‘A Better Future’

Remembering and honouring victims and survivors of the Holocaust and of wars, hatred and racism all over the world.

Poetry lovers and poets filled the beautiful West Greenwich Library last night to listen to Jacqueline Saphra and Sue Rose read from their collections, and to Lucia Foti’s accomplished harp playing.

Jacqueline Saphra read a sequence of poems from her outstanding collection Velvel’s Violin (Nine Arches Press, 2023). Published not long before the atrocities of that October in Israel and the terrible war that followed, it is essential reading at a time of rising antisemitism, racism and denial of history. In the words of poet and editor Amy Acre, the book […] speaks to a homeland that exists not in sand and soil but in soup and song, in strange edges and broken tongue, in atheists’ prayers, in journey, in love. It was absolutely right to hear Jacqueline read uninterrupted, and it was clear that everyone in the audience was completely captivated. The breadth and courage of Jacqueline’s poems within the themes of loss, of the legacy of centuries of persecution, of History so totally impacting on histories, are astounding. And there is wit and humour, of course, as well as moments of stillness, like the last line of ‘Peace Sonnet’: a quiet sky with nothing falling but the leaves.

‘Broken tongue’ is very much a theme of some of Rose’s poems from Scion (Cinnamon Press, 2020), where the family yiddish idioms interspersed with English are such a natural part of the conversation, and therefore of the thinking. Assimilation, dilution and ambivalence about faith are not enough to break the slippery helix/that proves we belong. As a translator as well as a poet, Sue’s interest in languages – and more personal reasons – led her to start learning Hebrew quite recently. Sue also read from her forthcoming book, Aleph-Bet (Cinnamon Press, September 2025). In it she meditates on each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, linking their shapes to their meanings and creating images and metaphors that take you places and bring you right back. Pre-sales are not available yet, but if you email info@cinnamonpress.com expressing your interest in the book, you will receive notification of the pre-sales date.

What can I say about Lucia Foti’s performance? She played so beautifully, and the chosen melodies were so relevant to the themes of the poetry, that the combination worked extremely well. Her playing gave us three separate moments (six melodies plus an ‘encore’) of calm and soft breathing, with the domed space of the Library providing the perfect acoustics. A break from the intensity and emotional charge of the poetry, yet connected to it. Harps are notoriously hard to play, and also hard to transport – Lucia did it all with immense grace and skill.

A big thank-you to Jacqueline, Sue and Lucia, and as always to the Library staff, Kim and Monica, for their help setting up, rigging up all the necessary things to project the texts onto screen, and for going as ever well beyond the call of duty (and closing time…sorry!). Thank you also to my friend Marilyn, who managed the refreshments table and, of course, to everyone who attended. I hope to see you all again soon.

Jacqueline Saphra is a poet, playwright and activist. She is the author of nine plays, five chapbooks and five poetry collections. The Kitchen of Lovely Contraptions (flipped eye 2011) was nominated for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. If I Lay on my Back I Saw Nothing but Naked Women (The Emma Press 2014), illustrated by Mark Andrew Webber and set to music by Benjamin Tassie won the Saboteur Award for Best Collaborative Work. Jacqueline’s T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted collection All My Mad Mothers (2017) and her subsequent one, Dad, Remember You are Dead (2019) were both published by Nine Arches Press. Her newest play, The Noises was shortlisted for a Standing Ovation Award. Jacqueline’s collection, One Hundred Lockdown Sonnets (2021) was followed by Velvel’s Violin in July 2023 (Nine Arches Press), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and BBC Radio 4 Extra Poetry Book of the Month. Her latest project is the libretto for ‘A Kind of Haunting’, an opera by British Jewish composer Michael Zev Gordon, which will be staged at The Barbican in March 2025. Jacqueline is a founder member of Poets for the Planet and has taught in many different settings including The Arvon Foundation, The Poetry School, Oxford University Summer School and the MsT at Cambridge University. 

