I have worked for 20 years on creative projects in the community delivering classes and workshops in film, animation and collage, creative writing and poetry. I was the founder of The Way of Words Creative Writing and Live Literature which ran from 2000-2010 and included the anthology And Then There Was Light, with the work of 24 Lambeth writers, more info.
I have a Level 3 Award in Education and Training, a Certificate in Writers in the Community from The University of Sussex, Centre for Continuing Education and completed a Phrased & Confused Development Programme for event promoters. I attend classes at Spread the Word and the Poetry School and I am a member of the writers’ collective Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, NAWE, the National Association of Writers in Education, and Unite Community, a branch of Unite the Union.
Since 2010 I’ve worked mostly with vulnerable adults in mental health and homelessness services including at the V&A, the South London and Maudsley Hospital and St Mungos Recovery College. My own status as a vulnerable adult is an asset and in often a requirement. I have lived experience of overcoming mental health challenges, homelessness and a dysfunctional relationship which resulted in stalking, abuse and a form of what is now described as coercive control.
Through these experiences and the healing required and undertaken I have developed empathy and insight and the ability to work with sensitivity and compassion, using creativity as a route to greater self awareness and agency with increased feelings of confidence and self worth.
I have curated a number of events with spoken word, live literature, dj’s, vj’s and musicians honoured to have been joined by special guests including Lindsey German at War, Lies and Stereotypes, Paddy Hill and John Cooper Clarke appeared at A Force Fusion, Brian Paddick and Alex Wheatley featured at Speaking in Tongues, Agnes Meadows mc’ed at Remembering Fallujah, Malika Booker performed at launch of And Then There Was Light, Dolly Sen at the launch of Out is the Word and Karen McCarthy Woolf, Tolu Agbelusi, mc Yomi Sode entranced our audience at the launch of 306: Living Under the Shadow of Regeneration.
Cressingham Voices
Post: Writer-in-residence, 2016-17 more info
St Mungos Recovery College
Post: Creative Writing tutor 2015-16 more info
The Social Inclusion Hope and Recovery Project
Post: Creative Writing tutor and steering board member for the creative writing project 2010-2013 more info
Speaking in Tongues
Role: Workshop facilitator, curator, promoter, and mc, more info
Lambeth Mind
Post: Workshop facilitator enabling services users to generate copy for the newsletter, editor of Poetry Page as a Stage, more info
War, lies and Stereotypes
Role: Curator, promoter and performer, more info
The Kaleidoscope Project
Post: Creative writing facilitator in a community centre and care home, more info
Remembering Fallujah – two years on
Role: Curator, promoter and performer, more info
Trust Arts Project
Post: Creative writing facilitator in a Mental Health Rehab centre, more info
A Force Fusion
Role: Curator, promoter and mc, more info
The Way of Words
Post: Founder, workshop facilitator, promotor of project live literature events more info
