Birmingham Poetry All Stars: Casey Bailey, Jasmine Gardosi, Safiya Kinshasa & Roy McFarlane
On National Poetry Day, an evening of poets who write amazing work and bring it to the stage with stunning skill.
Jasmine Gardosi is one of the stand out poetry performers in the country, who constantly pushes the boundaries of what we can do in both the writing and performance of poetry.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a British-born Barbadian-raised poet, dancer, choreographer and researcher whose exhilarating style of poetics is a force to be reckoned with. Her interdisciplinary art braids dance and poetry on the page and stage.
Roy McFarlane is the Canal Laureate and former Birmingham Poet Laureate, and one of the poets who really broke ground for the formation of the thriving poetry scene that we see in the West Midlands, today.
Come and see these awesome poets, in one space, and you will leave inspired.
Hosted by Casey Bailey
All events on National Poetry Day are sponsored by Birmingham City University.
About the speakers:
Casey Bailey is the current Birmingham Poet Laureate and is a writer, performer and educator, born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, UK. Casey released his debut full collection of poetry, Adjusted in 2018 with Verve Poetry Press and his second collection Please Do Not Touch with Burning Eye in 2021. Casey’s play GrimeBoy was commissioned by the Birmingham Rep and performed in early 2022. Casey’s poetry has featured in a number of anthologies and he was commissioned by the BBC to write The Ballad of The Peaky Blinders in 2019. He has performed his poetry nationally, and internationally.
Jasmine Gardosi is a multiple slam champion, Birmingham Poet Laureate finalist and winner of the Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry. She is a previous BBC Arts Young Creative, Poet in Residence for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Writer in Residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Jasmine uses audience participation, beatboxing and manipulation of voice and body in order to explore LGBTQ+ issues, self-expression, identity and mental health. Her work has appeared on Sky Arts, Button Poetry, at the Tate Modern, Glastonbury Festival, and across BBC Radio. Her poem about the pandemic, filmed on a rollercoaster, was broadcast across America on PBS.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a British-born, Barbadian-raised interdisciplinary poet who chiefly uses dance to compose her poetry. Safiya is also a national and international spoken word champion and in 2019 won the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Poetry Slam Championships. In 2020 she won the New Voice in Poetry prize and was shortlisted for the Out-Spoken Page Poetry Prize and Creative Future Writer’s Award. In 2022 Safiya won 3rd place in the London Magazine Poetry Prize. She is an Obsidian Foundation fellow and Jerwood Arts/ Apples & Snakes Poetry in Performance recipient. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals including The Caribbean Writer, Poetry London, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, The London Magazine and Magma. Her first collection Cane, Corn & Gully is forthcoming with Out-Spoken Press in November 2022.
Roy McFarlane is a Poet, Playwright and former Youth & Community Worker born in Birmingham of Jamaican parentage spending most of his years living in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, now residing in Brighton. Roy is Canal Laureate for Britain, and Birmingham & Midlands Institute Poet in Residence, as well as being the former Birmingham Poet Laureate. His debut collection, Beginning With Your Last Breath, was followed by The Healing Next Time (Nine Arches Press 2018), nominated for the Ted Hughes award and Jhalak Prize.
