It’s the year 2021. In an effort to preserve our country’s values and national security, the government has decided that certain words can no longer be used. By restricting what we can and can’t say, they claim we can unite our country against terrorism and extremist ideas. In a way it has worked. Writers and journalists are now silent, unable to question their government and report on their questionable doings. Everyone is on the same page when debate becomes impossible.

Now an underground poetry society is meeting in a secret location to try something radical - to write a subversive poem without being discovered. Nostalgic for the freedom of expression they enjoyed only five years before, they want to see if art can still exist in this heavily censored world. There is just one problem. All walls have ears, and the vocabulary available to these poets has been heavily restricted. To avoid being found out and arrested, the writers must avoid using these banned words at all costs.

Can you write a poem when you don’t have the words? This writing workshop will be led by Marjorie Lotfi Gill, poet and founder of Open Book, in the basement of Forest Cafe.

Tickets are free-of-charge. Spaces are limited so booking is essential.