Covert 6 workshops - Let the waters pour over you with Roy McFarlane FRSL

Let the waters pour over you

Un re-routethe rivers

Let the dammed waters be

We’ll be exploring the spirituality and the sensuality of waters. Getting caught in the rain, found under a waterfall, or hands that have moved like waters. We’ll be exploring the powerful metaphors, symbolism and lyrical liquidity of words to pour our passion onto the page. We’ll dip into the pool of great writers, including Pablo Neruda, Harriet Jacobs, Natalie Diaz, Gregory Porter, and many more. 

This workshop is part of Covert Literary Magazine Issue 6 is Water/Water in People’s Lives. For this issue, we welcome Guest Editors: Roy McFarlane FRSL, Fawzia Kane, Gemma Weekes, Remi Graves and Alinah Azadeh. The editorial team include: Amy Z. Glass, Claire Jacobs, Zita Holbourne FRSA, Jackie Mendoza, and Pauline Rutter.

Location & Access

This event will be online via Zoom. Captions and transcripts will be activated.

BSL interpreters are available upon request. For any questions or requests, please email access@writingourlegacy.org.uk

Who’s this workshop for?

This workshop is open to everyone

About Roy McFarlane

Roy McFarlane is a poet, writer and former youth and community worker born in Birmingham of Jamaican parentage, spending most of his years in Wolverhampton and the Black Country and now living in Brighton. He’s currently the National Canal Laureate.

He’s the former Birmingham Poet Laureate and co-editor of Celebrate Wha? Ten Black British Poets from the Midlands (Smokestack). His three collections are published by Nine Arches Press: Beginning With Your Last Breath and The Healing Next Time (shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize) and his third collection Living by Troubled Waters is out now.

He’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Wolverhampton. He continues to perform nationally and internationally sharing his passion for social justice, equality, identity love and the healing power of poetry as a witness to our times.

About Covert Literary Magazine

Covert Literary Magazine is a yearly publication of literature and visual art for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse writers and artists of colour. The magazine is based in Brighton, UK and was established in 2020. We publish fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, hybrid forms and artwork, with future issues embracing more experimental, journalism and audio visual content. Our aim is to provide a platform for new and underrepresented diverse talent for whom mainstream publishing opportunities are inaccessible, whose work is reviewed, edited and published alongside more established names.

Funders

The Covert Talent Development Programme is part of our Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation programme.

This issue is part of Downs to the Sea, a three-year nature programme that focuses on recovery and resilience in wetland habitats, led by the South Downs National Park Authority and supported by development funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The programme brings together a partnership comprising the South Downs National Park Trust, South Downs National Park Authority, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Western Sussex Rivers Trust, Brighton and Hove City Council and Writing Our Legacy.