A Poet in Every Port
To mark our 75th anniversary, we’re taking the celebrations beyond our base on London’s South Bank and out across the UK
Leading these celebrations is A Poet in Every Port, a national project celebrating poetry in coastal communities across the UK.
Inspired by the spirit of the 1951 Festival of Britain, a nationwide celebration of arts, design, science, technology and culture that also led to the creation of the Southbank Centre, A Poet in Every Port, will take to the road between July and September, visiting 11 coastal towns and cities in a specially designed Mobile Poetry Library.
Through free public events, workshops and poetry readings A Poet in Every Port sees the Southbank Centre working hand in hand with regional partners and poets across the four nations. Together we’ll help to nurture local voices and celebrate the incredible poetry projects already thriving in each of the communities we visit.
Ambassador for A Poet in Every Port is the celebrated poet, Roger McGough who will launch the tour in Great Yarmouth on 29 May, and join at further stops along the tour. A Poet in Every Port will also play a part in Poetry International, here at the Southbank Centre on 12 July.
New Poets Collective
Launched in 2021, New Poets Collective, is an annual Southbank Centre initiative – co-facilitated by Vanessa Kisuule and Will Harris – to nurture and showcase emerging voices.
For the duration of A Poet in Every Port our New Poets Collective is made up of poets from each of the tour’s locations; poets who’ll work closely with their communities to tell stories, celebrate local dialects and languages, and show that poetry is for everyone.
The Mobile Library
Making this UK-wide tour will be a special mobile version of our National Poetry Library, which features bespoke poetry collections curated for each location, a recording suite for sharing poems and space for poetry workshops.
Word Exchange
During the tour you’ll be able to submit your own poems as part of a national competition. More details of how to take part in this will be available in May.
The destinations
The poets
Roger McGough
Poet, performer and broadcaster Roger McGough has published over 100 poetry books for adults and children. He first came to national prominence with 1967’s The Mersey Sound, an anthology of poetry by McGough and fellow Liverpool poets Adrian Henri and Brian Patten; it remains one of the all-time bestselling poetry anthologies. In the same decade he formed The Scaffold with John Gorman and Mike McGear, enjoying several top 20 hits, most notably the UK number one, ‘Lily the Pink’. A Fellow of The Royal Society and President of The Poetry Society, he presents the popular Radio 4 series Poetry Please. McGough received the Freedom of the City of Liverpool in 2001, and in 2004 was awarded a CBE.