Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a co- curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet will be published by Riverrun in Spring of 2024. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Her most recent acting role was in Blue by Derek Jarman, which was directed by Neil Bartlett and featured Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard, and Travis Alabanza. Blue sold out its run across the UK and more dates are expected for the future.
Bradley Taylor
Bradley is the winner of Satellite’s recent Summer Slam.
When we asked Bradley for a bio, all he wrote was: ‘Bradley Taylor (he/him) is a poet from Birmingham. Apologies.’
Malaika Kegode is an award-winning writer, performer, creative producer and Associate Director at Theatre Royal Plymouth. She is based in Bristol and Plymouth. Her work is focused on uplifting and celebrating the overlooked and misunderstood. Beginning her arts career as a performance poet in 2014, Malaika has since developed her practice to encompass theatre, radio and film writing. She is a vocal advocate for creativity as a tool for healing and connection.
Winner of the Kevin Elyot Award (2022) and shortlisted for the Out-Spoken Poetry Award (2019), Malaika has also been included in the BME Power List, celebrating Bristol’s most influential Black & minority ethnic people, and was a 2021 recipient of the Apples & Snakes Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance Award. She has performed around the UK at a number of celebrated venues, festivals and literary events, including The 100 Club, WOMAD and Hay Festival, and has worked with a wide-range of organisations as a writer, teacher and performer.
Malaika has been performing with folk-inspired prog-rock band Jakabol since 2018. Together they have performed at music and theatre venues alike – bringing a unique, exciting blend of poetry and music to diverse audiences. In 2021, Malaika and Jakabol collaborated on Outlier, which became the first piece of new writing produced for Bristol Old Vic’s main stage in 2021. Directed by Jenny Davies, Outlier fuses spoken word, original music and digital projection by Christopher Harrisson to tell Malaika’s autobiographical coming-of-age story of friendship, isolation and addiction in rural Devon. The show received critical success and fantastic audience reaction, and returned for a second run at Bristol Old Vic in 2022. The playtext for Outlier is published by Salamander Street.
Tackling themes as wide ranging as incel culture and identity in the internet age to millennial queerness and dinosaurs, Malaika’s writing has been performed around the country, including at Lyric Hammersmith, Watford Pumphouse, and Barbican Theatre Plymouth. She is an associate artist for Bristol Old Vic, part of the 2023 English Touring Theatre Nationwide Voices cohort and the current writer-in-residence at University of Bristol Theatre Collection.
As a workshop leader and mentor, Malaika has worked with organisations such as Arvon, Synergy Theatre Company and Narcotics Anonymous. As a trauma informed facilitator, she has specialised in running workshops with young and/or vulnerable people to help them realise the value of their stories. Many of the individuals Malaika has mentored have gone on to forge exciting and fulfilling careers in the arts.
Malaika has also worked film, and was the 2021 recipient of the the Eslpeth Kydd Memorial Prize for her screenwriting portfolio. She has been a curational associate for Watershed, a resident artist for Encounters Film Festival, and programme selector for a number of film festivals including Queer Vision and Tallinn Black Nights.
In 2015, Malaika founded, and continues to be artistic director and host of, Milk Poetry, an organisation that produces innovative spoken word gigs and workshops in a supportive environment across the South West, with monthly events at The Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol.
Other projects as writer and/or producer include: Rot. (tiata fahodzi); Field Notes (BBC Radio 4); Hear Her Voice (Neoteric Dance Company); Own Skin (Random Acts); The Best Ones (Inn Crowd); SheSpoke (Strike a Light); Level Up (Blahblahblah); Gloucester Slam Heats (Roundhouse); Finding Queerness in Kenya (Modern Queers); We are Not All Each Other (Black Ballad); Return to Form (Loud Poets); and her poetry collections Requite, Thalassic and Body Buffet.
Current projects include: The Colour of Dinosaurs (OTIC, Bristol Old Vic & Polka Theatre); The Combe (English Touring Theatre); Ruby, Baby (with thanks to the Kevin Elyot archive at University of Bristol Theatre Collection).
Jemma Hathaway Book Launch Friday 7th June Doors 7pm for 7.30pm on the Lightship
Jemma Hathaway likes to put words next to one another and see if they hit it off. Her poems have been featured on BBC Radio Bristol, BBC iPlayer and @bbc on Instagram. Jemma is a multiple slam-winner, was the 2020 Hammer & Tongue champion for Bristol and is a Button Poetry Short Form contest winner.
Jemma has supported Joelle Taylor, Jasmine Gardosi and Roger McGough, performed at the Royal Albert Hall and appeared on Sky Arts Life & Rhymes. She self-published her first poetry pamphlet, January in 2021. Her poems are a sticky dancefloor for the ongoing dance-off between her head and her heart. She hopes you like her moves.
