Diaspora: An Evening Of Live Poetry & Film Presented in Association with The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

Come and enjoy some live poetry performances by some sublime Irish poets and actors and watch a wonderful collection of “Poetry Films” made by the prestigious Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. This will be a rare opportunity to enjoy some live poetry recitations and catch these cinematic treats on the ICC’s cinema screen.

Poets and actors appearing live and reading poetry at this event include poets Gabriel Gbadamosi, Siobhan Campbell, Peter Doolan and actress Rhianne Barreto. The evening will be introduced by the director Mathew Thompson and producer Tommy Creagh.

The collection of Irish Poetry films were made by The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation in early 2024, in association with the Irish Cultural Centre.  

The Poetry Films being screened include…  

Actress Bríd Brennan reading Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Mossbawn Sunlight’ and Sinéad Morrisey’s ‘Genetics’. 

Actress  Rhianne Barreto, reading Niall McDevitt’s poem ‘The Tower Of Babylon’ and Wendy Cope’s poem ‘The Orange’.

Poet Gabriel Gbadamosi reading his own poem ‘Valediction’ and William Blakes ‘London’.

Poet Siobhan Campbell reading her own poem ‘When All This Is Over’ and Eamonn Walls ‘Last Cricket Of The Season’

Poet Peter Doolan reading Niall McDevitt’s poem ‘A Quartet For Lysagth’.

The Films were Directed by Mathew Thompson and Produced by Tommy Creagh and  the ICC’s Cultural Director Rosalind Scanlon.

Biographies:

Gabriel Gbadamosi is a British poet, playwright, novelist, and culture worker of Irish-Nigerian descent. He was born in London and raised in the city’s Vauxhall neighbourhood. He began writing poetry as a teenager and added plays to his repertoire in his twenties. He graduated from Cambridge University with a BA (Honours) in English. 

Gbadamosi’s novel Vauxhall (Telegram Books, 2013) won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize for Fiction and Best International Novel at the 2013 Sharjah Book Fair. It has also been translated into French. His poems have been published in anthologies including The New British Poetry 1968–1988 (Paladin, 1988) and The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English (Pearson, 1990), and his essays have appeared in outlets such as Granta and The Guardian. His plays, which have been performed in the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany, 

include No Blacks, No Irish, Eshu's Faust, Shango, Hotel Orpheu, and, most recently, Stop and Search, staged in 2019 at the Arcola Theatre. He also wrote the play for television Friday's Daughter (BBC) and the BBC Radio 3 drama The Long, Hot Summer of '76, winner of the first Richard Imison Memorial Award. 

More about Gabriel Gbadamosi. 

Siobhán Campbell is a Poet and Critic, was born in Dublin. She earned her MA from University College Dublin and her PhD from Lancaster University before pursuing post-graduate study at New York University and the New School in New York City. Campbell is the author of six poetry books and pamphlets: Heat Signature (Seren Books, 2017), winner of the Michael Marks Award; Cross-Talk (Seren, 2009); Darwin Among the Machines (Rack Press, 2009); That Water Speaks in Tongues (Templar Poetry, 2008), winner of the Templar Pamphlets and Collection Award; The Cold That Burns (Blackstaff Press, 2000); and The Permanent Wave (Blackstaff, 1996). She was co-editor of 2016’s essay collection Eavan Boland: Inside History. Her work has been collected in anthologies including Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe), Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets writing in English (Seren), The Field Day Anthology of Irish Literature (NYU Press), and Open-Eyed, Full Throated: An Anthology of American/Irish Poets (Syracuse University Press).

Campbell’s honors include the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Prize, an Arts Council award, and awards in the National Poetry Competition and the Troubadour International Competition. Her poem “Longboat at Portaferry” was chosen as Listowel Writers' Week Poem of the Year at the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards. Her poetry has been published widely in US, UK, and Irish literary journals such as Poetry, Poetry Ireland, Magma Poetry, Agenda, Crab Orchard Review, and The Hopkins Review, as well as periodicals including The Guardian and The Irish Times.

More about Siobhán Campbell. 

Peter Doolan is a Poet and singer-songwriter, born and raised in County Tipperary, Ireland. He moved to London in 2006.

Doolan’s musical releases include the EP Modern Bombs Don’t Tick (Dogcat Records, 2020) and the 2022 LP The Rise & Fall of Western Civilisation, Modern Politics & Tipperary Hurling Pts 1 & 2. His frequent live performances feature a backing band, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacres. Doolan’s musical output uses folk instrumentation to reimagine indie and punk music. He is the author of a poetry collection, Collective Living in the Singular Age. 

More about Peter Doolan

Rhianne Barreto is an actress, who was born in west London in 1998. The second oldest of nine siblings, she is the daughter of an English mother and an Iraqi-born father of Indian and Portuguese heritage. Her first role was in a school play at age ten. Barreto was educated at the Bishop Ramsey School, the National Youth Theatre, and the BRIT School. After graduating, she was chosen to perform in a showcase at Trafalgar Studios; a role in Film4’s short film Tickle Monster led her to a recurring role in Dixi, a web series with CBBC. In 2018, Barreto was named as one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow.

Barreto’s leading role in the 2019 A24 film Share won her the Breakthrough Performance Award at Sundance. Her other appearances include roles in the Amazon Prime Video series Hanna (2019), the ITV drama Honour (2020), Stephen Merchant’s BBC One series The Outlaws (2021), and the Paramount+ series No Escape (2023).

More about Rhianne Barreto

About The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation

Over the last four years, the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation has brought great poems from page to film, creating new opportunities for all to discover the music and magic of language. They have now produced over 200 poetry films around the globe, partnering with literature and arts organizations in creating a rich online archive of film and poetry, with the aims of expanding access to poetry from across places, eras, and traditions for audiences worldwide to enjoy.