Newcastle's greatest radical culture night returns with Kojo Koram, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, Malya Bhattacharya, Sam Telford and more
LORT BURN SPECIALS returns for a one-off at the Old Coal Yard. Kojo Koram(Uncommon Empire) will be in conversation about his new book The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs; there'll also be readings from novelist Yara Rodrigues Fowler (Stubborn Archivist, There Are More Things), artist and writer Malya Bhattacharya, poet Sam Telford, and music from 7asassiyeh
Tickets available here.
WHIRLIGIG - FIONA CAMERON, SAINT DOG - LOT COULDRICK - JOINT BOOK LAUNCH - 2/10/26 AT EAST BRISTOL BOOKS.
Join us at EBB for a Kulvert Books Special, celebrating the launch of their two newest publications: *Whirligig* by Fiona Cameron and *Saint Dog* by Lot Couldrick.
Folk traditions honour the agricultural year that ties us to land, to plants, to growth, giving us a sense of place, identity and community. It is through the fabrics of life, the woven cloth, the winter wool, the textures of storytelling, this maker’s craft that Fiona Cameron’s *Whirligig* finds a sense of belonging. The spindle unspools, the poems unfurl. There is the rhythm of movement in the poetry, a wild spinning of the community driven by the merry parade, be it the joys of a summer fête, a pagan rite or the workers lament. Cameron’s poems resonate with Joyce’s ‘strings in the earth and air’, finding solace in nature and poetry even in times of change and uprooting.** The *Whirligig* spins us in a dance both eerily novel and uncannily familiar, come ‘criss-cross under moonlight,’ ‘the Night is a hymn,’ bring your ‘worn-out soles.’
Meanwhile, *Saint Dog* follows a trio of folk saints who fall from favour after the Catholic Church declares them heresy. Through the saints’ stories, which span continents and centuries, the poems grapple with transness, queer parenting & the violence of empire. The saints long for revolution and for autonomy. *Saint Dog* was first written at Lakkos Artists Residency in Crete, October 2023.
BIOS:
Fiona Cameron is an artist and poet who was born in Andover in 1998, studied at Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and now lives in Leeds. She sailed a homemade raft across the flooded fields of County Durham (2026), she left a message on the gatepost by Field Shelter in Haltwhistle (2025), and she placed a bracelet of blue agate in the roots of a dying tree, near Ben Vrackie (2024). Whilst in Middlesbrough she set up Dead Letter Office (2025), a mail art network and living archive of quiet correspondence and quiet resistance. *Whirligig* (Kulvert, 2026) is her debut poetry collection – assembled like one would build a cairn. She continues to create at her own gentle pace.
Lot Couldrick is trans poet from Devon, living in London in the sixth year of the second decade of the twenty first century. After being raised by the spoken word scene in Scotland, they now prefer to hand sew books for their friends and lovers in their living room. As well being a play worker and support worker, they organise against police & prisons, for & with community, and for a free Palestine. Their first book *My Body Used To Feel Like Yours* was published by Speculative Books in 2020.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)
Tickers here. 
UNDERGROUND RIVER NEWCASTLE 05.10.26
ELDER BEER, 290 CHILLINGHAM RD, NEWCASTLE NE6 5LQ
Come along to the 28th 'UNDERGROUND RIVER' after out summer break.
An open mic poetry night that is free and open to all!
The night also includes a musical interlude and Kulvert book stall.
The event starts at 7pm and the reading begins at 7.30pm. If you would like to read please arrive early to secure a spot.
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