Readings of radical and experimental poetry + open mic

Invited authors:

Afonso Fragoso Matos

Francis Jones

Isaac Harris

lisa minerva luxx

Matt Broomfield

6:30 pm - Mayday Rooms

Artwork by Eli Delbaere

Afonso Fragoso Matos - Sintra, 1998. Studied history and literature in Lisbon and London, focusing on Arab and troubadour poetry from the early medieval Iberian Peninsula. Has worked as a travel writer in Morocco and India, as a historical researcher for the director Gabriel Abrantes, and in book festivals in Berlin, where he moved in 2022. His first book meia roda da fortuna / half wheel of fortune came out in Portuguese and was performed in Lisbon the same year. A bilingual edition was, then, printed in Berlin with CUTT PRESS (pt/en). From contemplative, idyllic and reimagined Portuguese landscapes to the city life in neighborhoods of Lisbon, London, or Berlin, these poems condense a, somehow, sarcastic and political critique on European nationalism, mass tourism, and the capitalist mechanisms that keep it all spinning.

Francis Jones - Francis is an Irish writer and poet, who has previously written the collection sacrificial fabric (SPAM 2021) The Thieves, a text in collaboration with artist Josie Perry (CCA Intermedia Program, 2024) as well as a poem-film with Jack Hogan “I Thought I Hated U Moon Snail” which has been screened in various places in New York, Dublin and Limerick. Their second pamphlet STORM DRAIN is forthcoming with Veer2. They live in London

Isaac Harris - Isaac is a writer and digital artist from Virginia whose practice interrogates cultural and historical narratives through fiction. Their work explores themes of memory, the absurdity of Black identity, and the fluidity of power, focusing on narratives set around the greater Black diaspora in the Atlantic world.

Isaac is the author of Blaxploitation Burner Tape (Waterwings Press, 2023) and Ghetty Gospel (Ethel Zine, 2021, US; Peanut Press, 2021, Scotland). Recent writing and art has appeared in Deleuzine (2023) and in exhibitions, notably at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow for Francis Jones and Josie Perry’s The Thieves (2024), and was part of the group show, A TOTAL TRANSFORMATION IS NEEDED, at MART Gallery, Dublin (2024). 

lisa minerva luxx - lisa is a British-Syrian writer and political activist. Their poetry, essays and fiction have been published internationally including by Poetry Review, Magma, New England Review, BBC Radio 4 and their short film ‘Lesbian.’ was produced by Channel 4.

In 2021 their debut collection, Fetch Your Mother’s Heart, was released by Out-Spoken Press to critical acclaim. While currently working on their PhD in diaspora resistance poetics, they also guest lecture at Columbia University, American University of Beirut and Queens Mary London.

Since 2021, luxx has written three verse plays including what the dog said to the harvest which premiered at Southbank Centre. They are also a platinum award-winning lyricist with Maison Arts, LA.

luxx is a long-time grassroots organiser across England, Beirut and Syria. They believe in transnational community and direct action as a means of liberation, operating as a dedicated member of Palestine Action.

Matt Broomfield - Matt is a partisan poet who spent three years living and working in Rojava, North and East Syria, in solidarity with the Kurdish- and women-led, direct-democratic revolution there. He will perform poems from his award-winning debut collection, 'brave little sternums: poems from Rojava', and share perspectives from his time working in and learning from a revolution which claims to offer an alternative to a Middle East suffering genocide, the inter-state violence of 'World War III', and social and ecological collapse.