A Leap of Faith: what to expect from South Bank Poetry’s workshops

I started running South Bank Poetry workshops in 2015, it all started with one workshop at the Poetry Café, which went really well and those who attended wanted to come back for another one, so I ran more and more.

People of all ages attend my workshops, I get 20 something year olds sat next to 90-year-old women and men. Gender-wise I would say more women attend than men.

My next poetry workshop is on Urban Poetry on 11 February. I would define urban poetry as poetry that gives a voice to those who live or have lived in a city, allowing them to tell their stories. It is essentially writing about the sometimes mad yet utter brilliant and diverse nature of life in a city.

I think poetry takes guts to write and poetry workshops are like asking your students to take that leap of faith and trust in you as a tutor as you lead them down the rabbit hole.

Poetry workshops are such an important part of the writing process as they disrupt your writing mode and make you rethink everything. Writing poetry is also as much about connecting to people as it is to connecting to yourself.

I like to mix other art forms in my workshops: drama, music, mindfulness and physical work. My favourite combination is a clashing and mish mash of art forms. Great writing comes from tension, so a bit of mindfulness set against sound work and physical work is my favourite combination.

As a practitioner I admire tutors like Mimi Khalvati as she is a poetry guru who simply has to open her mouth and nuggets of pure poetry wisdom come flying at you.

I integrate poetry into my average week by attending poetry readings, reading the South Bank Poetry submission pile and taking time for my writing; which always goes on my iphone first as I live with it by my side 24/7 and listening to radio 4 when I can.

So do join us on 11th February as there are only a few places left! Further details here.