Staff
Lisa Mead
CEO/Artistic Director
(Mon – Thur)
Rob LyNden
Head of Admin and Operations (Tue-Thu)
Sarah Cretch
Development and Partnerships Manager
(Mon – Thur)
Ty’Rone Haughton
Associate Artistic Director
(Tue-Thur)
Marcelle Akita
Associate Producer – Libraries Out Loud & Spine Festival
(Mon)
Natalie FIawoo
Programme Director, Poet in the City
Iman Saleh
Producer
(Mon-Fri)
JANET ALDERMAN
Digital and Marketing Manager
(Mon-Fri)
Ben Willmott
Marketing Coordinator
(Mon & Thu)
Board of Trustees
Amerah Saleh
Chair of the board
Amerah Saleh is a dynamic spoken word artist from Birmingham, who intricately weaves her Muslim Yemeni heritage into her exploration of identity.
Juggling roles as Chair of Apples & Snakes, part-time Strategic Advisor to the CEO at Oxfam, and leading initiatives like More Than A Moment, she embodies the belief that change must come from within and without simultaneously. With a relentless drive to reshape the world, Amerah’s performances have graced stages across Europe.
Amerah’s collection, ‘I Am Not From Here,’ unveiled in 2018, delves deep into themes of identity, womanhood, religion, and the elusive quest for belonging.
Lennie Goodings
Lennie Goodings is Canadian, living in the UK since the late 1970s, and Chair of the publishing house Virago Press.
She publishes and edits Virago authors including Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou, Harriet Walter, Sandi Toksvig, Sarah Waters, Linda Grant, Natasha Walter, Joan Bakewell, Rachel Seiffert and Marilynne Robinson.
Lennie received The Bookseller’s Industry Award: Editor and Imprint of the Year and was awarded A Lifetime’s Achievement at WOW (Women of the World Festival) Her memoir A Bite of the Apple: a Life with Writers, Books and Virago was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press.
She was a trustee of English PEN and Chair of the Trustees of Poet in the City. She is married, has two grown up children and lives in London.
Lucy Dundas
Lucy Dundas is a communications consultant with over 15 years’ experience directing UK-based and international communication strategies for clients and institutions that span the breadth of the creative and cultural industries. She’s currently a Director at Brunswick, a global advisory firm, working predominantly within the arts sector team. She previously held Head of Communications roles at the V&A Museum and the Imperial War Museums group in London, and an interim role as Brand & Communications Director for a leading London-based publishing house, Bonnier Books UK.
Lucy joined the Apples & Snakes board in 2024, having previously been a trustee of Poet in the City since 2021.
Nana Yaa Adu
Nana Yaa Adu is a Diversity and Inclusion & social impact professional in the legal sector. She currently works at Stephenson Harwood – a UK-headquartered international law firm. She is also a spoken word poet and facilitator whose work has been featured on BBC 1Xtra and the Young Minds website. Nana Yaa currently partners with the Royal Foundation of St Katharine to deliver wellbeing-focused poetry workshops.
Charlotte Cole
Charlotte Cole is a fundraiser, relationship manager and events producer within the arts and non-profit sector. Since 2015, she has worked with National Careers Week, Royal Court Theatre, Wilton’s Music Hall, Battersea Arts Centre and is currently the Head of Development at Kings Place Music Foundation. Charlotte is also a 2024-25 Senior Fundraising Fellow with Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy and Co-Chair for the EU Development & Fundraising Tessitura Community.
Malizah
Malizah is a poet, creative consultant and artist. She is a Bristol native and Digital Marketing student in Surrey. Her passion is connecting people to information that will transform their lives. Whether it’s through art or through creative communication and accessibility.
With work done for local arts organisations to nationally recognised media outlets to global institutions and higher education, her work is for the citizens of the world and those that wish to be creators in their own lives and make a difference.
Her words to live by are “Gifts Make Room, Clear Space”
Dr. Harry Whitehead
Dr. Harry Whitehead is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, where he is director of the Contemporary Writing Research Centre, the Centre for New Writing, and of the annual free literature festival, Literary Leicester.
He is a novelist and writer with expertise in several fields, including globalised creative writing, memory studies, devolved literatures and more. Before academia he worked in film and TV production and was director of a children’s home for eight years.
Prue Barnes-Kemp
Prue Barnes-Kemp is the CEO of the Opossum Federation a collective of four primary schools in East London and Opossum Consultancy which provides school improvement and leadership services nationally and internationally. Specialising in leading the rapid and sustainable improvement of schools in challenging circumstances, she delivers national programmes relating to developing leadership strategy and skills and is a senior school improvement adviser working across London. Prue is also a trained coach and performance management appraiser.
Shahrukh Bhatty
Shahrukh Bhatty is a chartered accountant with over a decade of experience in the not-for-profit and charity sectors. He currently works at South Bank Employers’ Group, where he supports the management of the South Bank Business Improvement District and Jubilee Gardens Trust through strategic service-level agreements. His experience in finance and governance enables him to effectively contribute to organisations like Apples and Snakes, where he supports their mission through strong financial stewardship.
Shahrukh has served as Treasurer for Poetry London, a triannual print magazine dedicated to publishing innovative contemporary poetry from across the UK and internationally. And was a Trustee of Poet in the City, a charity committed to creating transformative poetry experiences through curation and live performance.
Shahrukh has a deep and enduring interest in the arts and culture, advocating for accessibility to creative opportunities. He believes in the vital role the arts play in enriching communities, fostering inclusion, and responding to the social challenges of our time.
Shayna Kowalczyk
Shayna Kowalczyk is a poet and writer from London. She is an alumna of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, a current member of the London Library Emerging Writers Programme, and has had work published in bath magg, berlin lit, and elsewhere. In her career as a civil servant, she focuses on global environmental governance.
Michael Lord
Mic (Mike) Lord is an MC, theatre director, educator, and community creative producer. Born in London and raised in Texas, his work blends global perspective with deep local roots. Founder of Ghetto Gramma (1997), a pioneering UK Hip Hop theatre company, he has directed over 100 productions and served as Head of Drama in multiple schools. As Head Coach at Five ASide Theatre CIC, he develops multi-artform projects like Dorothee, exploring five centuries of African Caribbean presence in Britain. Mic brings decades of experience in performance, education, and cultural leadership to his role as trustee and mentor.
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