Poet in Residence Siana Bangura returned to Housmans to celebrate the one year anniversary of the publication of her award winning debut collection of poetry, Elephant. Special guests supporting on the night were poet and performer Shareefa Energy and singer-songwriter Ayelle.

Earlier this year, Housmans was proud to announce our very first Poet in Residence as Siana Bangura.

Siana is a poet and performer and the founder of Intersectional Black Feminist Platform, No Fly on the WALL. As Housmans’ Poet in Residence, Siana celebrated the launch by reading from Elephant and outlining her plans for the residency. Her special guests were Birmingham’s own poet and storyteller, Aliyah Hasinah and East London’s singer-songwriter Asabi Hawah.

Elephant, Bangura’s brave and bold debut, tackles issues such as black womanhood, gender and racial politics, as well as family, fatherlessness, identity, Black British girlhood, unemployment, gentrification, disenfranchisement, love and loss and more.

As Poet in Residence, Siana will also curate three poetry workshops over an 8 month period, finalising in a closing event in October 2017 in which she will announce the next Housmans’ Poet in Residence.

Further details can be found here.

Reviews

‘A powerful emerging voice on London’s poetry circuit… Bangura is making a path for writers who don’t want to compromise their creativity, championing a DIY path to getting work out there for people to read… Bangura’s Elephant is semi-autobiographical, covering the politics swirling around black womanhood, from childhood experiences of colourism to adult encounters with direct racial hatred, and the memory of immigration to London from Sierra Leone. Bangura explains the conscious link between forging a DIY route, and the experience of minorities navigating the traditionally white space of literary publishing.’ – Anna DeWolf, Dazed

About the Poet

Siana Bangura is a writer, blogger, poet and freelance journalist from London. She is the founder of Intersectional Black Feminist Platform, No Fly on the WALL. She is the author of Elephant, a candid collection of poetry on black womanhood, black British identity, migration, love and loss; and she is the producer of 1500 And Counting (www.1500andcountingfilm.com). You can follow her on Twitter (@Sianaarrgh) and find out more about the project at www.sianabangura.com.