Phillip Gross/ Sarah Salway/ Ewa Zadrzynska
This event was jointly organised with the LSE Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE
Thursday 1 March 2012, 6.30-8pm
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
The Poetry Unites project consists of a series of five-minute films shown on TV, the Internet and in cinemas, in which a poetry lover speaks about his or her life in the context of presenting a favourite poem. This project with a literary dimension reveals both similarities and differences between people. By offering intimate insights into the mind of another person, it contributes to mutual understanding among European citizens. The films bring together millions of people who would otherwise probably never have had contact with each other and therefore would never have seen how much they have in common.
In this event, poetry readings, including film clips from the Poetry Unites project, will be followed by a discussion of the importance of poetry in people’s everyday lives.
The event will conclude with a short prize-giving presentation for the LSESU Lit Soc Poetry Competition 2011/12 and the announcement and distribution of the second edition of the student led publication, Philosoverse which is supported by the LSE Annual Fund and the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.
The event will be followed by a reception and Poetry Slam (a live, high-energy, interactive stand-up poetry competition), organised by Sam Berkson
Philip Gross is a writer of many parts – poet, writer of thought-provoking fiction for young people, haiku and schools opera libretti, plays and radio short stories. His poetry up to and including the Whitbread-Prize-shortlisted The Wasting Game is collected in Changes of Address since when Bloodaxe have published three more collections, the latest of which, The Water Table, won the TS Eliot Prize. I Spy Pinhole Eye, with photographs by Simon Denison was the English-language winner of Wales Book Of The Year. A new collection, Deep Field, appeared in November 2011 and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. He is the author of ten teenage novels – most recently The Storm Garden. His children’s poetry includes The All-Nite Café which won the Signal Award 1994, and Off Road To Everywhere, the CLPE Award for children’s poetry 2011. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University.
Canterbury Laureate and Chair of the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society, Sarah Salway has run many community writing projects, and is currently co-ordinating a major intergenerational writing project, Wise Words, with the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church College. She is the author of three novels and two collections of short stories, one co-written with Lynne Rees which was turned into an international Internet collaboration. Her poems have been published widely, including the Financial Times, The Virago Book of the Joy of Shopping, Pen International, and she has just published her first poetry collection, You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book (Pindrop Press). She is a regular contributor to Psychologies Magazine, and is an RLF Fellow at LSE.
Ewa Zadrzynska is a journalist , writer and a film maker. She worked for 4 years for the New York Times. She has published two children’s books in the USA and many of her short stories have been included in short story collections in the USA and Poland. She has created for the Evens Foundation, the project Poetry Unites-My Favorite Poem and for the last 5 years she has directed 77 film profiles which are broadcast on Polish National TV once a week.
‘Angry’ Sam Berkson has been performing poetry on the live scene since 2002. He has won the Brighton Festival Slam and the Liverpool Capital of Culture Slam, as well as featuring at various gigs and festivals, including Hay-on-Wye, Latitude, Bestival and Secret Garden Party. He has been a visiting poet for the University of Alberta, Canada and the KAOS Pilots international school in Denmark. He organises live events for Hammer & Tongue, the largest promoters of slam poetry in the U.K, who will be running a National Slam Final at Wilton’s Music Hall on 31st March 2012.
