AlterNativeArt

Friday 24 October 2008 - Saturday 1 November 2008 Southbank Centre Belvedere Road London SE1 8XX Poetry International 2008 is about freedom. It celebrates poetry’s enduring ability to transcend doctrine, spin and censorship, to confirm, in John Berger’s words that ‘in the world we live in today poetry is an unbowed, unspinned means of communication’. We celebrate poetry in translation by looking at Palestine, magnified in significance by the untimely death of Mahmoud Darwish. Speechless presents poetry beyond censorship from South East Asia. Six Seasons evokes the poetic moods of Bengal through text and music, and some of the greats in world poetry, including Jorie Graham, Mark Doty and Tomas Venclova, read from their latest work. Look out too for Lemn Sissay’s specially curated installation running throughout the festival and join us for a reading from his new collection, Listener. My picks from the festival are: Sean O'Brien Sunday 26 October 2008 Sean...

Thursday 26 June at 7pm Lemn Sissay was born in 1967, the year The Mersey Sound was first published. Within its pages Lemn found the confirmation he had been looking for, that poetry should be for the people, by the people. This event is part of Liverpool 08. Tickets £10 and £7, venue The Arts Theatre. Find out more at www.poetrysociety.org.uk