My Words: The Launch

Words of Colour is 'The Immersive Change Agency'. Guided by disruption, transformation, inclusion and anti-racism, we create alternative pathways for writers, creatives, entrepreneurs and communities of colour to thrive.

Words of Colour

Join us at the live launch of a ground-breaking digital exhibition celebrating the legacy of poets of colour in Britain, over 250 years.

Manchester Poetry Library

<p><em>My Words</em>, the UK’s first hybrid exhibitions showcasing poets of colour over 250 years, will be launched by the Museum of Colour on Wednesday 14th September 2022, at Manchester Poetry Library.</p><p>Co-Curated by Samenua Sesher OBE (Museum of Colour), Melanie Abrahams (Renaissance One) and Joy Francis (Words of Colour), be the first to get an exclusive preview of<em> My Words</em> digital exhibition featuring stunning commissioned portraits of over 30 amazing poets, past and present.</p><p>Come and enjoy a post-lockdown night of poetry, art, liming and music, including specially created performances by award-winning guitarist and composer Aziz Ibrahim, Keisha Thompson, poet and CEO, Contact Theatre with a guest appearance by acclaimed Kathak performer and choreographer Kanchan Maradan, DJ Mix-Stress and more, with refreshments inspired by Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.</p><p>This will be a BSL interpreted event.</p><h3>Programme</h3><p>View the<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/jm6661nobztl6pp/MyWords_Programme.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>full programme here</strong></a>.</p><h3>Directions</h3><p><strong>How to find Manchester Poetry Library</strong></p><p>Manchester Poetry Library is located in the heart of the city on Oxford Road on the Manchester Metropolitan University campus. To find us head to Grosvenor Building (Arts &amp; Humanities) which is on the Corner of Oxford Road and Cavendish Street at M15 6BG.</p><p>The best entrance for visitors is the portico column entrance on the All Saints Park side of the building, or through The Grove café.</p><p>The Poetry Library is straight ahead of you with the main reception and lifts on your left.</p><p>There is also a full location map and pin at  https://www.mmu.ac.uk/poetrylibrary/visit/</p><p></p><h3>Filming / Access</h3><p><strong>Please note</strong>: There will be photography and filming at this event.</p><p><strong>Access</strong>: The venue is wheelchair accessible. If you need any reasonable adjustments made to attend the event, please email Joy Francis at info@wordsofcolour.co.uk.</p>

<h2>Guest artists and poets</h2><h2></h2><h2>Aziz Ibrahim</h2>

<p></p><p>
Award-winning guitarist, composer an educationalist, Aziz is Founder of the ‘Desi GuitR’ and the ‘Asian Blues’ and is currently an experimental solo creative producer working in the Arts sector. Aziz is known for his work as lead guitarist for Simply Red, The Stone Roses and several internationally acclaimed bands and artists including Ian Brown, Paul Weller, Rebel MC &amp; Errol Brown (Hot Chocolate). He has also worked and performed with reggae artists such as Dennis Brown, Barrington Levi and Freddy McGregor and is the lead guitarist with the Pakistani band 'Overload' and the EDM collective 'Fret Sector'. 
</p><p>
</p><p>As well as contemporary music, he recently composed a South Asian symphony for the Manchester Camerata Orchestra on a hugely successful project “Lahore to Longsight” which sold out 'Home Manchester’ Theatre 1. After working closely with The University of Salford, inn2018 Aziz Ibrahim was awarded 'Doctor of Arts' honoris causa in recognition of his work in music, culture, equality and as a role model to many working class young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
</p><p></p>

<h2>Keisha Thompson</h2>
P﻿hoto credit: benji reid

<p>Keisha is the UK’s first poet to run a multi-arts venue as Keisha Thompson as Artistic Director and CEO of Contact Theatre, Manchester. A Manchester-based writer, performance artist and producer, she has been associated with Contact as an artist and leader since she was 15. Keisha is also the Senior Learning Programme Manager for The World Reimagined, Chair of radical arts funding body, Future’s Venture Foundation, a MOBO x London Theatre Consortium Fellow and a member of Greater Manchester Cultural and Heritage Group, and recipient of The Arts Foundation Theatre Makers Award 2021. </p><p>Besides her work, she has supported artists such as Kae Tempest, Hollie McNish, The Last Poets, Saul Williams, Amiri Baraka and has performed in Brave New Voices festivals 2008 &amp; 2009. Her work has been presented at venues high profile venues and platforms such as Tate Modern, Blue Dot Festival and the British Council Showcase in Edinburgh.</p>

<h2>Anjum Malik </h2>
P﻿hoto credit: Randolph Redlin 


<p>A poet and scriptwriter, Anjum is currently one of the first appointed multilingual City Poet of Manchester. She is also a Senior Lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.  Her first poetry collection, ‘Before the Rains’ was published by Huddersfield University Press, and her poems also feature in several anthologies. Food, hard to reach groups and stories are main themes in her writing.  </p><p>Anjum has also written several much-acclaimed original plays for BBC, ITV and for the theatre. Currently she is developing a TV drama series for BBC and a stage play for Rifco Theatre company. Her previous jobs include police officer, interpreter, business owner and classical Indian Kathak dancer. She was born in Saudi Arabia of Pakistani heritage. Anjum is currently based in Manchester.</p>

