Henry Normal's New Poetry Society Videos

Writer, performer and educator from Nottingham. Bridie Squires is editor-at-large of LeftLion Magazine and was Nottingham Trent University's first Writer in Residence in 2019. She is also Lead Artist at GOBS Collective - a spoken-word programme for emerging artists. Bridie has performed in London's Southbank Centre, Karlsruhe's Staatstheatre, Nottingham Playhouse, and countless venues around the Midlands. In 2019, Bridie was funded by Arts Council England to develop a full-length, one-woman performance: Casino Zero.

Date recorded: Wed 5 May, 12pm

Manjit Sahota is the co-founder of Poets Against Racism and a local Nottingham poet who has performed his poetry in venues across the East Midlands and around the country since 2016.

As an activist and poet Manjit has worked with a number of schools and creative arts organisations in the city, delivering workshops to encourage more poetry and spoken word.

Manjit formed PAR in 2016 to rally poets, spoken word artists and rappers to use their poetry to challenge the rise in racism and spread the word of unity, humanity and Love.

‘Poetry for me is the memory of our history, struggle and resistance’ Manjit.

Wed 12 May, 12pm.

Panya Banjoko is a UK based writer, poet and PhD researcher at Nottingham Trent University. Her debut collection, Some Things, was published by Burning Eye Books (2018). Her work is published in numerous anthologies including award-winning Clever Girls, winner of the Working-Class Studies Association's ‘Jake Ryan and Charles Sackrey Award for a Book about the Working-Class Academic Experience’ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and her poem, ‘They and Them’, featured in Mic Drop, an exhibition by artist Keith Piper at Beaconsfield Gallery, London, the London Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. She has been artist in residence at the International School, Stuttgart, Jaipur Literature Festival, India, and for the National Trust’s 100 verses at Charlecote Park, Warwickshire. Panya is a multi-award-winning poet, co-ordinates a Black Writers Network and is patron for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature.  

Wed 19 May, 12pm.

Andrew is a poet, performer and cinephile. He has been featured on Radio 6 Music’s Cerys Matthews Show and BBC Radio 4. His latest titles include "Not Dancing with Ingrid Pitt" published by Burning Eye Books (2020), and "Welcome to the Cheap Seats", a history of working class cinema (2019). Andrew runs film courses and pre-screen introductions at arthouse independent cinemas like Broadway in Nottingham and Phoenix in Leicester.

Wed 26 May, 12pm.

Anne Holloway is a poet, performer, and founding editor at Big White Shed publishing. She has over a decade of experience delivering workshops in schools & community settings with writers and non-writers and has completed numerous residencies in a variety of settings. Her first collection There Are No Photographs, was published in 2018.

Wed 2 June, 12pm.

Cathy Grindrod has published five collections of poetry, the latest being The Sky, Head On, published by Shoestring Press, and has just completed a sixth. She has been a prizewinner in a number of poetry competitions and undertaken several writing commissions, most recently for The National Trust’s Armistice Day commemoration. She is a former Derbyshire Poet Laureate, also writes memoir and plays, and once, the libretto for an oratorio about the life of Bess of Hardwick - More Glass Than Wall - in collaboration with composer James Redwood, which was shortlisted for a BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Year Award. In 2014 Cathy was awarded an Honorary Degree for her work enhancing wellbeing through writing across Derbyshire communities. She currently directs a programme of support for writers, The Writer Highway, and is a writing facilitator, mentor and coach.

Wed 9 June, 12pm.

Cleo is a spoken word poet who has performed across the region, in London and internationally. Her work explores relationships, mental health, childhood and the urge to dance. She’s supported Hollie McNish and Roger McGough; and was a finalist in the search for Nottingham’s first Young Poet Laureate. Cleo currently works in editorial at Penguin Random House, Ebury, one of the country's most successful imprints dedicated to the best in non-fiction publishing.

Wed 16 June, 12pm. 

Leanne Moden is a poet, performer and educator, based in Nottingham. She’s performed at events across the UK and Europe, including recent sets at WOMAD Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sofar Sounds, and Bestival on the Isle of Wight, as well as shows in Estonia and Spain. She performed at the TEDx WOMEN event at UCL in 2016, and was a semi-finalist at the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam in 2019. Leanne is currently working on her first full-length theatre show, Skip, Skip, Skip, which is about identity, music and belonging, and her second pamphlet of poetry, ‘Get Over Yourself’ was published by Burning Eye Books in 2020. 

Wed 23 June, 12pm.

Georgina Wilding was crowned Nottingham’s first Young Poet Laureate in 2017, and is now the Creative Director of Nottingham Poetry Festival, as well as the Founding Editor of Mud Press. She has performed her work both nationally and internationally at events such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Bright Spark, Hit the Ode, and Off Milosz festival in Poland. As well as this, she has been commissioned by organisations such as The Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio Nottingham to write and perform, and has been published in literary journals such as “The Rialto” and “Kontent.” In 2020 she was invited to the Apples and Snakes Black Box series to contribute her work, and was also invited to write a piece on the coronavirus pandemic for Manchester Writing School’s ‘Write We Are Now’ project.

Wed 20 June, 12pm.

Pete Ramskill is a poet, artist, illustrator, designer and sculptor.

Pete used to perform regularly on Terry Christian’s Radio Derby show and has also performed at the the Edinburgh Festival for BBC Radio 4. He also appeared on BBC 3’s Whine Gums poetry series. He has also performed at poetry and cabaret venues all over the UK including The Nottingham Poetry Festival.

Pete has had three books of poems published; ‘Strike’ (Derby Cooperative Press) and ‘Personal Vendetta’ (Amazing Collosal Press as John Bitumen). His latest is Selected Moments of Machine Life (Flapjack Press).

He is currently working on an illustrated book of selected poems by Henry Normal taken from his Instagram page @henrynormalpoetry

It’s no coincidence that Pete Ramskill is also a stone carver, he brings the same tools to his poetry - a hammer and chisel...

Wed 7July, 12pm.