Three dynamic poets perform work from their latest collections, exploring identity, heritage and injustice. Terrance Hayes returns to MLF with his blistering new work So to Speak. Exploring what it means to be an artist and a Black man, Terrance writes about figures including Bob Ross, Lil’ Wayne, David Berman and George Floyd, navigating his way through the predicaments of the present. Anthony Anaxagorou’s daring second collection Heritage Aesthetics asks what it means to have heritage. Considering Cyprus and the diasporic experience, Anthony looks at colonialism and the impact on the public and the personal. Selina Nwulu’s superb debut collection A Little Resurrection melds the golden light of Senegal with the harsh winds of Yorkshire. Exploring grief, injustice and an identity in constant flux.

Terrance Hayes is one of America’s most exciting and innovative poets. His last collection American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and was the Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year. Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet. His previous collection After the Formalities was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Heritage Aesthetics was awarded the 2023 Ondaatje Prize. He is the artistic director of Out-Spoken. Selina Nwulu was the Young Poet Laureate for London 2015-6. Her first chapbook collection, The Secrets I Let Slip is a Poetry Book Society recommendation.

Presented in partnership with Manchester Poetry Library and supported by Sofas & Stuff.