A series of hosted writing workshops on offer every Tuesday from July 16 until August 20, between 7 to 9pm

The theme of the workshops is centred around the title - Hatred is a Bitter Fruit - we will be exploring the many intersections and layers of hatred, hate crimes, shame and abuse, and how we respond to those lived or imagined experiences and feelings. 

The workshops are open to all LGBTQIA+ communities especially those of colour. Creative writing is a form of self-expression, and within a supportive and safe environment has the potential to begin a process of healing, and is an opportunity to be heard through your choice of words on a page. Playful, experimental and at times surprising what will emerge from deep within.

Your host will be Jack - a Poet-Curator and Psycho-Spiritual Dharma and Shamanic performance artist. A Zen Body Worker and Carrier of Indigenous Earth Knowledge.  They received a Spread The Word Commission Award in Autumn 2023. Recent readings include Lewisham Literature Festival, Autistic Shuffle, Devereux and with Poem Brut at Rich Mix and a Hundred Years Gallery. They received an Arts Council Project Award in 2024, to co-facilitate a series of free poetry workshops for LGBTQIA+ communities and to produce a 'free' intersectional poetry anthology hatred is a bitter fruit that will be published in Jan/Feb 2025. 

All who attend the workshops may choose to enter up to four poems for publication, and will be responding to the prompt or theme: hatred is a bitter fruit details of the call will be shared during the poetry writing workshops. All first time writers are welcome, we want poetry to be accessible to all. 

There will also be co-hosts who will facilitate the workshops, the last three weeks will be an open forum for everyone to share poems that they have written or choose and there will space to write too if that is your preference.
 

The co-host will be Venus - a martial artist, writer and performer from Harlesden. A sex worker for many years, her work is a reflection of her experiences with unconventional notions of power, strength, sensuality, subversion and the concept of embodiment as knowledge. She is a recent graduate with a BA in Politics, Philosophy and History, and is founder of Sex and Rage, a sex worker led organisation resisting stigma and shame through sex education.

For the last three weeks the co-host will be our own Lyall Hakaraia, these three final classes will be both creative and reflective of the outcomes of the workshops.

The workshops are FREE but have a limited number of tickets (10 people per workshop).

All attendees will be eligible for travel expenses, there will be a flat reimbursement of £10 per workshop.

Pen and papers will be provided or bring your choice of pen to write with.

These workshops are supported by Arts Council England.