Headliner

lisa luxx

lisa luxx is a writer, performer, essayist and activist of British and Syrian heritage. She writes for freedoms, for healing, to mobilise and to inquire.

​Her poems are published in The Telegraph, The London Magazine and by publishers including Hatchette and Saqi Books. Her work is broadcast on Channel 4, BBC Radio 4 and TEDx. She’s done readings for Burberry, and regularly works with her local Women’s Centre.

luxx is winner of the Outspoken Prize of Performance Poetry 2018, Apples and Snakes & Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance Award 2021, and she was in the final shortlist for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2021.

Founder of The Sisterhood Salon, a feminist literary gathering in Beirut. She authored an essay on the Economy of Sisterhood for Saqi Books anthology Smashing It, and continues to develop theories around sisterhood as an act of resistance. Her work is also concerned with displacement, adoption, mixed heritage existence and the lesbian experience.

luxx has now released her debut collection Fetch Your Mother’s Heart with Outspoken Press.

She splits her time between Lebanon and England.

Featured Artist

TS Idiot

TS Idiot outsider artist, a performer who draws on beauty and power from history’s margins to embrace and mock modern life in equal measures. They look to the junkies, the jokers and the bent and abandoned for inspiration and solace. They have warmed up crowds for the likes of John Cooper Clarke and Attila The Stockbroker, as well as DIY punk shows and queer cabaret nights across the UK and hosted IDIOT TALK, a monthly spoken word show on 1020 Radio. They believe that the values of punk can be a transformative and powerful vehicle for social change.

A multidisciplinary artist, their practice spans poetry, short fiction, performance, film and theatre. They are an alumni of several UK Young Artists residency programmes and a Cultural Secretary for Tate St Ives, as well as writing for BBC Arts and performing across the UK at nights hosted by the likes of Apples & Snakes and Raise The Bar.Their poetry zine SPIT & MARGARINE was self-released in 2020 and their poems and short stories have been published by Perennial Press, The CALM Project, Global Youth Review, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Bloomsbury and The Bitchin’ Kitsch.

They want you to know that they love you and that everything’s going to be ok.

Featured Artist

Leilah Jane King

Leilah is a gay footballer and coach, mental health advocate and stand-up poet based in Bristol. 

Her debut poetry collection Midnight Picnics in Tehran was published by Burning Eye Books in August 2019. Leilah is currently working on her second collection which she is hoping to release in 2023. She works at Bristol Mind as a Fundraising Coordinator and lives in North Bristol with her partner.  

Leilah grew up in a rural town in Wales and started writing poetry in her teens. She enjoyed writing as an escape from her feelings of loneliness. She was not open about her sexuality and her family were one of the few dual heritage families in the area which compounded her sense of estrangement. Through her writing she could be authentic, sharing romantic poems about women. In 2012 she started taking part in the Open Mic scene. Leilah’s poetry evolved as she was inspired by her Iranian heritage and her time spent in Shiraz and Tehran, the former her mother’s home city. 

Since 2012, Leilah has performed across the UK. Headliner performances include Bristol Harbour Festival 2018, Poetry Café in London, Leeds poetry festival in 2021, Cheltenham Literature Festival and Find the Right Words in Leicester and was booked for WOMAD 2021, and most recently comedy at the Bristol event Party in 2022. 

In 2021 she featured in the Channel 4 film showcasing Lisa Luxx’s poem “Lesbian”.  Earlier in 2021 she was a panellist for the FA event Football versus Homophobia.  

Leilah was commissioned in 2021 to write for the Nationwide Voices campaign writing poems about football. 

Host

Bridget Hart

Bridget Hart (they/them) is a writer, performer and creative producer based in the South West.

Bridget is the former long term editor of Burning Eye Books, and continues to help performance artists transfer their work to the page as a freelance mentor. They have appeared on panels and hosted live poetry events across many UK festivals including Verve, Leeds, Cheltenham Poetry Festivals, Shambala, Uni Slam and the Poetry Book Fair.

As a performance poet, Bridget has been tearing up DIY punk shows for over a decade, cutting their teeth at feminist punk shows across the country. They have performed at Boomtown, Shambala, Manchester Punk Festival and Edinburgh Fringe. They have published two collections of poetry, Better Watch Your Mouth, and the latest Chewing Gum – a queer reimagining of Grease published by Small Press (Tangent Books).

Bridget is the co-ordinator of For Books’ Sake’s non-binary writer’s group They//Us.