Just to say a huge thank you to all your support for the 2nd London Poetry Festival 2006 @ RADA. It was a resounding success thanks to all your support. So a huge thank you to all from the family of Poet's Letter.

The Festival starts @ 7 pm. Opening with Munayem Mayenin, Dr Simon Jenner and Pia Mayenin welcoming everyone.

With Pia Mayenin's reading of What is poetry the festival presented the four (out of five) Poets in Residence @ the Festival: Alan Buckely, Girija Shettar, Malgorzata Kitowski and Philip Ruthen (mentioning the absense of Luke Wright who is up in the north at the Edinburgh Festival at this moment).

The Festival was presented in three sessions.

Performers at the first session were the four festival poets in residence.
Leanne O’Sullivan (from Ireland), Sarah Wardle, Molara Wood, Dr Simon Jenner, Maggie Sullivan and Munayem Mayenin performed in the second session.

Third sessions had Carole Baldock and Roi Kwabena performing followed by invited open mic session where performed Peter Donnelly, Alim Noor, Peter Ebsworth and Fathieh Saudi.

The festival concluded with Johnny Vallon's music.

At the end Poet's Letter Magazine team was presented and vote of thanks given.

Instant feed back from audience members and poets: refreshing, resounding, inspiring, great, wonderful, beautiful, unbelievable, beginning of something big, something great, great audience, brilliant, great line up of readers, variations of presentation etc.

The audience was a true representation of London with a great distinction where we had a great number of young people present.

Special feature: there was a group of German Student of English Poetry (visting the UK and still studying) who added another dimension to the evening.

The other news is that London Poetry Festival and Poet's Letter Magazine is going to be on the British Satellite News Channel from tomorrow. This is how people could view the programme. Visit their website: www.bsn.org.uk  and search for poetry or London Poetry Festival which should bring in the link of the programme.

Poet's Letter Magazine (first print issue) was launched at the Festival and the magazine is now out and on sale.

Please contact us if you require Poetry Festival photos or photo of the cover of the magazine for media purposes.

London Poetry Festival was recorded. If any television channel would like to use any footage or use these materials for a programme please do not hesitate to contact us.

Please subscribe the print magazine for Half Price now (special offer extended till end of September). It's only £16.50.

Finally, let us thank all poets and musicians who supported us by joining us, every member of the audience, all the people at RADA who supported the whole event from beginning to end, particular thanks to Genevieve, Lorraine, Peter, Betty and Anthony, to all the volunteers (Abu Sayeed, Qyum, Azim, Siobhan, Shima, Ruksana, Alim, Hazel, Siobhan, Maggie) and members of our staff, Karl for recording the event, Donal for taking the photos and everyone else who supported us (even if we do not mention their names here). Special thanks to all the poets in residence for their contributions and support. A big thank you to Johnny Vallon for his wonderful music.

A special thank you to all the fellow journalists who attended the event.

Poet's Letter Monthly Performances will resume at the Poetry Cafe on 10th of September.

The London Poetry Festival 2006 grew out of The Poet's Letter Magazine Poetry Performance Series that started last year. Our Performance Series grew into its second year and still growing in strength. We had the first Festival at The Poetry Cafe in last August where many of our panel of poets took part as well as a lot of other poets published in the Magazine and The Poet's Letter Poetry Anthology of New Voices. We had a great memorable event.

We thought this could become a regular Annual Poetry Festival in London, a celebration of Contemporary English Poetry. Therefore here we are with the second Festival and this year the Festival is taking place at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Vanburgh Theatre (RADA) on 23rd August Wednesday 6:30-10:30 pm.

We are hoping to get most, if not all, of the poets in our panel of poets including: Mimi Khalvati, Cheryl Follon, Munayem Mayenin, Isobel Dixon, Carole Baldock (Orbis Editor), Helen Ivory, Martin Figura, Carrie Etter, Phillip Ruthen (Confirmed), Julia Copus, Kona Macphee, Choman Hardi, Jim Bennett, Todd Swift, Eva Salzman, Luke Wright, Jude Simpson and Johnny Vallon and Paivi Payne (Music). We are of course trying to get other poets too. We will update this page as we progress. To find out more about the Poets joining the Festival please go to or to read their works please go to

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
62-64 Gower Street
London WC1E 6ED

Our visitors and poetry lovers who attend our performances and who do not, but love to see poetry flourish are our Poetry Ambassadors to help and support us in promoting the Festival and help us plant The London Poetry Festival into the cultural landscape of London.
We would love to see poetry grow on the solid support of people who are individuals choosing to practise, support, nurture and celebrate poetry as a personal choice and therefore we would like to see people stop looking at other people and bodies to come and support and "rescue" poetry.
One cannot see the astounding dawn where the sun spells out the spectrum of endless joys, thrill and hopes in the astonishing brilliance, all absorbing melody and soul flooding music if they fail to choose to open their eyes, to choose to get up and walk, choose to open the doors and walk right onto the spectacle.
Here we are: we would like people to choose poetry and it will grow like an eternal tree offering us greenery and wind dance that will elaborate our oxygenated spirit and bring us in touch with the thrill and wonders of weather and music of life in the glorious cycle of seasons and take us beyond the bread-bridge and launch us into a space and reality that allows us to be something which is bigger than anything else that we could be: being human and being alive for which our system has yet to coin up a currency. Here we are with poetry: shared areal space of our common humanity. Poet's Letter Second London Poetry Festival 2006 welcomes you all to come and join us in the celebration of contemporary English poetry.
Poets in Residence of London Poetry Festival 2006
Alan Buckley
Girija Emma Jane Shettar
Luke Wright
Malgorzata Kitowski
Philip Ruthen



We have spent a long time in developing this list of five contemporary poets who are writing poetry in English today at the emerging end of the spectrum; whether to call it contemporary English Poetry or British Poetry or Poetry written in English may form a wider and greater debate but in the opinion of The Poet’s Letter Magazine and Poet’s Letter Books these five voices individually are powerful in their nature, unique in their character, living and sublime in their language and they have the ability, talent, intellect, sense, direction and confidence to challenge us, inspire us, invite us, chastise us and even ridicule our well sofa-ed, well secured fixed views and attitudes to life, living and even poetry.

They invite us to a journey of creativity; taking, shaping, bending, widening, enriching and breaking the language itself to give us landscapes, skyscapes, waterscapes, spacescapes, both inner and outer, that we might at times come to like, even love, yet at times, we might not even like it or even begin to hate.

However, the journey is worth it. Nobody says poetry is science or mathematics; it does not take us to a destination nor does it promise us of doing that rather it makes the road a living, the journey, a legend and it radiates and resembles as something bigger than even the destination itself. These five voices need celebrating, supporting and promoting and Second London Poetry Festival 2006, which aspires to become bigger and wider in its third celebration in 2007, wishes to celebrate their poetry and therefore would like to present them here for the poetry reading readers of today in the UK.

Sponsors/Advertisers

We are are looking for sponsors for the Festival and for the Festival Brochure as well as advertisers for the website and the brochure and welcome enquiries and proposals.
For further details please contact: Editor@poetsletter.com  or Executiveeditor@poetsletter.com
Or call 07931 357 109

 

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