<p>Hafsah is an award-winning Manchester-based poet, playwright and producer originally from East London. Founder and Co-Director of Outside the Frame Arts, she the winner of the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2019, is an Associate Artist with The Poetry Exchange, an Associate Artist with Oldham Coliseum Theatre and was a Supported Artist at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Creating socially engaged work with community at its heart, her play Cuts Of The Cloth was commissioned for PUSH Festival 2019. Her debut poetry collection The Celox And The Clot is published by Burning Eye Books. Recent works included writing the libretto for The Bridge Between Breaths, a FormidAbility and Tete a Tete Festival commission exploring Britain’s involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade. She is currently an Artist in Residence, story mapping in Pendle Hill with In-Situ. </p>

<p>Ruth is a Nigerian Jamaican poet, theatremaker and workshop facilitator currently based in Manchester. She writes for a variety of different audiences including poetry for children and young people and has performed her work across the country. Her poetry first featured in Rising Stars: New Young Voices in Poetry (Otter-Barry Press, 2017) and she has gone on to feature in several anthologies. She is a Roundhouse Resident Artist and the Learning Officer at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University.</p>

<h2>Elmi Ali</h2>
Photo credit: Ahmed Omar

<p>Elmi is a storyteller invested in the mediums of writing, directing, facilitating, translating, performance and education. Based in the North West of England, he writes poetry, short fiction, and for the stage. He has a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing and a Masters in Contemporary Literature, Film and Theory from Manchester Metropolitan University. He is interested in the intersection between Language, Form, Translation and the ideas around Creative Resistance with regards to the contemporary notions of Global Coloniality in the late-stage capitalist era.</p><p>Elmi’s latest written and directed work includes Survival, Royal Exchange Co-lab festival 2017, Water Seeds not Stones, a one-man show, part of Contact Flying Solo Festival 2017/ Contact in the City 2018 and Said the Seismograph about the Tremor which was scratched as part of HOME theatre’s Push Festival 2018. Snow White Privilege, an alternative pantomime for the Nia Centre Manchester 2020. Elmi also curated the See My Dunya 2018/2019 program and exhibition centering the stories of the Somali Diaspora in Manchester. Currently Elmi is working on No'Man, a long fiction work exploring masculinity and the nature of work in the 21st Century. </p>

<p>JT is a Jamaican-born Manchester-based poet and musician who works closely with Young Identity, Contact Theatre and is also a Co-Founder of music collective, One6Wave. JT delivers captivating and philosophical pieces inspired by emotion and his own personal experiences. Alongside being commissioned for local work in Manchester and Liverpool such as Blackfest and Home Theatre’s Sick! Festival, JT has also performed at various festivals around the UK and has worked alongside the BBC on the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival.</p>

<p>Sumnima is an artist and is attached to Contact Theatre, Manchester. Her main passion is acting and performance but also fashion, music, and traditional and digital art. As a South-East Asian woman, she aims to create and share experiences in abstract and emotive ways that speak to an variety of audiences.</p>

<p>Kanchan was born in Mumbai and has been passionate about dance since childhood, starting her Indian classical dance training in Bharatnatyam at the tender age of ten. Having moved to London, she started training in Kathak with Mrs. Priya Pawar then returned to India in 1995 after seeing Madhavi Mudgals’ performance in France, which inspired a wish to study the intricacies of Kathak and Indian Culture in more depth under the tutelage of Ms. Prerana Shrimali, doyen of Jaipur Gharana.</p><p>She has extensive experience (23 years) as a performer (stage, film and TV), teacher (21 years), choreographer, director and examiner/judge. She has to date, worked and lived across three continents (Asia, Europe, South America) and is fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Hindi and Marathi. In addition to mastering the more traditional Indian classical dance techniques, Kanchan has taken classes in many other dance forms and is particularly skilled at fusing styles as diverse as Flamenco, Classical Ballet, Tango, African Gumboot, Salsa, Jazz, Indian and Brazilian folk dances.</p>

<p>Mix-Stress is a firm favourite on the Manchester music scene and beyond, pleasing crowds and ears with her soulful and uplifting sets. Founder and curator of arts collective RebeccaNeverBecky, which platforms LGBTQ+ creatives, performers and DJs, she is also Co-Founder of DJ collective, Queer Latifah. </p>

<p>Collaborating organisations include Royal Albert Memorial Museum, British Library and Manchester Poetry Library.  The project is funded by Arts Council England, National Heritage Lottery Fund and the Foyle Foundation.</p><p>Museum of Colour has hosted two successful exhibitions, People of Letters and Respect Due which are available at <a href="https://museumofcolour.org.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">museumofcolour.org.uk</a>. People of Letters amplified individuals who have supported writers of colour while Respect Due was its COVID-19 response exhibition, paying respect to nominated individuals from the arts, journalism and heritage organisations.</p>

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