Art:Up Poetry – Radical Islands

Thursday 13th November
6.00pm (doors open 5pm)

Hot Box
28 Viaduct Rd, Chelmsford CM1 1TS

The theme for this leg of the tour is Radical Islands, linking in with Essex Book Festival’s Radical Islands project. You can pen a poem by yourself or collabrate. If you want to collaborate and have a collaborator then great, if you need to find a collaborator then drop poetry@hotboxlive.co.uk a line in the first instance and they will get the ball rolling.

When thinking about the word Island, it can be one of the 35 islands around the Essex coastline, or maybe Mesopotamia Island in Chelmsford, let your minds wander.

The Art:Up! project which is is part of “The Being Human Festival, the U.K.’s Festival of the Humanities” was launched at the University’s Art Exchange gallery as part of the 2025 Essex Book Festival.

For the first event Essex (and HOT BOX) poets Ethan Stewart and Babalon Anon launched the open mic show and eco-poet Linden K McMahon headlined. Fifteen poets performed and Babalon Anon commented that “there is no diversity without neurodiversity”.

There will be a book of selected works, and the final showcase event will form part of the 2026 Essex Book Festival.

Follow art_up_poetry on Instagram.

Book your free place here.

The post The Art:Up Continues! appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

It is open to all 13-16 year olds living in and around the Chelmsford area who are passionate about writing and talking. Our young participants will explore multiple forms of writing, including zine-making, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, blogging etc, and talking, including spoken word poetry and podcasting.

The programme includes two trips to London: one for a visit backstage at Royal Opera House to see its workings, the other to attend the national exhibition of work at Somerset House, which will be showing work from National Saturday Clubs across the UK.

It is free to sign up but please note that there are only 15 places available so if you know someone who would benefit from taking part in the Club, make sure they get in quick. More information about the Club and the sign up link can be found here: https://saturday-club.org/club/essex-book-festival-aru-writing-talking/

The post New Writing & Talking National Saturday Club launched appeared first on Essex Book Festival.