About Me
I am a storyteller, educator and artist working across poetry, theatre, film, and photography, with a recent background as a human rights lawyer.
At the heart of everything I create is a belief in the power of art to foster connection and change. I strive to create work that resonates deeply, reflecting the world back to itself — raw, joyful, questioning and imagining better futures. My work is concerned with interrogating ‘becoming’ whether that relates to identities, the systems that govern our lives, making and process itself. I am particularly committed to stories that interrogate the unperformed self, womanhood, race and justice.
My poetry collection Locating Strongwoman (Jacaranda Press) is a celebration and an exploration of quiet strength and womanhood. My work features in anthologies and journals internationally and stages feel like home. From the Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín to Cheltenham Literature Festival, Lagos Poetry Festival and more, I come alive when my words hit air and makes someone lean closer.
My play Ilé La Wà toured the UK between 2016 – 19, opening conversations about belonging, home, and displacement. In the same period I curated a multidisciplinary project including documentaries, animations, illustration and dance within the project ‘Home Is…’ which expanded these themes further and invited individuals and artists across the country into the conversation. Short art-films I have written and directed have been selected and screened at Forecast International Festival Berlin (2021), Museum of Food and Art New York (2021) and Toronto Food Film Festival (2022) and Zebra Poetry Film Festival. An Animation of my poem Recipe Book was screened at Outernet London (October 2024). I have been the recipient of several fellowships and residencies including Callaloo, Hurston Wright, Watering Hole, etc.
Teaching, mentoring and editing are an integral part of my creative practice. I am the producer and curator of the Forward Prizes’ Young Poets Summit development program and regularly teach for various programs and institutions including Arvon Foundation, the Poetry School, King’s College University, London Southbank University etc. I believe in creating spaces rooted in care, courage and collective growth, where artists can risk new stories.
Latest
- Inaugural London Creative Associate for the UK Women’s Poets Network aka Rebecca Swift Foundation (2025 – 2026)