Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan will be in two consecutive in-person events. The first, “Channelling Queer Depths: An Evening with Poet Shivanee Ramlochan,” takes place on Tuesday, November 15, from 6:30 to 8:00pm, at Nottingham Contemporary (Weekday Cross, Nottingham). This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required (see below).

The second event is “Poetry as Ferocity Workshop: Writing Your Truth with Radical Honesty,” on Wednesday, November 16, from 5:30 to 7:30pm, at the Bonington Gallery (located at Nottingham Trent University, Bonington Building, Dryden Street, Nottingham, England).

Description: To correspond with Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary all are warmly invited to Channelling Queer Depths: An Evening with Poet Shivanee Ramlochan. Shivanee will give readings from her ground-breaking collection Everyone Knows I am a Haunting (2017), followed by a conversation with PhD queer literary researcher, Tom Lockwood-Moran. A particular point of interest will be Shivanee’s upcoming work of creative non-fiction, Unkillable (2023), centring how a writer channels their queer self through dangerous, unorthodox, and taboo subjects. This event will explore how and why poetry chisels beneath the world’s surface to expose queer depths, particularly informed by Shivanee’s experience of Trinidadian cultures and subcultures.

Description: What truths are your poems telling? If not for the reality of your poems, what truths would never be spoken at all? In Poetry as Ferocity Workshop: Writing Your Truth with Radical Honesty, we’ll chart a course for radical honesty in verse, seeking to grow stronger roots for your poems to anchor themselves. Focusing on work by female Caribbean poets Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné and Safiya Sinclair, we draw on their powerful subversion in writing. Using innovative exercises, we unlock the most potent ways to tell the truth our poems require.

Poets have always been political agitators, defenders of the right to wield uncomfortable truths. What truths do you bring to the table, ready and roaring to be told? [NOTE: This workshop is open to people aged 18 and over. This workshop involves discussion of potentially triggering content and strong language.]

Shivanee Ramlochan is an Indo-Trinidadian poet, critic, and essayist, whose first poetry collection, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (2017), was shortlisted for the 2018 Forward Prize. Ramlochan’s next work, the creative non-fiction Unkillable, is forthcoming from Noemi Press in Autumn 2023. Shivanee is the Book Reviews Editor for Caribbean Beat Magazine and works closely with Bocas Lit Fest, the Caribbean’s largest literary festival.

Tom Lockwood-Moran is a PhD queer literary researcher, funded by Midlands4Cities (AHRC), writing his thesis in English Literature, entitled: ‘Queer Resistance(s): Contemporary Caribbean Communality’. Tom’s project is supervised by experts from both Nottingham Trent University and The University of Leicester.

For more information on Nottingham contemporary event, see https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/whats-on/poetry-shivanee-ramlochan/

To make reservations, go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/channelling-queer-depths-an-evening-with-poet-shivanee-ramlochan-tickets-443973275017?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

For more information about the Bonington Gallery event, go to https://www.boningtongallery.co.uk/event/formations-poetry-workshop-writing-your-truth-with-radical-honesty/

[Photo above by Elechi Todd.]