Writing the in-between: queer poetry workshop with Bi+ Lines

Deptford Literature Festival

Explore the in-betweenness in queer poetry with poet & editor of Bi+ Lines Helen Bowell

Deptford Lounge - Room 1

Deptford Literature Festival 2024

Deptford Literature Festival 2024 will be taking place on Saturday 16 March and celebrates the diversity and creativity of Deptford and Lewisham through words, stories and performance.

Come and write poems that embrace the in-between inspired by Bi+ Lines, the first anthology of bi+ poets, with its editor Helen Bowell. You’ll read poems from the anthology and use them as jumping-off points to explore in-betweenness in poetic form, our identities, and the fabric of reality itself. You’ll find new ways to mine your daily life to write and reconsider all the binaries we’ve been taught to depend on.Bi+ Lines is a project for bi+ poets that explores ideas of in-betweenness, run by Helen Bowell with the support of Arts Council England. After eight poetry workshops for bi+ writers in Spring 2023, nearly 800 bi+ poets from 40 countries submitted 2,800 poems for consideration in the first bi+ anthology. The book of 45 poems was published by LGBTQ+ publisher fourteen poems in Autumn 2023 and is currently touring the UK. Themed around the idea of in-betweenness, these poems look at love and acceptance, at biphobia and belonging, at families and trust, and at how we can use poetry to express our desires, fears, and hopes.The workshop is pitched at LGBTQ+ and questioning people. All abilities welcome. <h3>About the artists:</h3>Helen Bowell is a poet and producer based in London. Her debut pamphlet The Barman was published by Bad Betty Press in 2022, and selected as the Poetry Book Society Summer 2022 Pamphlet Choice. She runs the Bi+ Lines project for bi+ poets, and edited the first anthology of bi+ poets in English with fourteen poems in 2023. She is also a co-director of Dead [Women] Poets Society, an Arts Council England-funded collective which seeks to ‘resurrect’ women poets of the past through events and online. On their behalf, she co-guest-edited the Autumn 2020 Modern Poetry in Translation focus on dead women poets in Autumn 2020. She produces events at the Poetry Translation Centre and for seven years worked in The Poetry Society's Education team. <h3>Useful information about this event and Deptford Literature Festival:</h3>• All our events will be BSL Interpreted, including this one.• This event is wheelchair accessible, with accessible toilets.• Deptford Lounge has Changing Place facilities, an induction loop and assistance dogs are welcome. For more information: <a href="http://deptfordlounge.org.uk/access" title="http://deptfordlounge.org.uk/access" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">deptfordlounge.org.uk/access</a>• A quiet space is available during the day at Deptford Lounge, in the Music Room, on the first floor.• If you require additional access provision in order to attend or take part in the Festival, for example, larger print handouts at workshops, or a scribe, please get in touch before the Festival day at: <a href="mailto:access@spreadtheword.org.uk" title="mailto:access@spreadtheword.org.uk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">access@spreadtheword.org.uk</a>• If you require assistance on the Festival day itself, please come to the Festival Hub in the foyer of Deptford Lounge where we will be happy to help you. <h3>Free tickets:</h3>This event is free to you. As far as possible, by booking a place we ask that you commit to attending, as places are limited. If you can no longer attend, please cancel your ticket so someone else can come along. There are instructions on how to do that <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/support/articles/en_US/How_To/how-to-cancel-your-free-registration?lg=en_GB" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/support/articles/en_US/How_To/how-to-cancel-your-free-registration?lg=en_GB" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>.If you would like to support the future of Deptford Literature Festival, run by charity Spread the Word, you can donate <a href="http://totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/deptfordlitfest" title="http://totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/deptfordlitfest" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>. <h3>About Deptford Literature Festival:</h3>Deptford Literature Festival takes place on Saturday 16 March 2024 and celebrates the diversity and creativity of Deptford and Lewisham through words, stories and performance. It is run by Spread the Word in a collaboration with independent producer Tom MacAndrew, and funded by Arts Council England, National Lottery Awards for All, and Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. You can find out more about Deptford Literature Festival at: <a href="https://www.deptfordlitfest.com" title="https://www.deptfordlitfest.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.deptfordlitfest.com</a> Image at the top of the page description: The event image has a background made up of squares and rectangles in light teal green, blue, yellow, white, and pink. In the bottom right is a light teal square overlayed with an illustrated motif of an eye in blue, black, yellow and white. In the top centre of the event image is a yellow rectangle with a thin white wavy line running horizontally through the centre, with black text overlayed reading ‘DEPTFORD LITERATURE FESTIVAL SATURDAY 16 MARCH 2024 ’ in a bold font. Beneath this, is a square photograph of writer and editor Helen Bowell. Helen Bowell smiles towards us. She has short black hair and wears a black velvet top, pearls, red lipstick and dark glasses. To the left of the photo, is a white rectangle with black text reading ‘WRITING THE IN-BETWEEN: A QUEER POETRY WORKSHOP INSPIRED BY BI+ LINES Explore in-betweenness in queer poetry with poet &amp; editor Helen Bowell’.

Writing the in-between: queer poetry workshop with Bi+ Lines

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Writing the in-between: queer poetry workshop with Bi+ Lines

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