Bad Betty Live, 16th October
About this Event
“Fierce and bristling with life” – The Guardian
“The very best of contemporary poetry” – The Book Hive
Award-winning publishing house Bad Betty Press presents poetry and music.
Featuring poetry from Sarah Howe, Khairani Barokka, Perla Kantarjian, Aoife O'Connor, Nippa Uddin and music from Tony D.
Hosted by Bridie Squires and Jake Wild Hall.
BSL interpreted by Steph Lehrle. A digital transcript of poems and lyrics will be available to download at the start of the event.
Supported by Arts Council England.
Book a ticket for just the show, or combine it with a workshop ticket to save on both. Combined tickets also give you access to Karen Mccarthy Woolf's masterclass.
VENUE & ACCESS:
This event is part of NAE's Friday Night Socials. It takes place in the Performance Space of New Art Exchange, on the first floor. NAE has a lift and accessible toilets. The building is fitted with induction loops for enhanced sound. Disabled parking is available on request. Full accessibility info here.
New Art Exchange (NAE) is the UK’s largest gallery dedicated to contemporary visual arts from the Global Ethnic Majority. Based in Hyson Green, Nottingham, NAE champions inclusivity and equity in the creative industries, nurturing and celebrating talent from diverse backgrounds About Us page on our website.
ABOUT THE ACTS
KAREN MCCARTHY WOOLF
Sarah Howe is a Hong Kong-born British poet and editor. Her first collection of poems, (2015), won the T.S. Eliot Prize and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Her second collection, (2025), is a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
Khairani Barokka
Khairani Barokka (b. 1985) is a writer, artist, arts consultant, translator and editor from Jakarta. Okka’s work has been presented widely internationally, in dozens of countries, and centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis, environmental justice, and access as translation. She regularly lectures, judges, mentors, and consults for arts organisations, and has a PhD by Practice in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London, on an LPDP Scholarship, and a Masters from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she was a Departmental Fellow and Scholar. Among her honours, she has been a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, Emerging Writers Festival’s Inaugural Writer-in-Residence, a Delfina Foundation Associate Artist, an Artforum Must-See, and the first non-British Associate Artist at the UK’s National Centre for Writing.
She was the first Poet-in-Residence at Modern Poetry in Translation, later co-edited their Body Issue, and eventually became the magazine’s first non-British Editor. Barokka’s work has appeared in GRANTA, Poetry Review, The Rialto, Ambit, Magma, Wasafiri, Stand, The New Inquiry, Asymptote, and many other publications, and she has also co-edited Massachusetts Review’s Disability Justice Issue. In 2023, Okka was longlisted for the Loewe/Studio Voltaire Arts Award, and shortlisted for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in the Arts and Culture Category.
Her commissions have included the ICA, Wellcome Collection, Jakarta Biennale, Southbank Centre, and Serpentine Galleries. She has also been featured widely in national and international media, including on BBC Radio 2's The Arts Show, BBC’s The Cultural Frontline, ABC Australia, The Hindu, The Times of India, and all major Indonesian newspapers and media.
Her books include Indigenous Species (Tilted Axis), Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches, as co-editor), Rope (Nine Arches), Ultimatum Orangutan (Nine Arches), shortlisted for the 2022 Barbellion Prize, and 2024’s amuk (Nine Arches), currently longlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prize. Her speculative nonfiction debut Annah, Infinite (Tilted Axis Press, 2025) is out now, and is an Expert Pick in The Bookseller.
PERLA KANTARJIAN
Perla Kantarjian is a Lebanese-Armenian writer with recent work in Mizna, Electric Literature, Wasafiri, The Rumpus, and Black Warrior Review. Longlisted for the National Poetry Competition and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, Kantarjian is Pushcart Prize nominated and has garnered recognition from the Southbank Centre, The Poetry Society, Palette Poetry, and more. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she was selected as Sonny Mehta Scholar. Her debut poetry collection, You Must Become Field, is forthcoming from Bad Betty Press in 2026.
AOIDE O'CONNOR
Aoife O'Connor (she/they) is a poet and producer; they founded She Speaks, are a co-director of the Derby Poetry Festival, and are a vice-chair of Forward Arts Foundation board of trustee's. They were a member of the inaugural Southbank New Poets Collective in 2021/22. They won the 2023 Aurora Prize for Poetry and were shortlisted for the 2025 Bridport Prize. They're a mentee for the 2025/26 Writing East Midlands mentoring scheme and are using the time to work on their debut.
NIPA UDDIN
Nipa is a poet, spoken word artist, DJ, and psychotherapist. Born in Bedford and currently based in Nottingham, her work has been published in a poetry anthology from Notts Poetry, featured on BBC Radio Nottingham, GOBS Collective Earth Showcase, Poets Off The Endz (POTE) showcase at Metronome and POTE showcase at Shambala festival. Nipa recently released her debut pamphlet "This might make more sense later..." as part of the GOBS Collective Consellation Showcase and Pamphlet Launch, created with support from Bad Betty Press and the Carousel and she is currently working as a psychotherapist in Nottingham.
TONY D
Tony D born Tony Hamlet is a UK Hip Hop artist, battle rapper and former 3 time Don't Flop Champion. He's also battled overseas in the Canadian battle league King Of The Dot. He's a founding member of the crew "Poisonous Poets" which consists of Lowkey, Ben Bailey Smith, Reveal, Stylah, Therapist and DJ Snips.
ABOUT BAD BETTY:
Bad Betty Press is an award-winning independent poetry publisher, and curator of live literature events taking place across the UK. London-born, Nottingham-based, Bad Betty was set up in 2017 with the aim of showcasing risk-taking poetry, supporting poets’ artistic development and celebrating stories less often told.
Bad Betty was Highly Commended in this year's British Book Awards' Small Press of the Year category, has been a Midlands Finalist the last 3 years, won the Michael Marks Publishers' Award in 2022, and is the parent of pamphlet imprint, Little Betty.
“The epitome of bold independence” – The Big Issue
“Serious quality” – LeftLion
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 7.21 to GBP 16.96
