LEDBURY POETRY

‘Restlessly inventive, brutally graceful, startlingly beautiful … a landmark debut’..The Guardian   
‘It’s simply stunning. Every image is a revelation’ Terrance Hayes
What is it like to grow up in a place where the same police officer who told your primary school class they were special, stops and searches you at 13 because ‘you fit the description of a man’ – and where it is possible to walk two and a half miles through an estate of 1,444 homes without ever touching the ground? In Poor, Caleb Femi combines poetry and original photography to explore the trials, tribulations, dreams and joys of young Black boys in twenty-first century Peckham. He contemplates the ways in which they are informed by the built environment of concrete walls and gentrifying neighbourhoods that form their stage, writes a coded, near-mythical history of the personalities and sagas of his South London youth, and pays tribute to the rappers and artists who spoke to their lives. A former Young People’s Laureate, Caleb won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2021. He has been featured in the Dazed 100 list of the next generation shaping youth culture.

Live streamed on Zoom

Weekend Pass Event