Members of Walsall Poetry Society performed at the recent Wolverhampton Literature Festival.   On Friday 1st February  Walsall poets performed their work to a packed audience during the opening ceremony at the Arena Theatre.  On Saturday 2nd February the very best of Walsall once again were on stage with Poets Against Racism to another packed Arena Theatre.  The event was captured on film by Kaush Patel who works in the Media department at Walsall College.  Kaush also has his own multi-award winning film company pat the Bull Films. 

The audience were captivated with different styles of rhyme, rhythm and poetry.  The event was completely free to unite people to a common cause.  "The important thing is to bring people together", said Manjit Sahota, who founded Poets Against Racism three years ago in London.  "We want to form a common platform for people of all ages and explore a common path ahead for everyone in society.  The background, religion or social class of a person doesn`t matter.  We all bleed the same colour".

The Walsall Poetry Society came to the attention of Poets Against Racism when their members performed at a Love Music Hate Racism Festival in Walsall at the Caldmore Community Garden.  Since that time the Walsall poets have performed with Poets Against Racism around the UK at venues like last year`s Poetry festival in Nottingham to represent their home town of Walsall.  Poets Against racism is a collective  bringing together poets, spoken word artists and rappers to perform under one  banner I response to the recent rise in street crime.  During the Wolverhampton literature Festival members of the public were invited to explore the role of poetry and performance can play in challenging racism and spreading positive words from diverse communities like Walsall.

The event opened with a short discussion open to the floor followed by live poetry performances by Poets Against Racism founder Manjit Sahota and local poetry guests including members of Walsall Poetry Society.  Among these, former Walsall Poet laureate (2011 - 2015) Ian Henery previewed his work for China West Midlands 2020 based on the sacrifice and experience of Chinese people in the UK.  The trilogy of theatre is entitled Home starting with the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World war, then the 1950s and the third story set in contemporary Britain.  The trilogy explores ideas of family, sacrifices, places and time from Chinese and British perspectives in the socio-economic context of 3 significant periods in recent history.

For more information about Poets Against racism, please email Ian Henery on ihenery@aol.com or www.ianhenerypoet.com.