I am currently Writer-in-Residence at Seven Sisters Country Park and along the Sussex Heritage Coast, commissioned by the South Downs National Park Authority,(SDNPA) writing and curating a new body of writing to launch in late Spring 2023 across the landscape, and leading/curating a wider literature-focused arts programme, We See You Now, funded by Arts Council England. Learn more here.
Listen to my podcast, The Colour of Chalk here. Latest episode, Not So Far Apart, on a walk at Seaford Head, Sussex, with Dulani Kulasinghe, on poetry of the climate emergency and legacies of Empire across the landscape
Coming up: Right of Way – Online Roundtable & short screening 6.30pm, Oct 20th, FREE and then streaming until Oct 27th. Free, book here. Very excited to be part of this roundtable Cinema of Ideas event on access, inclusion in the countryside alongside Louisa Adjoa Parker, Sam Siva (Land In Our Names) and Rhiane Fatinikun (Black Girls Hike), moderated by Jonathan Ali. There is a short 1944 (propaganda) film from the Colonial Film Unit, ‘Springtime in an English Village’ being screened and introduced by Robin Baker, Head Curator at the BFI National Archive.
Glimpse: My first fiction story, The Beard, will go into print as part of Glimpse, the first anthology of Black British speculative fiction published October 27th by Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, edited by Leone Ross. Pre-order here.
Watch online now : If You Can Imagine on YouTube – a film of my creative response to an archeological report and findings following the Seaford Head cliff fall this year – a poetic meditation on deep time, climate emergency and heritage loss using stunning drone footage and a performance in the landscape. Part of the Seaford Head Archeology project and intersecting with my own current research and new writing along the coast for my project. Funded & supported by South Downs National Park, Archeology South East UCL, Historic England, Seaford Town Council.
After five years of writing, amazing support & belief from New Writing South & this year, a Chapter & Verse mentoring scholarship from Sable Lit/ TLC, I have just completed the manuscript of creative non-fiction novel, In the Skin of a Stranger.
Listen to: The Hidden Valley, my debut Radio commission as writer/presenter on Into the Wild, for Radio 3’s The Essay, produced by Novel Audio, one of five new pieces by writers/poets of urban/rural nature writing .
Summer has been busy : Readings, Walk & Write at Charleston Festival of the Garden, our Roundtable ‘We See You Now: Writing New landscapes and Walking the Global Imaginary’ at Common Threads International Conference, Brighton University, I was guest poet at Printer’s Playhouse, Eastbourne, trying out new material from my upcoming commissioned work & ran my first public Walk & Write at Seven Sisters Country Park (where I am Writer-in-Residence) for South Downs National Park Renature Festival and Writing our Legacy’s Changing Chalk programme.
For further updates, check back here/the SDNP project site, join my malling list and/or follow #SevenSistersCountryPark, #WeSeeYouNow. The We See You Now programme is also supported by Writing our Legacy, New Writing South and a range of other partners, including. so far, ONCA and Enthum Foundation.
Listen to Care(free) a new piece of poetic prose I wrote during my time as Associate artist at Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality Studies Centre, exploring contemporary and mythical intersections between care, freedom and human rights.
Watch and make /reflect along with our vimeo workshop series on the emotional commons in times of crisis , Craft in Common, commissioned by Craftspace and now touring as part of We Are Commoners, (part of Crafting the Commons ). Craftspace and this project recently co-won the 2020 Achates Prize
Check out my sculpture on the cover of a new edition of Suffrage Plays by Methuen, edited by Naomi Paxton here.
Archived speaking events : Listen here to me talking with wordsmith and artist Omope Daiboku, on a new Podcast series ‘Life in a Time of Corona’, about the effect of the crisis on our creativity, and relationship to environment and daily life.
In conversation with Philosopher Sacha Golob (Kings College) as part of a series of Visual Arts and Philosophy Salons at Fernandez and Wells, Somerset House, London. Podcast here
In conversation at the Stuart Hall Library at INIVA with Dr Christine Checinska -Shaw. Listen here. (scroll to bottom for file)
On Radio 4 Midweek with Libby Purves, talking about gift, debt, art and birth alongside Satish Kumar, Brian Blessed and Mark Harris. Listen to the programme on Iplayer here.
Burning The Books : 30 min film documenting my collaborative performance project on debt across 9 cities, is online on vimeo – watch here. 2011-15 tour Funded by Arts Council England.
Follow me on twitter @AlinahAzadeh or instagram alinahazadeh.
