07/07/2026
Two brilliant new workshops with Rachel Long and Heidi Williamson coming up next week!
Sign up here: https://buytickets.at/thepoetrybusiness
Mon 13 July, 7pm
The Harlem Renaissance with Rachel Long
What happens when poetry becomes a revolution? When language refuses silence? When art insists on dignity, joy, and defiance? This workshop explores the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance — the extraordinary cultural movement of the 1920s and 30s that reshaped American literature and redefined Black artistic expression.
Participants will experiment with blues structures, formal verse, and contemporary responses to Renaissance themes. We’ll consider how this movement continues to influence poets today, and how its spirit of artistic boldness can energise your own work.
Wed 15 July, 11am
'Who's on the stage of the poem and why?' with Heidi Williamson
Even if there isn't a declared ‘I’, we know 'someone' is speaking in a poem – and some poems have multiple characters in them, including the reader.
In this generative workshop, we'll take a step back and look at the poem's stage on which characters, elements, images and statements step forward to take their turns in the limelight.
Inspired by poems from Michael Donaghy, Leo Boix, Ada Limón, Isabelle Baafi, Linda France, Edwin Morgan, Ilya Kaminsky and more, we’ll consider who and what we present to the reader and what surprise guests turn up for ourselves.