About The Book
I’ve been looking everywhere for you is full of big four-letter things – life, love, loss, time and ultimately, hope. It’s a book of hellos and goodbyes, bad days and blessings, it is a healing and a homecoming … and it hopes to come home with you.
These poems take us from melanin to mountains, from stars to submarines, from hard times to soft words and set us down somewhere in that healing space between far-off galaxies and close-up magic.
This collection longs to be read in a different light – the light of midnight porches, of torches beneath blankets, of lighthouses that exist solely to warn you away from the rocks. All the lights that say, there you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.
‘Big things happen in small moments, writes Jemma Hathaway, and proceeds to show us just how much life can be found stuffed in the cracks of our existence.
Casting a witty, irreverent eye over the subject of her poems, Jemma chooses a playful touch which enables her to explore serious subjects without ever feeling worthy or preachy. The collection doesn’t shy away from the world’s sharp edges- racial microaggressions, homophobia, grief and mental health are some of the things she touches upon- but remains ultimately and defiantly hopeful.
The imagery swings between the expansive and the everyday, where melanin holds light like Galileo’s telescope holds the moon and Queer lives are singing kettles. Throughout, Jemma reminds the reader that love in all its various, ridiculous, wonderful forms exists in the most mundane of places.’ Kat Lyons
‘Jemma Hathaway is a beacon of light guiding you back home to yourself. Her collection is unapologetically itself and encourages you to be the same. Metaphors and similes soar, seeking to be deciphered into insightful notes of acceptance, reminding you you’re alive, and deservedly so. A vivid, compelling and compassionate collection.’ Jemima Hughes
Jemma will be supported on the night by three fantastic poets from the South-West:
Kathryn O’Driscoll Kathryn O’Driscoll is a queer, disabled poet, mentor and editor from Bath. She was the 2021 U.K. Poetry Slam Champion and a World Slam Finalist. She was longlisted for the Disabled Poets Prize and the Outspoken Prize for Performance Poetry in 2023, and the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Artist in 2022. In 2021 she was one of the featured poets on the (BAFTA winning) Sky Arts spoken word TV show Life and Rhymes. Her debut collection ‘Cliff Notes’ is available from Verve Poetry Press.
Jo Eades Since her first performance set at the inaugural Hotwells Festival of words in 2021, Jo has become a regular on the Bristol spoken word scene. She has been featured four times on BBC Radio Upload, performed on the Milk Poetry stage at Valleyfest and was headliner for Heron Books anniversary celebration last Christmas. In 2023 she won both a Rhyme Against the Tide and Milk Poetry Slam and in April this year, won the Lyra Poetry Festival Grand Slam.
Jaidah Jaidah’s written & spoken works are undeniably compelling, ask questions of us collectively & hold the primary focus of advocating alongside promoting human welfare & connection. Jaidah’s journey into writing started 3 years ago in a sanctuary of solitude, which stimulated vastly journeying the world within herself & most importantly she has been inspired by listening to the language nature speaks. Vulnerable yet powerful Jaidah’s quiet commanding presence & delivery are outward reaching & embody a courage built through her own hard-won experience. Continuously thought provoking, her words are colourful & within those colours live the essence of divine human nature.
I live in a dustbin littered with gold You can tell its art-my Grandfather said- because there are no people in it I was watching Line of Duty
Drop, beat, drop, beat, drop
Time flies The beautiful smallness you feel when gazing up at the sky and realising, somewhere up there, is a boat that never moves Its behind you
Drop, beat, drop, beat, drop
Love is a verb Gravy Clit Ramen Telling talk from mutter is like telling Stork from butter
Drop, beat, drop, beat, drop
On the bad days, please read this Your legacy is not yours- I think about profiting from your death more than I probably should
Lou Reed- As I entered a lock on my Satellite of Love !!! narrow boat xx I am begging Mars to write a line, I tell them, the poem needs them, he needs you satellite circling a satellite of love.
Jenny Mitchell won the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize 2023 for a single poem, and the Poetry Book Awards 2021 for her second collection, Map of a Plantation, which is on the syllabus at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She’s won numerous competitions, is widely-published and has performed at the Houses of Parliament. Her latest publication is the pamphlet shared with Zoë Brigley and Roy McFarlane called Family Name.
Her Lost LanguageMap of a PlantationResurrection of a Black Man
The Satellite Of Love Community poem this month has donated lines from the Writing the City workshop that took place during Satellite Week.
Each Day ( June 2023)
The day the jaffa cakes went missing The dreich sunk its teeth into my bones. The tinsel shimmers, the light on sea, what is anything, what are we? Moments in light reflexed. The salt of sea and light of sky.
The buttercups are asking the sky, do you like butter? Do platypuses speak in platitudes Everyday you wake you may choose to be kind And she gazed around her and she saw their brilliant faces, their open hearts and she was held.
