Poets of Colour Incubator Scratch Special - HOME / AI / SLEEP

Come and join us for an evening of original, inspiring and thought-provoking poetry-in-progress by Jeremy Pak Nelson, Princess Arinola Adegbite and Ilisha Thiru Purcell - three exciting and emerging artists from the Poets of Colour Incubator for the North of England.

Incubator poets Pak Nelson, Arinola Adegbite and Thiru Purcell share new work in response to what they see as major global challenges in a one-off Scratch Special hosted by Joy Francis, executive director, Words of Colour.

Jeremy Pak Nelson

HOME - Pak Nelson’s The Homes We Carry navigates how the homelands of our ancestors and our past selves stay with us through food, rituals and objects.

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Princess Arinola Adegbite  

AI - Arinola Adegbite’s Algorithms of Meaning asks 'Who is the future for?' and explores how people arrive at meaning-making in the age of artificial intelligence and technology.

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Ilisha Thiru Purcell

SLEEP - Thiru Purcell investigates sleep as a growing health inequality and the mechanics of dreams as part of Sleep (e)Quality: A poetic exploration.

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Joy Francis

Words of Colour's executive director and Poets of Colour Incubator's project manager Joy Francis will be the Scratch Night's MC.

Photo credits: Lee Townsend and Adrianne McKenzie

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Programme

6.00pm-6.20pm: Doors open / Registration

6.20pm-6.25pm: Welcome - Joy Francis, Words of Colour

6.25pm-6.40pm: HOME – Jeremy Pak Nelson

6.40pm-6.55pm: AI – Princess Arinola Adegbite 

6.55pm-7.10pm: SLEEP – Ilisha Thiru Purcell

7.10pm-7.25pm: Audience Q&A

7.25pm-7.30pm Closing reflections

7.30pm-8.15pm: Post Show Hangout

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Poets’ bios

Jeremy Pak Nelson is part of the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator. He is a writer and artist from Hong Kong. Based in Manchester, he also writes stories of all genres and forms, and his climate fiction has been selected as a Grist: Imagine 2200 Editor’s Pick. Jeremy’s poetry explores how identity is entangled with the narratives we tell ourselves and the ones we are given. He can be found at jpaknelson.com.

Princess Arinola Adegbite is part of the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator. Professionally known as P.A.BITEZ, she is a multi-award-winning British Jamaican-born Nigerian surrealist poet, musician and filmmaker with Afrofuturistic sensibilities. BITEZ awards include the Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award 2023. Her poetry explores identity and technology’s influence on reality. You can find Princess on Instagram @pabitez.

Ilisha Thiru Purcell is part of the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator. A poet, performer, and facilitator from Newcastle upon Tyne, Ilisha won a commission to perform at the 2023 Newcastle Poetry Festival and was shortlisted for Nine Arches’ Primers Volume 7. She is a member of Brown Girls Write who she performs with regularly. You can find Ilisha on Instagram @ilishadoespoetry.

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About the Poets of Colour Incubator

The Poets of Colour Incubator is a 12-month mentoring, change agency and creative development programme for three talented and emerging poets to innovate their practice and create a ‘poetic response’ to a global challenge they want to interrogate. The Incubator is a collaboration between Words of Colour and Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Access

Please get in touch if you require any reasonable adjustments to be able to attend the event.