Read : Apples and Snakes

This is a Poet

Kate Fox: This is a Neurodivergent Poet

This is a Neurodivergent Poet… I know a lot of other poets feel, as I did, that whenever they first […]

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2021 Round Up

Hello from Apples and Snakes What to say about 2021, was it worse than 2020? Hard to choose! We kept […]

Spine

Open House: Mapping the journey of ESOL

Open House has been running as part of the SPINE Festival since 2017. The project is specifically devised for refugee […]

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Poets

On Poetry and Painting – Alice Frecknall

Subject, perspective, composition, medium, colour palette, framing, tools… these are some of the things that come to mind when I […]

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FAQ with Rick Dove

In July this year Rick Dove became the oldest ever Hammer & Tongue National Slam Champion. Rick was a participant in our Red Sky Sessions and he was […]

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Jean “Binta” Breeze

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our great friend and most powerful poet, Jean Binta Breeze. […]

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What’s SPINE Festival all about?

Preparations for this year’s SPINE Festival are well underway and we can’t wait for it to start in June. The […]

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Zena Edwards: Comfortable With the Uncomfortable

Zena recently joined Apples and Snakes officially as a Consulting Artistic Associate. She has been a long time friend of […]

Portrait of two older black men, one with a cap that reads 'the last poets' and the other in a cotton cap. Both with beards, looking intent.

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The Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan – Part 2

In the second part of this blog, Artistic Director of Apples and Snakes, Lisa Mead, and Consulting Artistic Associate, Zena […]

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The Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan – Part 1

Artistic Director of Apples and Snakes, Lisa Mead, interviewed our friends Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan from The Last […]

Picture of Joelle Taylor wearing a waistcoat, jacket and tie. Joelle is looking to the left and holding her mouth.

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Joelle Taylor: Writing From Archives

Lesbian history is obscured by centuries of misogyny, homophobia and class difference. As a consequence, much of the material available refers to upper and middle-class women, in the form of diaries, artworks and analytical texts.

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The Woman With The Wasted Face: Poets, Tread Carefully This Halloween

Please don’t call the police, but I was thirteen when I first watched the fifteen-rated, 2002 version of The Ring. […]

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Beth Calverley: In Defence of Daydreams

Beth Calverley, founder of The Poetry Machine, has seen the positive effects of poetry through her work within health and […]

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Anti-Racist Practice in Education

Written by Ming Akila with an introduction from Talia Randall A+S: Could we start with each of you giving us […]

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The Artist’s Responsibility

What is the role of the artist in moments of historic, social, or political importance? Is there a responsibility to […]

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Black Lives Matter: Our Commitment

28 May 2021 In response to Black Lives Matter, we have started to embed equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) […]

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Spoken word is dead: long live poetry?

Could it be that there is too much poetry in spoken word? There can be no props, costumes and stage personas if we absorb the assumption that poetry is not a performing art.