Bunker Talk #159: Testament
Schedule
Tue Jan 20 2026 at 05:30 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC+00:00Location
Manchester Poetry Library | Manchester, EN
About this Event
Testament
Presented with AHEAD in Manchester Poetry Library, this talk will be hosted by Zodwa Nyoni (Lecturer in Scriptwriting).
Testament is a writer, rapper, educator and world record breaking beatboxer.
Testament is writer of awards nominated play Black Men Walking(Best Play UK Theatre Awards, Best New Play Writer’s Guild of Great Britain) and Orpheus In The Record Shop which was broadcast on BBC Four TV.
As a poet Testament was Black Nature Writer-in Residence for the Yorkshire Dales 2024, and part the award-winning Hot Poets eco-poetry collective. He is also a contributor to the acclaimed Gifts of Gravity & Light: A Nature Almanac for the 21st Century(Hodder Books) 2021.
Testament’s diverse work includes spoken word, composing music for award winning adverts, writing musicals, performing at Downing Street, making radio history documentaries, nature essays and freestyle rapping for Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Testament has had numerous TV appearances on BBC, ITV and Sky Arts and has been the guest host on Radio 4 poetry show The Verb twice. His poetic radio drama Daughter won Special Commendation at the BBC Audiodrama Awards 2022 and was nominated for the Prix Europa.
He was 2019 Channel 4 Writer-in-Residence for The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester.
As a facilitator, Testament runs the HIP-HOP CLINIC - a workshop that company that runs rap, poetry and beatbox workshops around the world. He has also worked with BBC Bitesize and presented GCSE Poetry podcasts.
Currently, he is a writer on the hit Top 10 NETFLIX animated show Castlevania Nocturne.
Bunker Talks
This event is part of Bunker Talks. Bunker Talks invite artists and researchers to talk about who they are and what they do. Curated by the Performance Research Group at Manchester School of Art and the School of English, Bunker Talks explore geopolitical, ecological or economic concerns. The talks create space for critical encounters, presentations, provocation and dialogue as part of a civic conversation.
Originally conceived in the pandemic to explore how artists, writers, curators and researchers continued to make and share their work, live Bunker Talks now take place at The Salutation every month. Since 2020, over 150 talks have been hosted by Performance Researchers and colleagues from across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. All talks are recorded, edited, captioned and then archived to create an online catalogue, capturing how artists, makers and curators think about the world today. Find previous talks here: https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/bunkertalks/
Main Event Contact and URL
Michael Pinchbeck [email protected]
https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/bunkertalks/talk-159/
Where is it happening?
Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
