What's On

Browse four days of gala readings, live radio broadcasts, TV and film screenings, music gigs and open mic nights, first edition readings, outreach activity, discussion sessions, cultural tours and workshops.

Film Screening
W.H. Auden in a New Age of Anxiety
11:00 - 12:00

W.H. Auden in a New Age of Anxiety examines why Auden’s poetry still shines through in the 21st century. This film explores the peculiar hold that this angry young man of the 1930s still has on our individual psyches and what he can tell us about the perilous political climate in which we live.

Fruit | Map
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The Verb
International Poets
11:30 - 12:30

Ian McMillan presents The Verb, Radio 3’s cabaret of the spoken word with a host of international poets from Latvia, America and Poland including Michael Dickman, Bodhan Piasecki, Orbita, and the Trinidad Talking Doorsteps project with Joe Hakim.

Hull College | Map
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Kate Fox
12:00 - 12:45

Kate Fox has made a living as a stand-up poet for ten years. Being funny & Northern is sometimes a help and sometimes a hindrance and she’s doing a PhD about why. Sometimes they let her on Radio 4. Her car radio is tuned to Radio 2. She is currently making #Lass War on the man-heavy Northern Powerhouse.

Kardomah94 | Map
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Film Screening
Mersey Beat Poetry Movement
12:30 - 13:30

In 1967 Penguin Books published The Mersey Sound, number 10 in the Modern Poets series, by Liverpool poets Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri. It went on to sell over 500,000 copies.

In the same year that The Beatles released Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Liverpool established itself as a focal point in the cultural revolution of the Summer of Love, thanks to the publication of this crucial anthology.

This hour-long film for BBC Four celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the collection, through the eyes of the two surviving poets, Roger McGough and Brian Patten, and their many followers - from Craig Charles and John Cooper Clarke to Willy Russell and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Fruit | Map
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Women of Words
13:00 - 14:00

Hull’s Women of Words collective join forces with Northern poet Kate Fox to celebrate the voices of the trailblazing women of Hull. From girl groups to girl power, last orders to lass war, boxers to burlesquers, Mums to meat rafflers, natives to newbies, we’ve gone out and spoken to dozens of women and woven their stories into our stories and the stories of the city. Powerful, funny, poignant, punchy poetry mixed up with a few surprises…

Kardomah94 | Map
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Film Screening
Men Who Sleep in Cars
14:00 - 15:15

Men Who Sleep In Cars by Michael Symmons Roberts is written entirely in verse. Sarah (Maxine Peake) finds the familiar streets of Manchester, a backdrop to the film, difficult to leave. As well as being a love song to a city, the film explores how three men came to sleep in their vehicles, and how their lives, turned upside down for very different reasons, interconnect.

Fruit | Map
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Between the Ears
14:00 - 15:00

Hull ‘17 poets Helen Mort and Hannah Silva perform two very different new imaginative works which blend adventurous sound and interview with exceptional poetry. Inspired by the life and work of legendary climber Gwen Moffat, Helen Mort will be climbing a route on rock in the Lake District then trying to recreate the experience through language, investigating her theory that a climb is ‘a set of instructions for the body.’ Can poetry evoke what it’s really like to be on the edge? Hannah Silva presents Solitary confinement - described as deep custody, a prison within a prison. Hannah Silva’s Solitary is an immersive sound experience of segregation as a woman battles with time.

Hull College | Map
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Poetry from Poland
14:30 - 15:00

Wojciech Cichon, Weronika Lewandowska, and Bohdan Piasecki perform poetry in celebration of Polish culture here in the UK alongside poets from Poland. This event sees the three poets present their work in varying styles.

Kardomah94 | Map
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Bohdan Piasecki
15:15 - 16:15

Bohdan Piasecki is a poet from Poland based in Birmingham. He has taken his poems to venues ranging from the upstairs room in an Eastbourne pub to the main stage of the Birmingham Rep. Bohdan will be presenting work created over the last few months at his pop-up poetry stations from the streets of Hull.

Kardomah94 | Map
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Film Screening
Through the Lens of Larkin
15:30 - 16:00

Through the Lens of Larkin: poet and Hull University academic John Wedgwood Clarke (Books That Made Britain) will get on his bike and follow in the tyre tracks of the man himself to explore the places and relationships which shaped one of the 20th Century’s greatest poets.

Fruit | Map
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Grace Nichols and John Agard
15:30 - 16:30

John Agard and Grace Nichols are joined by poets from Trinidad to celebrate Caribbean poetry, performance and culture. John Agard has consistently defied what is expected and established his career as a poet, bringing a uniquely Caribbean voice to our shores to help broaden the horizons of both adults and children, challenging educators to look beyond their narrow frames of reference. Grace Nichols’ work has been central to our understanding of the important cultural Caribbean-British connection for nearly 3 decades.

