Join us on the 14th of May at The Common Press for an evening of spoken word performance with four extraordinary poets: Paul Tran, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Cleo Henry, and Hasti.
About the poets:
Paul Tran
Paul is an accomplished poet who earned a BA from Brown University and an MFA in poetry from Washington University. Their work has been featured in publications such as the New Yorker and Poetry magazine, as well as in the anthology "Inheriting the War." Paul won the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and placed in the Top 10 at the Individual World Poetry Slam and National Poetry Slam. They are the poetry editor at The Offing and the Senior Poetry Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, and have been recognized with awards such as the "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize and the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. They will be reading from their collection "All the Flowers Kneeling", published in the UK by Penguin.
Oluwaseun Olayiwola
Oluwaseun is a poet, critic, and choregrapher living in London. His poems have been published in the Guardian, The Poetry Review, Oxford Poetry, 14poems and elsehwhere. In 2023, he placed second in the Ledbury Poetry Competition. He became a Ledbury Poetry Critic in 2021 and since then his criticism has been published in Telegraph, TLS, the Poetry School, and Magma. Oluwaseun was an inaugural member of the Southbank Poetry Collective. He also has an MFA in Choreography from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. His debut collection is forthcoming from Granta.
Cleo Henry
Cleo Henry is a writer and researcher based in London. Their poetry pamphlet "The Last Lesbian Bar in the Midlands," published by 14Poems in 2022, was widely praised for its diverse references and unique style; with nods to figures like Helen of Troy and Cynthia Nixon, the collection is at once riotously queer and richly intelligent; T.S. Eliot prize-winning poet Joelle Taylor described it as "an arresting cinema of a book … "The Last Lesbian Bar in the Midlands" is a moment, an idea, and a sense of future that binds us to the best of each other, making it a brilliant addition to modern poetry."
Hasti
Our host for the evening is our very own Hasti, a poet and writer living in South East London, who can often be found making excellent poetry recommendations at The Common Press. A member of the Southbank New Poets Collective and Ledbury Poetry Critics, Hasti also hosts monthly open mic and poetry night Fresh Lip.
The readings will begin from 7.30pm; guests are welcome to arrive from 6.30pm at the bookshop. Tickets are free, but there is an option to make a donation to the bookshop if you would like to.
Please note that the event is taking place in our event space, which unfortunately is not currently wheelchair accessible (we're working on it).