Typoetry
An immensely ambitious project of public poetry across the borough of Newham ran from May to July 2022. Typoetry has been one of the biggest projects of 2022 for me, working closely with David Beck and Julie Zeller to curate 10 Swiss, 10 British and 10 young poets local to Newham, following a series of workshops I led at schools and with young groups in the borough. New poems by these poets were sent to the tutors and students of ECAL/University of Art and Design of Lausanne, who transformed them into visual / concrete / graphic poems. These poems were then applied to dozens of locations, from Stratford to East Ham, from Forest Gate to Green Street, and have been seen by many thousands in the streets of one of London's biggest boroughs. You can look at the poems and find out more at this site. https://www.weareswitzerland.uk/topics/typoetry
In addition we led a walking tour event during the European Poetry Festival, a mini documentary of which can be seen below.
Discover how the project came about with more on the project and process here https://www.weareswitzerland.uk/posts/typoetry-rethink-rebuild
"Typoetry is utterly unique and has broken new ground for public poetry projects. Not only has it brought together poets across a real range of backgrounds and styles, from age 15 to 70, and celebrated the literary and avant-garde in a way rarely given in such ambitious enterprises, but it has done this in collaboration with design, unlocking the visual potential of the word. And this bold, brilliant and innovative methodology has all been in service of a purposeful and deeply resonant message - a celebration of the city, in and of the very streets we live in, specifically the borough of Newham, as a metaphor for how we all experience the urban. I have never come across a project celebrating poetry in the streets of this scope and ambition, and that carries such considerable and complex works in its fundament." - Steven J Fowler, poetry curator and artist.
A Swiss-Newham project - Led by the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK, Typoetry aims to bridge art forms, languages and communities. As a multilingual and multicultural country, Switzerland regards intercultural exchanges as essential to sustainable societies. The Embassy found ideal partners in the London Borough of Newham: the collaboration with Newham Council, as well as the enthusiasm of local businesses, were key to the development of the project.
Below you can read about
The closing event at Applecart Arts on July 17th 2022
My own poems up at the Old Fire Station in East Ham
Our sold out EPF 22 walking tour event on June 26th 2022
Leading workshops with young people in Newham
Working with the designers on my poem, and the Great Apes
More information on the poets involved
TYPOETRY comes to a close at Applecart Arts July 17th 2022
A beautiful afternoon in Newham, at Applecart Arts centre, a series of the poets from TYPOETRY came together to read their works and celebrate what has been a remarkable project that has done something with visual and experimental and public poetry that few projects in the capital, let alone Newham, ever have done.
For me it was grand to read the poems of some of the poets involved who weren’t there, to meet Laura Accerboni, who travelled to the UK from Switzerland and to say out loud that the day belonged to David Killian Beck, who originated TYPOETRY and worked so hard to make it happen.
my TYPOETRY visual poem on the streets of East Ham June 28, 2022
An amazing thing, my poem up on the walls of East Ham. And my reading next to it here, eating chipsss
Typoetry walking tour in Newham June 26th 2022
This was a brilliant, well attended and unique event, walking around the borough of Newham, with performances by poets whose poems are displayed on the streets as part of the TYPOETRY project. This event was a culmination of a lot. A small documentary has been made of the day, which captures the spirit. Some lovely pictures of the day too, below. Visit https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/newham
Typoetry workshops in Newham February 19, 2022
As part of my involvement in the brilliant Typoetry project /typoetry I had the chance to do two workshops in Newham. First, open to young people in the area at the Library in East Ham, and then in the Stratford Youth Zone with pupils from Chobham academy.
Both were immensely rewarding. I prepared properly for both too, not often working with potentially larger groups of people in their teens, who perhaps didn’t have a huge familiarity / interest in my kind of poetry. In the end, both were so so brilliant. I learned a lot from those who attended, about their lives in Newham, and the language they use to navigate their worlds. We also had a laugh the whole way through and I was met with nothing but positivity and hospitality.
Both workshops were supported not only by the remarkable David Beck and Julie Zeller of the Swiss embassy but also by Caroline Oakley, Deborah Peck and Salma Lyons of the Youth Empowerment Services, Library Services and Chobham Academy respectively.
Excerpts of a selection of the poems and their designs
