An online evening of poetry with Inua Ellams

Join poet, playwright and performer (and graphic artist and designer) Inua Ellams for a live and interactive evening of poetry, when he will be reading and sharing insights from his award-winning work. This, since 2005, includes various pamphlets (with publishers Akashic Books, Flipped Eye and Nine Arches Press), anthologies (with the likes of Bloodaxe, Penned In The Margins and Salt Publishing) and his first, upcoming, full collection The Actual (due out in October and described as “a symphony of personal and political fury”), plus his most recent critically acclaimed stage hit Barber Shop Chronicles. He has performed around the globe and won the Live Canon International Poetry Competition 2014, The Winchester Poetry Prize 2018, The Magma Poetry Competition 2019 and The Hay Medal for Poetry 2020.

Join Inua Ellams for a live and interactive evening of poetry, when he will be reading and sharing insights from his award-winning work

Last year, Inua Ellams was commissioned by Manchester Literature Festival to write a new series of poems responding to an item in the collection at Manchester Museum, University of Manchester. He chose the Tusk From Benin, part of the loot taken by British soldiers during the bloody 1897 punitive expedition during which Oba Ovonramwen was exiled and Benin City in Nigeria – where Inua was born in 1984 – was destroyed. Inua performed his new work, Tusk, in the Living Worlds Gallery at the Museum as part of the 2019 Manchester Literature Festival, at an event introduced by Esme Ward, Director of Manchester Museum, and with an “in conversation” with Sadia Habib.

This October’s online event is part of the Journeys Festival International (scroll down the guide for more events). Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions and suggest themes and topics to explore (participation is voluntary and audience members will be able to indicate if they wish to take part). Produced annually by ArtReach, Journeys Festival International usually takes place in the three cities of Manchester, Leicester and Portsmouth. This year, due to Covid-19 and social distancing restrictions, the festival will be streamed; the programme stretches from 28 September to 18 October, with plenty of online activities to check out – see the JFI 2020 website for full details.