include extracts from Beethoven’s symphonies performed by the BBC Philharmonic as described by Burgess in his dramatic text.

The Hull 17

At the heart of the festival will be The Hull 17 - an ensemble of the country’s most interesting and diverse artists - commissioned to create new work in the city throughout the duration of the festival. Poets including Kate Tempest, Dean Wilson, Jacob Polley, Imtiaz Dharker and Helen Mort, will visit Hull to engage in an array of activities such as school events, workshops, radio broadcasts and live performances.

A series of 17 collaborative works will be commissioned and presented at the landmark festival, including:

  • Landlines - The Washing Line Poems: Hull-born Dean Wilson will be poet in residence at BBC Radio Humberside from March to September 2017, and will join forces to inspire the local community to send in poems about where they live. The poems, to be written on postcards, will be hung from a mammouth washing line during the festival in Hull. The campaign launches on air on 20 March on Lizzie and Carl at Breakfast between 6-9pm.
  • Polish poet Bohdan Piasecki is working with the Polish community in Hull from March to September to produce poems which will be performed during Contains Strong Language.
  • Queen’s Gold Medal receiver, Imtiaz Dharker, will collaborate with Joined Up Dance company, to produce a new piece of work based on new poems which will emerge from visits to Hull and conversations with the company. Based in Hull, the dancers create dynamic performances with commissioned music. In this case, inspiration will come from words.

The Verb New Voices Scheme

Alongside The Hull 17, Contains Strong Language will showcase brand new talent through the Verb New Voices Scheme, which will announce three new writers from the area at the festival. In partnership with New Writing North, the BBC will provide mentoring and support for three new artists who will receive a package of development support, a targeted two-day workshop at the BBC, as well as professional development support with writing and performing across the year. The artists will also receive a broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb and will perform new work at the festival.

BBC Radio

Across the BBC, all network radio stations will take part in the festival through audience-facing projects and hosting some of the most popular programmes from the city including:

  • Jo Whiley - BBC Radio 2
  • The Verb with Ian McMillan - BBC Radio 3
  • Free Thinking - BBC Radio 3
  • Front Row - BBC Radio 4
  • Afternoon Edition - BBC Radio 5 live
  • Radcliffe and Maconie - BBC Radio 6 Music
  • Cerys Matthews - BBC Radio 6 Music