Door-to-Door Poetry And The Collaborative Process
As the Door-to-Door Poetry project took shape, it became clear that this wasn’t about persuading anyone, or trying to demonstrate how clever I was. It was about listening and holding the space until I found an earnest moment of connection.
A mist of questions
In November last year, Inua Ellams flew from London, England, to Benin, Nigeria, for his second arts residency at the Museum of West African Art in Edo State.
Collective Energy: Building a Life in Poetry with GOBS
Running GOBS has taught me as much about sustainability as it has about poetry. Collectives thrive on energy.
End of Year – Goodbye 2025
Hey 🙂 It’s that time of year when we do a ‘quick’ round-up of all things Apples!! Big news for 2025 saw us going back to our roots and reclaiming the idea of performance poetry being what we are all about. Exciting times ahead! As ever, we delivered loads of amazing work with a brilliant…
Chaos Menu
I’d love to say my arts practice was forged in fire. It sounds good, doesn’t it? It makes my arts practice sound tough. It’s not tough (is anyones?) but it is resilient.
Eco Poetry: The Personal, The Political and Deeper Connections
I’ve been thinking about how poetry can help us listen better, and how art affirms that we are all connected.
Finding Poetic Inspiration in Uncertainty
I have a fascination with the mundane, which is where most of us will spend the majority of our lives in. I find that the interplay between ordinary moments set against the complexities of social structures and theory make for rich poetic ground.
Welcome Ty’Rone Haughton
Apples & Snakes announces its first Trainee Artistic Director as Poet and playwright Ty’rone Haughton
My Journey into Writing for Children
Only 11% of children’s books published in 2021 featured a character from a Global Majority background. Even more starkly, just 2% of U.K. children’s authors and illustrators come from these communities.
Cascadoo Festival
Poet and writer Shareefa Energy writes about her time in Trinidad and her experience at the Cascadoo Festival.
Zakariye
Zakariye is a poet, performer, playwright and filmmaker from Birmingham. His work often explores masculinity, faith and identity.
From baby poet to Croydon Poet Laureate
From baby poet to Croydon Poet Laureate By: Shaniqua Benjamin Although I’ve always loved writing, I stayed away from poetry until my early 20s. Fashion design had been my focus, so when I dropped out of university to pursue a career in writing and eventually discovered that poetry was the avenue for me, it was…
Amy Langdown
Describe yourself in 3 words… Quirky – Vibrant – Stubborn What inspires you? This, I suppose, is an answer of contradiction. What inspires me to write does not inspire me. Often I write because of the feeling that I must – I often write about the current political climate (which is not what I would…
Polis Loizou
Describe yourself in 3 words… Creative, talkative, irritating. What inspires you? History, culture and weird lore. I’m also very inspired by mediocrity. Part of me thinks, “Well, I can definitely do better than that,” which fires me up to do my thing. Tell us about your worst ever gig? I’ve only done a handful of poetry…
Poetry under Occupation
By Shareefa Energy. I was invited to The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank in Palestine as lead facilitator for the 2022 ‘Through The Eyes of Women – Feminist Theatre Festival,’ to deliver poetry and creative writing workshops, alongside performing poetry in Jenin and Ramallah. I last facilitated poetry and public speaking…
The Pause – Field Lab
Early this year I was invited by Team London Bridge, in partnership Apples and Snakes, to put together a day of interactive exercises that would inspire a different spin on talking about the climate and ecological crisis as part of the epic In A Field by A Bridge Festival. Since 2018, I’ve had many conversations in climate and environmental…
Bits of a Poet
Bits of a Poet “Understanding comes in different forms, and poems are not riddles.” – Bohdan Piasecki We build poems out of bits of language. Words, and groups of words, and ways in which words interact. We each amass a different set of these bits, and even the ones we ostensibly share we imbue with…
The Animated Poet
A few years ago I realised if I draw while I listen, it tames my frantic mind and lets the poets’ words reach me. I have AHDH and I love poetry and drawing. My mind bounces all over the place when I create which is a joy for stringing together wild ideas, but my mind…
Goodbye 2022
Hello from Apples and Snakes, and goodbye 2022! A momentous year for us as we turned 40 on 2nd October 2022. Wahoooo!!! It’s amazing! What was started by a small collective of poets Mandy Williams, Pete Murry and Jane Addison in a room at the Adam’s Arms, on Saturday 2nd October 1982 is still here, going strong, 40 years later…
I Don’t Owe You a Trauma Poem
“i hate having to share trauma with white people to be taken seriously. as a writer but also just as a person. like, is that the only way whiteness recognises me as a person? through pain?” – Chen Chen The very first spoken word poem I ever wrote was on my experience of a lifetime…
Being A Disabled Poet
I’d love it if people could read the word ‘disabled,’ notice what feelings come up and then challenge them. Try it now. Disabled poet. I think I did have a sense that the village hall tea-party, in the middle of Norfolk, on a sunny afternoon, might not be ‘my audience’ but then, I didn’t want…
Commission This – Shagufta K Iqbal
The world of commissioning can sometimes be a minefield, and it can be difficult to know where to start. I’ve been practising as a poet and workshop for over 10 years now, and alongside this work, I have also been commissioned to write for a variety of different projects. Each with its own trials, tribulations,…
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