Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a cross art practitioner, a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of Midnight Run - an international, arts-filled, night-time, playful, urban, walking experience.  He is a Complete Works poet alumni and a designer at White Space Creative Agency.  Across his work, Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in which he also tires to mix the old with the new: traditional African storytelling with contemporary poetry, pencil with pixel, texture with vector images.  His poetry is published by Flipped Eye, Akashi, Nine Archers & several plays by Oberon.

Demi DemiMa Mseleku is an AngloZulu word and sound artist from South West London. 

Alumni of The BRIT school and co-creator of A L C H E M Y a monthly event honouring the art of WORD SOUND SOUL.  

Demi creates multisensorial performances to provoke conscious dialogue. Inspired by themes of identity, spirituality, social dynamics, divine femininity and Afrofuturism, Demi’s passion for improvisation enables her to freely channel sounds as a canvas for her poetry.

Russenï Fisher is an explosive poet with exceptional performance ability. He has featured widely including at the Olympic Park, Southbank and as opening act for the Last Poets at the Love Box Festival 2015. He is definitely one to watch.

Winners:

Willie Gowans is born in Scotland, and from the musical and culturally and historically important village of Pumpherston.

Now living in London, member of the Newham Poetry Group who are holding a Poetry House over the weekend as part of the Newham Word Festival.

Brought up with the songs and poetry of Robert Burns, has performed with Newham Poetry Group; Mad Poet Speaks; The Poetry House; LGBT poetry; Spoken not Stirred (in Barking); the Pumpherston Musical Festival, Sing on the Bing - and now pleased to perform with Inua Ellams as one of the competition winners at Applecart Arts’ Letter to A Stranger.

Joss Cran has been writing poetry since the age of seven years old since hearing and being inspired by Alfred Noyce’s poem “The Highway Man”, for the first time.

Since then Joss has been writing poetry throughout her life being inspired by nature, life, situations, feelings, emotions and senses. Joss loves using her imagination creatively.

Joss’s style is thought-provoking and enjoyable. Joss offers a range of perspectives; writing wordy wonders to short weirds. Joss has poems published in anthology collections in the UK and USA.

Joss has been performing her poetry for some years; at literary festivals, fundraising charitable, local festival events and at open mics in London.

Matt Carver is 17 and in his first year of A levels. 

He has been writing sporadically for a few years, mostly in response to school tasks, but recently started an anonymous poetry blog.

Matt's passion is for theatre and drama: he has been a National Youth Theatre member for over a year now and plans to take a show up to the Edinburgh Fringe this year with a friend. 

He is looking to study English at university and potentially go to Drama School but has yet to decide.

Performance time: 7.30 pm

Performance date: Monday, 6th November