I have given talks at Durham University as a Classics alum, and have led poetry workshops on numerous topics, in particular the work of Sappho and queer poetic inheritance. I am the Projects Manager at Film and Video Umbrella, working as part of a small team to support contemporary artists in creating film and moving image works.
In 2015 I founded Thorn, a cross-disciplinary arts collective based in Durham. I ran Thorn with a committed team until 2021, when the pandemic made it impossible to continue.
Thorn was conceived to be the independent platform for new voices in Durham, particularly to encourage those working across artistic disciplines, or collaborations between artists working in different media. We facilitated a diverse range of live events, from gigs and poetry performances to exhibitions, workshops and an annual arts festival, as well as publishing some work online.
Many artists Thorn hosted have made their mark in the arts, as writers, visual artists, performers, creative facilitators and cross-disciplinary practitioners. These include Soham De, Kym Deyn, Jelly Cleaver, Prerana Kumar, Fahad Al-Amoudi, Prasanna Sellathurai, Libby Pattison and Nathaniel Spain. Though Thorn was only a small part in their stories, it was a privilege to have held space for each of them.
Dive into Thorn's website to see what we got up to.
Soham De performing in 2016. Photo: Samuel Kirkman
Photo: Tamsin Bracher
Photo: Maddie Flisher
Photo: Alisdair Hariss
links to other work:
