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Picture The Poet in Sunderland: Rowan McCabe

Following the success of the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘Picture the Poet’ exhibition, we caught up with featured artist, Rowan McCabe, to hear about his recent experiences running young people’s workshops at the Sunderland Music Workshop Centre.

A few months ago, I was asked by Apples and Snakes to run some workshops at the Sunderland Music Workshop Centre. It was on the theme of identity, in response to the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘Picture the Poet’ exhibition and I really enjoyed being a part of it.

Over the weeks …

Sketches from Both Sides of The Sky by Holly Daffurn

In this month’s Home Cooking Poetry Podcast, author and poet Holly Duffurn explores the relationship between creativity and mental illness, and the use of poetry as an expressive tool…

Sketches from Both Sides of The Sky is a collection of poetry, literary snapshots and insights that explores the subject of inherited mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder/manic depression. One of the intentions of this podcast is to encourage others to use poetry as a tool to express their deep-rooted inherited tendencies.

How do manic words taste on a balanced tongue? How …

Kayo Chingonyi: Naming something that is at the limits of naming

Kayo Chingonyi, poet in residence at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, explores the concept of naturalness in relation to language…

As part of my role as commissioned poet for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ naturalness project, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we use language and also how language resists these uses. Many of the questions and comments that came out of the recent roundtable hosted by the Council (at which they introduced a draft of their report on the way the terms ‘natural’ and …

Shagufta K: No Longer Is Writing A Lonely Business

Ahead of Public Address: The Soapbox Tour, ensemble artist Shagufta K talks to us about the importance of collaborative creative environments…

When I returned to writing after taking some maternity leave from my full time job, writing and motherhood seemed completely compatible. But after a few months of writing in isolation, at unsociable breastfeeding hours, in between baby naps and on Friday nights. It occurred to me that this idea that writers can write anywhere and everywhere is a myth. Yes there are times when inspiration hits you and you …

Enough Fierce Will: SJ Litherland in her own words by Jo Colley

In this month’s Home Cooking poetry podcast, Jo Colley shines a light on North-East poet and editor SJ Litherland.

SJ Litherland is a brilliant poet and editor who lives in Durham. She has been published by Bloodaxe Books, Flambard Press and Iron Press, and has six collections to her name, with another one, Composition in White, awaiting publication. She is Editor in Chief of Vane Women and was for many years a member of Colpitts Poetry: arguably the organisers of the most prestigious poetry events …

Hannah Silva – Writing as Performance

Hannah Silva is an awarding winning poet, performer, and playwright known for her innovative explorations of language and voice in performance. As Apples and Snakes’ Poet of the Month for September and Artistic Director of Public Address: The Soapbox Tour, Hannah talks to us about the art of writing as performance.

I like to think of performing poetry as writing the poem right there in the moment of performance, discovering it with an audience, giving it breath and meaning. In performance the important thing is to do the writing …

Jess Green – Picture The Poet, Lincolnshire

Jess Green tells us about her experience of running workshops in a Lincolnshire care home, how she saw the young people grow more involved and gain self-confidence.

Over the past six weeks I have been running performance poetry workshops with a group of young girls aged between 14 and 19 in a care home in Lincolnshire. This was organised by Apples and Snakes, part of the Picture the Poet project, a National Portrait Gallery touring exhibition in partnership with the National Literacy Trust and Apples and Snakes.

My aim …

Apples and Snakes POTM: Yomi ‘GREEds’ Sode

Apples and Snakes’ Poet of the Month and Jawdance host Yomi Sode (a.k.a. GREEdS) talks to us about the highs and lows of showcasing his one-man show COAT.

I am excited and in good spirits at the moment. The Re:Play programme finished on July 25^th. I had the amazing opportunity of showcasing COAT. Not sure if I prepared myself for how intense the programme would be. I laughed, cried and re-drafted over and over again. I fell ill two days before show day! A tad bit disappointing. …

Home Cooking: Poets at Croome by Heather Wastie

August’s Home Cooking poetry podcast is produced by the 2015 Worcestershire Poet Laureate, Heather Wastie. Featuring poems by: Maggie Doyle, Polly Robinson, Fergus McGonigal, Kurly McGeachie, Matt Windle, Heather Wastie, Spoz, Marcia Calame and Brenda Read-Brown.

A poetry trail around National Trust property, Croome Park near Worcester in which poets introduce themselves and their poems and also read extracts from a modern National Trust guidebook and Hortus Croomensis, published in 1824. The latter part of the recording describes four participatory poetry projects and drops in on the Worcestershire LitFest …

Picture The Poet: Behind The Scenes

Writer and teacher, Vicky Morris, gives us an insight into working with South Yorkshire young people on the Picture the Poet project…

Everything great I see in relation to performance poetry almost always involves my favourite fruit and reptile combination – Apples and Snakes, so I was honoured to get the chance to work with them supporting young people on the brilliant Picture the Poet project in autumn 2014.

Not surprisingly, the project was a delight featuring everything a great project of this nature should – an intriguing and …