Hive at Sheaf Poetry Festvial 2023
From 21st to 28th May 2023 it’s… the Sheaf Poetry Festival 2023 and we’re very excited to be part of the action again!
It’s such a joy to see so many Hive young poets being celebrated at the festival this year, including Luke Worth, Young Poet in Residence for Sheaf this year. Here’s a rundown of the events you can catch them. Note, there are a range of ticket options including pay what you can afford, streaming online and a weekend festival pass. Thanks to Suzannah Evans and Gevi Carver from the festival for giving Hive young poets such a great platform to be heard and develop. You can find the full festival programme here.
HIVE RELATED EVENTS
On Friday 26th May, (19:30 – 21:30pm) Hive poet and Doncaster Young Writers alumnus Safia Khan, will read alongside Charlotte Shevchenko Knight at Dead Women Poets Society: Poetry ‘séance’ at the atmospheric Samuel Worth Chapel at Sheffield General Cemetery. Dead [Women] Poets Society resurrects women writers through exploration by living poets. After, there’ll be an open mic where audience members are encouraged to share a poem by a dead woman poet, as well as, or instead of, a poem of their own. Sign up to the open mic. And you can buy Saifa’s stunning debut New Poets Prize-winning pamphlet here.
On Saturday 27th May, (11.30am – 13.30pm) we are in partnership with Sheaf for a young people’s poetry workshop with Nigerian British writer Yomi Sode at Theatre Deli, Sheffield. Yomi’s debut collection Manorism (Penguin 2022) is published alongside a stage adaptation at the Southbank Centre and shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2023 and the T S Eliot Prize 2022. The workshop, exploring language, the intention behind why we write, what we write, and whether it reaches its desired outcome, is FREE to young people of all interests and experience levels aged 15 to 25 and we’d love you to sign up if that’s you!
Following the workshop (after lunch) Yomi Sode will read alongside a showcase of Hive poets (list to be added soon), from Sheffield and beyond, including Sheaf Young Poet in Residence Luke Worthy. Luke is also writing a commissioned poem under the festival theme of Brains & Consciousness (read during that event). The showcase as also at Theatre Deli Saturday 27th May 2.30 – 3.45pm) and you can book a FREE ticket here.
On Sunday 28th May (14:30 – 15:30pm) at Theatre Deli, Hive poet Warda Yassin will read at the launch of a new anthology, Tunes of Enchantment. Led by Shirin Teifouri, the anthology presents the work of a group of women with roots from Nigeria, Jamaica, Zimbabwe, Somalia, and Iran. They’ve been meeting and sharing their writing throughout lockdown and beyond, supported by mental health charity Sheffield Flourish. Book (PAYF) here.
And at 4-5pm it’s the launch of the pamphlets of last year’s New Poets Prize Winners: Serena Alagappan, Tom Branfoot, Chloe Elliot & our very own Beth Davies. Beth’s pamphlet The Pretence of Understanding, available to pre-order, is a brilliant and captivating read. Since 2016, the Poetry Business New Poets’ Prize has offered publication and development opportunities to poets aged 17-24. Book here.
And to conclude Hive happenings at the festival, you can catch Hive poet and BBC Radio Sheffield presenter Sile Sibanda reading alongside fabulous local poets Helen Mort and Rachel Bower at the Sheffield Showcase Finale. There’ll also be music from Rosey PM and an open mic (Sunday 28th May, 8 – 10.30pm, Theatre Deli)
To browse the full Sheaf Poetry Festival programme, click here >>