Africa Fashion Salon: Poetry Night  

Join poets Kat Francois, Be Manzini and Inua Ellams for an intimate reading of poems linked to themes within the Africa Fashion exhibition.

The Africa Fashion Salon series is part of the Young People’s Programme for 16–26-year-olds to engage in topical discussion relating to the Africa Fashion exhibition. Every third Friday of the month between October- February (the salon series will not take place in December) a salon will take place at the museum, that will explore the themes and approaches within the exhibition content.

Africa Fashion Salons are hosted by poet and writer Yomi Sode.

Kat Francois is an Educator, Poetry & Drama Performance Artist & Teacher, Playwright, Life Coach and Fitness Instructor. BBC TV and World Slam Champion. Kat runs workshops in person and online, to schools in the UK and Europe, and to adults in the UK and around the world, on writing and performance skills, writing as therapy, as well as fitness and wellbeing classes.

As a playwright, Kat has written and performed acclaimed shows including Raising Lazarus, dealing with the experiences of Caribbean soldiers in WW1. Kat has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, Saturday Live and Woman’s Hour, Radio 5 Live, Sky and BBC television. Kat run’s a poetry and theatre performance group with young people. Her workshops can be accessed via her website - www.katfrancois.com

Known as the ‘film poet’ Be Manzini uniquely combines a passion for film, poetry and activism. The first ever writer in residence for Sundance, the only poet to appear on Mark Kermode’s shows and a regular presenter for the BFI Manzini’s award winning work has graced stages, screens and the page. Having appeared on Channel 4, across BBC to and radio plus various podcasts. As a workshop facilitator and mentor who has taught over 7,000 students. The director and host for Caramel Film Club, the largest membership based film club in the UK with a focus on Black creatives, with in person and virtual happenings and thousands having attend screenings over the last few years.

Recently crowned the Poetry in Film and overall winner for the Outspoken Poetry Prize 2022 before working with film Manzini education was in Art and Classics opting for a degree in Professional Writing & Community Arts Practice followed by a post grad in African World Studies from Goldsmiths. The first foray in poetry was slam poetry competitions honing the craft and eventually taught competitors both in the UK and abroad. Manzini is Zimbabwean born of Zulu, KhoiKhoi and Mswati heritage and currently resides in London.

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of: The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience.), The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry and Film. Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in his work, where he tries to mix the old with the new: traditional African oral storytelling with contemporary poetics, paint with pixel, texture with vector. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned In The Margins, Oberon & Methuen.

Yomi Sode is an award-winning Nigerian British writer. He is a recipient of the Jerwood Compton Poetry fellowship 2019 and was shortlisted for The Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2021. Yomi has been published in magazines such as The Poetry Review, Rialto Magazine, Bath Magg and Magma. He is a performer, facilitator, a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and a Complete Works Alumni. His debut poetry collection, Manorism will be published in 2022 by Penguin Press.