Poem Brut - Writers Kingston event #92 - October 2025

 

"Mass Sokulsky" by the IPLA Collective
Eleanor Wilders, Danica Ignacio, Cameron Wade

Writers Kingston event #92
Poem Brut October Thursday 9th 2025
Kingston University Town House

Julia Rose Lewis

Stephen Sunderland
Nikolai Duffy
Miya
Nadia Jordan, Mia Hale-McLeod and Cerys McVea (Students of the ‘Experiments and Innovations’ module, Kingston University)
Julia Rose Lewis
IPLA Collective: Eleanor Wilders, Danica Ignacio, Cameron Wade
Popogrou Collective: Bob T Bright, Vicki Kaye, Patrick Cosgrove and Simon Tyrrell
Lily Ferret
Bella Weerasinghe

Nadia Jordan, Mia Hale-McLeod and Cerys McVea

A truly unique evening of expansive literary performances involving staff, students and alumni of Kingston University alongside visiting writers, artists and musicians from across the UK and beyond. Poem Brut is an event series that embraces aesthetic possibility and all possible artistic poetic methods of writing, making and presenting poetry.

SJ Fowler and Miya

MIYA visited from Tokyo, presenting improvisation, while Stephen Sunderland launched his ground-breaking surrealist novel The Cinema Beneath the Lake. Both the Popogrou and IPLA collectives gave us lively collaborative performances while students from the ‘Experiments and Innovations’ module at Kingston University unwrapped a new live work. An energising evening of live literature, celebrating originality in all its forms. No wonder the Writers Kingston community continues to flourish as it nears 100 events since its inception in 2017.

Stephen Sunderland

The Cinema Beneath the Lake by Stephen Sunderland is a secret history of Surrealism, drawn from the hidden life of the Muse. Suzanne dreams her own revolution, summoning a band of impossible adventurers, she journeys toward the “Méduse” — the cinema beneath Lake Pavin — which will project their film-dreams to the clouds as riddling clues to our resolution in the world. 

Nikolai Duffy

Common, by Nikolai Duffy, tells the story of Robert, who in the aftermath of his aunt's death, travels from his home in Manchester to Hampshire to settle her affairs. In her house, faced with the left-behind detritus of an eccentric life, Robert makes the decision to leave his family and build a hut on the local common. This is a novel that explores death, memory, the long impact of brutality in childhood, and Robert's aunt's insistence that a person should live an 'unroofed life'.

Popogrou Collective: Bob T Bright, Vicki Kaye, Patrick Cosgrove and Simon Tyrrell

The Popogrou Collective is a group of poets whose work celebrates innovative writing practice at the cutting edge of contemporary literature. This collaborative jumble of creatives gather together language art, textual and visual poetry from nineteen active members. Popogrou, a worldwide collective, emerged from writer and artist SJ Fowler’s online Potential Poetries workshop programme, established during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Bella Weerasinghe

Lily Ferret

Visual Stories - Platform Gallery, Kingston School of Art

Harper Stringer

Eleanor Wilders
Danica Ignacio
Aimee Nimmo
Bella Weerasinghe
Sinnead Singson
Harper Stringer
Patrick Cosgrove
Jules Sprake
Cameron Wade
Lisa Blackwell
Mark Rutter
Laura Davis
Matt Sokulsky
Alban and Natalie Low
Sara Upstone
Regina Avendano
Oscar Rodriguez
Julia Rose Lewis
Steven J. Fowler

The Platform Gallery
Kingston School of Art,
Knights Park.
Kingston upon Thames,
Surrey KT1 2QJ with 

Steven J. Fowler

An exhibition exploring visual storytelling, and how innovative methodologies around language, design, composition can amplify and extend the ways in which we read, and see, a story or tale. The exhibition presents concrete poetry alongside word clouds, abstract art alongside asemic writing, and firmly emphasises what is possible when we no longer take for granted what a story is, on the page, canvas, wall.

Aimee Nimmo

The exhibition special view featured a series of performances by exhibitors. It was part of the Writing Cultures’ Festival of Storytelling which is taking place from January 24th to March 14th 2025, with events at The National Gallery, workshops and happenings across Kingston University, and an exhibition - a centrepiece showcase for students, staff and poets and artists across the UK. 

Danica Ignacio

The exhibition was curated by Steven J Fowler and conceived by Sara Upstone and Kate Scott. It was co-curated by Cameron Wade, Eleanor Wilders and Danica Ignacio.

Matt Sokulsky

Regina Avendano

Julia Rose Lewis

Bella Weerasinghe

Cameron Wade

Eleanor Wilders

Jules Sprake

Storytelling Poets - Kingston Curzon

Sinnead Singson

An event celebrating the Writing Cultures’ Festival of Storytelling in the Cafe space of the Kingston Curzon Cinema (The Bentall Centre).

