LIVEwire at The Edge

Following sold-out shows in 2019 and 2021, LIVEwire is back at The Edge this March, and again in June, with an electric line-up featuring a performance from Forward Prize-winning British-Somali author Momtaza Mehri – the Young People’s Poet Laureate for London and author of Bad Diaspora Poems, who’s had work in Vogue, Granta and Poetry International.

Momtaza will be joined by Birmingham-born writer, performer and educator Casey Bailey, Birmingham Poet Laureate 2020-2022. Casey’s poetry pamphlet, Waiting at Bloomsbury Park, was published by Big White Shed in 2017 and followed by his debut full-length collection of poetry, Adjusted, in 2018 with Verve Poetry Press; Roy McFarlane called it “a brave, full-bodied, sweet textured first collection”. His second collection, Please Do Not Touch, was published by Burning Eye Books in 2021. His poetry has featured in a number of anthologies, and he was commissioned by the BBC to write ‘The Ballad of The Peaky Blinders’ in 2019 and Birmingham Rep commissioned his play GrimeBoy. Raymond Antrobus says: “With Casey, we get to meet a storyteller as well as a poet, because he is honing a kind of cinematic and musical language.I’m so happy to see voices like his emerging from Birmingham.”

Also supporting Momtaza is Jess Green, an award-winning performance poet and script writer for theatre and TV. She has three poetry collections, all published by Burning Eye Books: Burning Books (2015), which was shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award, A Self Help Guide To Being In Love With Jeremy Corbyn (2018), and her latest, Dressed As Love. She has developed her collections into live shows, which received 5* at the Edinburgh Fringe and on their national tours; the stage play of Burning Books was longlisted for The Papatango Prize. Jess Green’s poem ‘Dear Mr Gove’ went viral in 2013 and she became BBC Slam Champion in 2018. She has performed at Glastonbury, Latitude, Bestival and BBC 6 Music Festival as well as poetry events around the UK. She has featured on BBC 6 Music, E4, BBC5Live, ITV and BBC Breakfast as well as in The Guardian, Huffington Post, The Independent and The Spectator.

LIVEwire is a brand-new poetry organisation that has evolved from indie spoken word record label Nymphs & Thugs and specialises in live events and writer development, championing poets from all walks of life. Featuring internationally acclaimed poets alongside some of the most exciting newly established poets on the UK’s thriving scene, “LIVEwire will transform your perception of poetry forever”.