Hull Central Library | Map
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Film Screening
Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster
16:30 - 17:30

Sophie Lancaster was kicked to death in a Lancashire park in 2007 because of her appearance. Sylvia Lancaster remembers her daughter and the tragic events after the attack as Sophie tells her own story through a sequence of poems written by poet by Simon Armitage. With Rachel Austin and Julie Hesmondhalgh to mark the 10th anniversary of Sophie’s death in 2007.

Fruit | Map
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Lamanby
16:30 - 17:30

Poet Jacob Polley recovers an extraordinary house of dream-memory through words put to a powerful soundscape, created and performed by John Alder. Lamanby movingly explores how we might hold on to what matters…

Hull College | Map
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Dean Wilson and Joelle Taylor
16:30 - 17:45

Readings from Joelle Taylor, the Artistic Director of SLAMbassadors UK, and Dean Wilson, twenty years a postman and eleven years as Hull’s self-proclaimed fourth-best poet. Joelle has performed for the British Council, nationally and internationally, touring numerous countries including Zimbabwe and Botswana. Dean’s first collection is out now with Wrecking Ball Press.

Hull College | Map
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Zena Edwards and Harry Giles
18:00 - 19:30

Readings from writer and performer Harry Giles, and writer/poet and vocalist Zena Edwards. Harry is from Orkney and has lived on four islands, each larger than the last. Harry trained in Theatre Directing and Sustainable Development and their work generally happens in the crunchy places where performance and politics get muddled up. Zena was raised in Tottenham and has become known as one the most unique voices of performance poetry to come out of London. She won the Hidden Creatives Award 2012.

Kardomah94 | Map
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Film Screening
Talking Doorsteps Films
18:00 - 19:00

Talking Doorsteps is a spoken word exchange project that explores the idea of “home” by connecting young poets and filmmakers from across the globe and sharing their work digitally with audiences worldwide. For Hull 2017, The Roundhouse, Wrecking Ball Press and the Bocas Lit Fest have teamed up with the British Council and the BBC. Over the course of three workshops in Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago), Hull (UK) and London (UK), the next generation of spoken word artists from the Caribbean and the UK have developed new work which has been filmed by filmmaker Pippa Riddick. Join us for a screening of the films and insight into the project with Joe Hakim.

Fruit | Map
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• Watch our exclusive film about the Talking Doorsteps project

Tracey Thorne and Ben Watt in Conversation
18:00 - 19:00

The duo chat with Simon Armitage, discussing their songs and books, and their years in Hull where they formed bestselling band Everything But The Girl.

Hull Central Library | Map
FREE ADMISSION | Sold out

Front Row
19:00 - 20:00

Join the audience for a live broadcast of Front Row, Radio 4’s flagship arts programme, presented by John Wilson and featuring an exuberant mix of interviews, discussion, and performance.

Hull College | Map
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Hull Liming
20:00 - 22:00

Experience the spoken word, music and sensations of a Trinidad-style lime, where the Caribbean meets Hull in an evening of performances, stories, kaiso, drinks and a guest DJ. Featuring John Agard, Grace Nichols, Chiedu Oraka, Jay Bernard, Alex Stewart, Seth Sylvester and guests, plus award-winning calypsonian Tobago Crusoe. Hosted by Melanie Abrahams, with Reggae, Soca, Afrobeat, Brazilian, Jazz, Electronic music and sounds of the city by Wai Wan. Go with the flow, unwind, take part! Produced by Tilt.

Kardomah94 | Map
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Dr John Cooper Clarke and Special Guests
20:00 - 22:00

Dr John Cooper Clarke shot to prominence in the 1970s as the original ‘people’s poet’.

Since then his career has spanned cultures, audiences, art forms and continents. Today, JCC is as relevant and vibrant as ever, and his influence just as visible on today’s pop culture. His latest show is a mix of classic verse, extraordinary new material, hilarious ponderings on modern life, good honest gags, riffs and chat - a chance to witness a living legend at the top of this game. John will appear with Special Guests Toria Garbutt and Mike Garry.

University of Hull | Map
Middleton Hall
Tickets: £25 from hull2017.co.uk

1Xtra: Words First
20:00 - 22:00 (doors open at 19:00)

Presented by 1Xtra’s Mim Shaikh. BBC 1Xtra bring their Words First poets to Hull to celebrate the musical lyricism at the heart of the station’s identity. Bashy’s controversial Black Boys is fundamental to 1Xtra’s history, and now we revisit the track through spoken word. The night features original work from Isaiah Hull, Asma Elbadawi, Solomon O.B., Amina Jama, Reuben Fields and Liam McCormick, plus live music from the freshest talent including Hull’s very own Chiedu Oraka.

The Old School House | Map
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Note: The Old School House, Malton St, Hull, HU9 1BA (formerly Bongo Bongo)

Verb Live: Radio 3
20:00 - 22:45

Ian McMillan presents Radio 3’s The Verb, broadcasting live from Hull with a look at the poetry inspired by the city including the 2017 new ‘washing line’ poems with Dean Wilson and Vicky Foster, Imtiaz Dharker’s piece for JoinedUp dance company, and a new look at Larkin.

Hull College | Map
The Horncastle Building
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