No fires will take place here tonight What is everything, who are we, where and for how long? Climb every mountain clad in lycra Get out of your comfort zone and your Nissan Micra.
I need to pee so I’m gonna rush writing this. After a while, the whole thing evaporated. I took a little look, before I had a proper gander How! How! Why! why! I feel I could die!
Community Poem June 23 – Leftover Lines – I have put into some kind of order – Enjoy !
You I Why don’t you try it my daughters said, why don’t you go instead this afternoon and do your usual and going to bed. Is there a raffle – yay, where are the toilets, please don’t call out my winning ticket while I’m powdering my nose. What happened to my gravy underpants?
4 Wines and 5 packets of crisps, sorry 4 packets, 2 cheese and onion, 1 salt and vinegar and 1 ready salted and now my friends are sorted. And the mama gave birth right here Flaff women’s mags light. But they calmed me for the battle against you. They taught me love- bonding, gaslighting and emotional abuse. And I knew you for what you were and I was not lower. I emerged victorious, clad in the driest plate of flaff. Dear Tina got her wings today, 24 th of May……love it as everything to do with it.
Life is wonderful, life is great but why does it have to be so hard! So much to do and so little time, always living on the edge. Love yourself, love each other – be kind, stay safe, love one another. I lick you paw to feel your love. Bats commute, bats commute along linear features did you know? Safe, safe away from empty space! Space, space keep me safe. Ditto, Ditto to every one’s words amazahins arghhhh . What is God? A 10p freddo Beans, beans, beans, I love baked beans on toast (with curry powder) Lush Ice Cream Put your cigarette out properly! Steep steps back…
My special sunshine dress! This scent of the candle was sweet vanilla. Where are the editors when you need them?
That walk around Bristol’s floating harbour…………
love finds itself walking through the city’s dark history a city in levels like a Victoria sponge cake discovery anatomy, it smells of curry ferryboat Margaret swings low with river rats, boaters and rainbow oil her sister Mary, a small sleek sailboat, sits as a queen amongst plastic pretenders the dark water reflected an abundance of rain rich clouds wavelets gave glimpses cascades of silver glitter, shimmering ghosts love me, so don’t scare me of all these pomp and circumstances
Satellite Of Love Previous Headliner Pete Bearder is an award-winning spoken word poet, author and comic. His work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, The World Service, and Newsnight. He is a former National Poetry Slam Champion and has performed around the world with organisations like The British Council. Pete recently released his third book ‘Garden of Madness’, described by Tom Hirons as a ‘word-heaven of praise poetry’.
I’ve not had breakfast and the dentist talks of my mortality At least we have suckable items And Brian blessed is my patronus I sat on a train that became a long, metallic fart The hopeless case of progress An aubergine between the legs Bristol’s clear air zone – are you ready? I’m not In my best, loudest football voice I said: Two squatter’s wrongs don’t make a squatter’s rights At least we have pizza Love was bird in my hand and I squeeze – splat! Which was incredibly wonderful But then we all knew turkeys aren’t a just for Christmas, they’re a way of life September rang like a scar, Left upon that creature’s pity A tourist in a resort On the fourth Wednesday of the month Ring ring goes the poet’s phone as he starts to rhyme…
I can’t write in yellow the now infamous village gimp said is that a two litre bottle of Vimto or are you just pleased to see me? Who says romance is dead? Boys night Boys night A smash of cities erupts into asphalt chunks of honesty and raw love
Though the best comedy is about serious issues humankind cannot stand too much seriousness all aboard for jolly fun, don’t make waves or you’ll fall down.
Obsessed by living the dream, I fell in love with base jumping. I love to crunch on apples, I eat noodles in church I’m a Ramen Catholic. My friend’s donkey hasn’t been to the vet in years if you like your cats alive don’t go to Crete. Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger Murder she cried, though the Aardvark was unimpressed All the superlatives: great uncles and extreme sporks Bristol fashion sparkly beard is a must I opened my eyes and everything was beautiful The only risk in life is to take no risk at all Fools rush in as winter chills, the silk of milk slid down her throat, scrambled nectar of the dogs
I slide poems under the skirting boards and then arriving shyly at the open mic, I don’t remember how words work.
Poet Tom Sastry grew up in Buckinghamshire and has lived in Bristol since 1999. After being chosen by Carol Ann Duffy as one of the 2016 Laureate’s Choice poets, his debut pamphlet Complicity (2016) was a Poetry School Book of the Year and a Poetry Book Society pamphlet choice. Since then, he has published two collections, both with Nine Arches Press: A Man’s House Catches Fire in 2019, which was highly commended in the Forward Prize and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize, and his new book, You have no normal country to return to, which came out this year. Tom has been described by Hera Lindsay Bird as “a magician of deadpan” and praised by Carol Ann Duffy for how he “navigates the mysterious everyday…making friendships and love affairs new and strange”.
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