We’re teaming up with Bad Betty for a third time – bringing you an evening of stellar live poetry performances to Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds! Our line-up includes Kayo Chingonyi, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Molly Naylor, and Samantha Fain.
Tickets are available here for £6 (£4 concessions).
Kayo Chingonyi FRSL was born in Zambia in 1987, and moved to the UK at the age of six. He is a fellow of the Complete Works programme for diversity and quality in British Poetry and of The Civitella Ranieri Foundation. In 2012, he was awarded a Geoffrey Dearmer Prize by The Poetry Society and was Associate Poet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 2015. His first full-length collection, Kumukanda, won the Dylan Thomas Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award. Kayo was a Burgess Fellow at the Centre for New Writing, University of Manchester before joining Durham University as Assistant Professor of Creative Writing. He is a writer and presenter for the music and culture podcast Decode on Spotify, poetry editor at Bloomsbury, and his most recent collection A Blood Condition was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Costa Poetry Award. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a British-born, Barbadian-raised choreopoet. Her interdisciplinary art braids dance and poetry. Safiya is also PhD student at the University of Leeds in Cultural Studies. Safiya is an Obsidian Foundation fellow and an Apples & Snakes/ Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance recipient.
Molly Naylor is a poet, scriptwriter, performer and director. Her stories and plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and she has performed at festivals and events all over the world. She has published three poetry collections her third was published by Bad Betty in spring 2022. She is the co-creator and writer of Sky One comedy After Hours. She wrote and performed the acclaimed solo spoken-word shows Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You and My Robot Heart. Her first graphic novel was published in September 2021.
Samantha Fain is a poet from Indiana. Her chapbook Coughing Up Planets debuted with VA Press in March of 2021. Her microchapbook, sad horse music, debuted with The Daily Drunk in May of 2021. Catalina Ponce of Cicada Editora translated this work, and Música de Caballo Triste was published in 2023. Sam is the co- editor of Kiss Your Darlings: A Taylor Swift Anthology, out with Olney Magazine in 2022. Are You There is her debut full-length collection, published by Bad Betty in 2024.
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