Clever Girl “Verbs that Move Mountains”, edited by Claire Trévien, reviewed by Jessica Mookherjee

I am not a silent poet

Clever Girl: A Review of Verbs That Move Mountains: Essays and Interviews on Spoken word cultures around the world. Edited by Claire Trevien.

 

Jessica Mookherjee; Poet, “Swell” (2016, Telltale Press), “JoyRide” (2017 Black Light Engine Room Press) “Flood” (2018 Cultured Llama). Highly Commended for Best Single Poem Forward Prize 2017. https://thejessicapoet.wordpress.com/about/

Poetry and Art

I first heard of Claire Trevien on radio four, driving home from work. She was reading from her 2014 collection “The Shipwrecked House” and I recall a little bit of my life changing. The haunting quality of the way she connected with me reminded me of what I had wanted to do as a young performance poet in my 20’s, fresh out of media school. I wanted to bring multi media poetic beauty to performance and make poetry as popular as rock music. Well, I didn’t – I was too scared, and what I…

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Linda Black and London Undercurrents

We are thrilled to have such a fantastic line-up for the launch of Sarah Leavesley’s How to Grow Matches at the Poetry Café in London 31^st March (6.30pm for a 7pm start). We wanted to tell you a bit more about our multi-talented guest readers, Linda Black, Joolz Sparkes and Hilaire –

Linda Black is an award-winning poet and visual artist. Her fourth collection, Slant, was published by Shearsman in 2016; Inventory came out in 2008 and Root in 2011. The Son of a Shoemaker (Hearing Eye 2012), collaged prose-poems based on the early life of Hans Christian Andersen, plus the author’s illustrations, was the subject of a Poetry Cafe exhibition in 2013.  She is co-editor of Long Poem Magazine.

Together, Joolz Sparkes and Hilaire run London Undercurrents, a poetry project to unearth the voices of strong, feisty women who have lived and worked in the capital city over many centuries. Each poet focuses on her different patch of London – Joolz north of the river and Hilaire, south – bringing to life the imagined, real, everyday and extraordinary women whose untold stories lie just beneath the surface. Their poems have appeared in South Bank Poetry, Brittle Star, Ink Sweat and Tears, Proletarian Poetry and Morning Star.