30th January 2025

Eleanor Wilders,
David Spittle,
SJ Fowler,
Marcia Knight Latter,
Simon Tyrrell,
Cameron Wade,
Matt Sokulsky,
Danica Ignacio,
Bob T Bright,
Bella Weerasinghe,
Julia Rose Lewis,
Sinnead Singson

Eleanor Wilders

It was a night of performances that explored the many ways we can tell a story, how we might turn a tale, be it tall or short, into a journey and sometimes a destination. The Café at the Curzon Cinema in Kingston-upon-Thames provided free popcorn for the audience at the Writer's Kingston poetry night, and it proved to be a huge success. Eleanor Wilders kicked off proceedings by launching her dazzling debut poetry pamphlet Offal, from Sampson Low Ltd, buy a copy at sampsonlow.co/2025/01/29/offal-eleanor-wilders/

The night was part of Writing Cultures’ Festival of Storytelling, which continues to run until the March 14th 2025, with events at The National Gallery, workshops and happenings across Kingston University, as well as an exhibition. The performance of the night belonged to Sinnead Singson with her sheep in wolf's clothing tale, which ended with the dynamic poet walking out into the wilds of the Bentall's Centre. She will be launching her debut pamphlet ‘hot milky’, at the The Poetry Society Cafe on February Thursday 27th 2025 (7pm start, Free event).

Cameron Wade

Cameron Wade is a writer, poet and amateur astronomer working in London. He is the poetry editor of 3AM magazine and his work has been commissioned by the National Gallery. He launched his debut chapbook of poetry, I Smell Metal, in January 2023. His story was an macabre estate agents' eye view of an apartment painted in tins of blood, leper coloured paint, and a menagerie of pests and creepy crawlies. 

Bob T Bright

Bob T Bright is a poet, yogi and educator based in Kent, with an MA in TESOL and PGDip in Poetic Practice from RHUL. His poems have appeared in publications such as Bedford Square anthology, Vallum Magazine, Pamenar Magazine, Firmament, Permeable and the Seen as Read anthology (KUP). His debut pamphlet 'Gongfarmer, I love thee' was published in 2023 by Sampson Low. 

Simon Tyrrell

Simon Tyrrell has participated in exhibitions and performances at the Poetry Society Café, Westminster Reference Library, Rich Mix, Willesden Gallery, and at The Museum of Futures with Writers’ Centre Kingston. He published his debut poetry collection 'Presently' in 2022. He is part of the PoPoGrou collective and last year published the critically acclaimed 'Proceedings of the Remediators' alongside Jane Partner, Sarah Messerschmidt, and Sylee Gore. 

Steven J. Fowler 

Steven J. Fowler or SJ Fowler (born 1983) is a contemporary English poet, writer and avant-garde artist, and the founder of European Poetry Festival. His work has become known internationally for his "innovation in the field of live literature". Concerned with the potential of liveness, as opposed to the traditional poetry reading, his repertoire spans a diverse range of experimental practices, including improvised talking performances, action painting and pugilistica.

David Spittle

David Spittle is a poet, filmmaker and essayist. Following his pamphlet, BOX (HVTN, 2018), Spittle has published three poetry collections: Decomposing Robert (Back Herald Press, 2023), Rubbles (Broken Sleep Books, 2022), and All Particles and Waves (Black Herald Press, 2020). He runs an ongoing series of interviews with filmmakers talking-about-poetry and poets talking-about-film, the first volume Light Glyphs (Broken Sleep Books, 2021) includes interviews with John Ashbery, Guy Maddin, Andrew Kötting, Iain Sinclair, So Mayer, Lisa Samuels and many others. Spittle's films have screened in festivals and been broadcast on the BBC and, alongside filmmaking, his film criticism has appeared in Sight & Sound and as part of select Blu-ray releases. He continues independent research across film and philosophy.

Julia Rose Lewis

Julia Rose Lewis is a writer and teacher.  She is interested in the ways in which philosophy of science can be incorporated into poetry. She has published nine pamphlets, the most recent of which is Nearly Identical Sharks (Broken Sleep Books 2023).

Marcia Knight-Latter 

Marcia Knight-Latter is a poet and writer, who studied Creative Writing with Psychology at Kingston University. She published a chapbook with Sampson Low titled ‘Ramblings External’ in 2019, and has performed her poetry at venues such as Rich Mix, Rose Theatre and The Museum of Futures.

Matthew J. Sokulsky

Matthew J. Sokulsky studied creative writing as an undergraduate at Kingston University, London, and in March of 2023 was commissioned by The National Gallery for his literary work. A selection of his poetry has also been published under the banner of Sampson Low Publishers, London.

Danica Ignacio is a Filipino writer currently studying at Kingston University. In January 2024, her work was commissioned by the National Gallery and can also be found on @eventualantiques on Instagram & danicaignacio.substack.com. Her writing often explores themes of anthropomorphism as well as other sorts of fantastical concepts that enhance less fantastical realities through poetry & prose.

Bella Weerasinghe

One of the most exciting new poets on the Kingston University creative block, Bella Weerasinghe has already chalked up an impressive list of performances, most recently at the National Gallery in January 2025.