St Peter’s Church, Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 5AH (now a rehearsal space for the Hallé Orchestra). This free event was mounted jointly by Poets & Players and the Manchester Literature Festival.
Before the reading we hosted a workshop by Kei Miller in the morning from 10.00 am – 12.00 pm in the Friends’ Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS. This cost £20.00 (no concessions) and there were 14 participants.
You can link to our you-tube videos of the event by clicking on the performers’ names:
Mammal Hands Kei Miller Lorna Goodison
with thanks to Carcanet Press
Lorna Goodison was born in Jamaica, and has won numerous awards including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and one of Canada’s largest literary prizes, the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. She is described by the Poetry Archive as “one of the finest Caribbean poets of her generation” and Kwame Dawes has written of her: “Superlatives glint all over commentary on Lorna Goodison’s work… she is now one of the greatest!”
with thanks to Carcanet Press
Kei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978. “Raise high the roofbeams, here comes a strong new presence in poetry,” wrote Lorna Goodison when he burst onto the poetry scene with Kingdom of Empty Bellies in 2006. In 2007, he edited Carcanet’s New Caribbean Poetry Anthology – a showcase for a range of Caribbean identities and experiences. Oliver Senior lauds his second collection There is an Anger that Moves, as “radiant utterance that speaks of island experiences and gender politics from a deep well of understanding, with empathy, humour and insight.”
Mammal Hands are a trio of like-minded musicians: Nick Smart piano, Jesse Barrett drums and percussion, and Jordan Smart saxophones. Drawing on influences from Steve Reich to Bonobo and Pharoah Sanders to Cinematic Orchestra, alongside elements of North Indian and African music, they produce their own beautiful, inimitable music – at times wistful and melancholic and others raucous and catchy. Their sublime debut album, Animalia, will be released on 15th September by Gondwana Records.
Poets & Players 