bookings:
Because of my background in Drama (Secondary School and University), comfort in large crowds (seven years in a mixed boarding school), and natural rapport with kids (my Mother owns a nursery where I worked as a youth), I consider myself a rather versatile workshop leader and performer.
Although I have performed at a lot of venues (see list), I am still a student. I continue to learn the art of performance by watching writers I admire and getting advice from some of the most talented and humble writers in the business like Georgia Popoff, Stazja McFayden, Peter Kalu (my first mentor), Courttia Newland (my fist fiction mentor) and Atukwei Okai (Ghana's foremost performance poet).
As a natural transition, I help teach others. I have helped run worshops for both teachers and students in the UK and in Ghana and I am keen to continue doing so.
I lead workshops in both poetry and fiction, and often in performance and lyric writing. I also do several readings and Q&A sessions.
BOOKINGS:
If you would like me to work with kids or help support a charity please e-mail me. I will be glad to discuss how I can help. This also applies to events that are intended to improve opportunities for poets in general.
For contributions to fiction or poetry anthologies, please contact David Godwin Associates, and for performances please e-mail my diary coordinator.
It is also possible to book me through several education agencies. A list is included in the links on the right along with a link to my CV.
Venues I have performed at include:
Bassline, Accra
The Golden Tulip Hotel (Jazz Club), Accra
Union Square, Merrick, NY
The Poetry Cafe, London
The Bristol Poetry Festival 2002 (UK)
Bethel Arts Junction, Connecticut
The Paddington International Poetry Festival 2002 (UK)
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London
The Royal Festival Hall, London
The Frog & Bucket Comedy Club, Manchester
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New York
St. Pauls Carnival, Bristol 2003
Martin Luther King Library, Washington DC
The Green Mill, Chicago
The Blue Cat Cafe, Manchester
Apples & Snakes @ The Battersea Arts Centre, London
speakeasy @ the green room, Manchester
Roskilde Festival 2005 (Denmark)
Berlin International Literature Festival 2005 (Berlin, Germany)
The Austin International Poetry Festival 2003, 2005 (Texas, USA)
The Glastonbury Festival 2003 (Somerset, UK)
Links:
Educational Agencies through which I can be booked -
Artscape
LONSAS
Apples & Snakes
London Slam Central
The Poetry Society
Resources -
my CV
sample workshops for schools
images for print
text from the very first workshop I ran in Manchester in 1997
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© Nii Ayikwei Parkes 2001 - 2006