Soho Poly Poetry: Arshi, Benson & Nash

Soho Poly Poetry - Thursday 5th December, 2024

Doors open 6.30pm, 7pm start

In the second of the new series of poetry events at the Soho Poly, join us for an evening of readings and performances from Mona Arshi, Dzifa Benson, and Jackson Phoenix Nash.

Mona Arshi is a poet, novelist and essayist. She trained as a Human rights lawyer at Liberty before she started writing poetry, which she studied at the University of East Anglia. Mona Arshi’s debut collection Small Hands (2015) won the Forward Prize for best first collection. Her second collection Dear Big Gods was published in 2019 (both books published by Liverpool University Press’s Pavilion Poetry list). Her writing has been published in The Times, The Guardian, Granta, The Yale Review and The Times of India as well as on the London Underground. She was writer in Residence at Cley Marshes in Norfolk and during lockdown she spent time in the area working on poems that were transformed into digital assets and embedded in the landscape. In 2020 she was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Liverpool and she is a fellow in creative arts at Trinity College , Cambridge .Her novel Somebody Loves You was published by And Other Stories and was most recently shortlisted for the Goldsmith prize. Mona is currently co-editing a nature anthology Nature Matters which will be published by Faber in May 2025.Her third collection of poetry Mouth will be published by Chatto and Windus in July 2025.

Dzifa Benson was born in London to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. She is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, technology, the body and ritual which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre, libretto, performance, curation, visual arts, immersive technologies, essays and criticism. She has read and performed her work in many contexts such as Tate Britain, the Dissenters Chapel of Kensal Green Cemetery, BBC Contains Strong Language, the Royal Festival Hall, King’s Place, and in Italy, South Africa, France and Norway. Her poetry has been widely anthologised, most recently in Staying Human (Bloodaxe Books), More Fiya! (Canongate) and Part of a Story That Started Before Me (Penguin), and has been recognised with fellowships from Jerwood Compton Poetry and Hedgebrook. She publishes essays and criticism covering poetry, theatre, music, fiction and nonfiction in The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Wasafiri, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry London and The Poetry Review. She was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize in 2021. Her first collection, Monster, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2024.

Jackson Phoenix Nash (he/him) is a queer transgender poet and associate lecturer from Essex. His poetry and fiction have appeared in magazines including Propel, Under the Radar, Rattle, Channel, Impossible Archetype, Baffling Magazine and many more. His poems have recently been anthologised in Transmasculine Poetics (Sundress, 2024) and Propel Anthology: 2022 - 2024. Jackson is a fellow of the Lambda Literary Writer's Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. He was shortlisted for the Creative Future Writer's Award, and selected for Creative Future's Next Up development programme. His poem ‘Call me boy on Saturdays’ won the Rattle Ekphrastic Competition. His debut pamphlet, Some People are Trains, was published by Little Betty in 2024. He has a PhD in Gender Studies. Jackson is neurodivergent (ADHD and dyslexia).

Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.

Drinks and refreshments will also be available.

Free student and lower income tickets are available. Please contact Hannah Copley [email protected].

About the series

Soho Poly Poetry is a new monthly event series held in the heart of London. Drawing on the Soho Poly's history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. For more information about future events, and to sign up to our mailing list, please contact Hannah Copley [email protected].

About the Soho Poly

Recently restored after lying vacant for over 30 years, the Soho Poly is an inclusive community hub for creativity, culture and wellbeing. It offers community engagement and diverse programming and provides a contemporary performance and education venue for the London arts community.

TUBE

Oxford Circus

Victoria

Riding House Street is just off Regent Street - and not far from Oxford Street, and Oxford Circus tube station. Bus routes: 3,12,88,453,C2

Access and Facilities

• Accessible toilet
• Toilets
• Drinking water
• Family-friendly event
• Handrails on stairs
• Seating available
• Step-free routes
• Wheelchair access with a platform lift to the basement
• Handrails on the stairs.
• Accessible toilets and quiet areas provided.

Don't miss out on this exciting event!

Host or Publisher Soho Poly