Our work

We support 4 key groups through our programmes:

 

1 East Midlands youth facing barriers in accessing literature, ‘arts’ and education, through our Outreach Programme

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2 Young writers, through our National Youth Poetry Showcase and Masterclass offer

 

3 Emerging university poets, through our UniSlam festival and Alumni Network

 

4 Mid-career poets, through our forthcoming retreat series

 

The UniSlam festival ties our various strands of work together and brings these 4 groups to one event as participants, audience members and facilitators.

 

Our aims

Through our programmes, we strive to:

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- Provide national platforms for young voices to be heard

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- Improve participants’ skills and provide them with meaningful opportunities to progress to the next stage of their process

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- Develop Britain’s youth-poetry infrastructure, building connections between regional poetry communities

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- Champion creativity as a crucial element of education

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- Increase diversity within British literature

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- Address the worrying lack of support that exists for mid-career artists who have aged-out of the ‘emerging’ stage

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- Work against the pervasive ‘page vs. stage’ divide in British poetry between

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