Sue Rose is a poet and literary translator working in Kent. As a translator, her work spans many genres, including libretti, novels and a series of books about the adventures of France’s answer to Harry Potter, Oksa Pollock. In 2004, she completed an MPhil in Writing with a thesis on the theory and practice of the translation of poetry. As a poet, her work has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. In 2008, she won the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition and in 2009, the International Troubadour Poetry Prize. Sue is the author of three collections from Cinnamon Press – From the Dark Room, The Cost of Keys and Scion. Heart Archives, a chapbook of sonnets paired with her own photos, was published by Hercules Editions in 2014 and Tonewood, poems in response to black and white photos of trees by photographer Lawrence Impey, was published by Eaglesfield Editions in 2019. Her fourth collection, Aleph Bet, a sequence of poems exploring the Hebrew language, accompanied by some of her own photos, will be published later this year by Cinnamon Press.

Lucia Foti is a London-based Italian harpist. After graduating with first class honours from the Conservatorio di Como, she completed her Master’s, graduating with distinction from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Lucia has won several national and international prizes, including first prize the 2012 Concours Français de la Harpe and the 2015 Soroptimist Italia Competition for Young Talents, and more recently, third prize at the 2024 Manchester Harp Competition. She performs solo with professional orchestras, has performed at Kings Place and can be heard regularly at Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square with the Young Musicians’ Symphony Orchestra. Lucia and guitarist Stefano Fiacco have partnered to form the Nazca Duo, and have been awarded the Colin Blythe Bursary Fund in 2023 in recognition of their achievement in chamber music.

Between Languages

We had a fabulous time last night at West Greenwich Library, with Kostya, Farah, Natan and Isabel and an appreciative and interested audience. The theme was ‘writing poetry in English when one’s native language is not English’, a theme particularly topical for me, having been brought up and educated in Italian. The poets have had very different journeys into the English language and poetry and it was great to hear their stories during the Q&A and conversation session we had in the middle, rather than at the end of the reading.

From still considering English a second/parallel/shadow language, to looking at the social and cultural ‘value’ of speaking English (in every sense the dominant language in colonial and post colonial times), to finding liberation in a new language and environment, to seeing the native language re-emerge in adult life….

I can identify with some of these journeys, but as a non-poet, I’m in awe of theirs!

I could go on and on (and I suppose I did, a bit!). I admit this event, showcasing such talented wordsmiths, was also a bit of self-indulgence for me, as a celebration of in-words’ 60th event.

I remember Graham Fawcett, the poetry lecturer who a couple of decades ago was also my lecturer in translation at Goldsmiths, said to me that my Italian into English translations were 99.5% English. So true! Unless one is brought up in two languages, a bedrock of vocabulary, idioms, meanings will be forever lacking something… But then I look at poets such as Mimi Khalvati and George Szirtes, as well as last night’s poets, and have to backpedal from that statement, and keep it as a personal, not a general, one.

Last night’s readings were so good, the languages and voices so rich and rewarding. It was so beautiful to hear Natan read some of his poems in both Portuguese and English, Farah recite a few lines in Bengali, and Isabel and Kostya weave Latin American Spanish and Greek words into their poems.

Thank you to all who came and as always to the Library staff.

Kostya Tsolákis was born and raised in Athens, Greece, and now lives in London. He is founding editor of harana poetry, the online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language. In 2019 he won the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition (ESL category). His poems have been widely published in magazines, including fourteen poems, Magma, Poetry London, The Poetry Review and Under the Radar, and anthologies, such as 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022). His debut poetry pamphlet, Ephebos, was published by ignitionpress in November 2020. Greekling, his much-anticipated poetry collection celebrates and commemorates damaged and rejected Greek bodies, be they of flesh and blood or made of marble. The collection intertwines Greek culture, history and poetic influences with the contemporary queer experience in a perceptive, lyrical, and deeply evocative way.

Farah Naz is a British Bangladeshi poet, writer, story teller and translator. As well as teaching at a Lewisham primary school, she is a performing member of the acclaimed storytelling group ‘EAST’ and is Director of the British Bilingual Poetry Collective (BBPC). Maya Mirror of Soul, her collection of English poems was published in 2004 and her Bengali poem book Hemonter Chirkut in 2022. Farah’s poetic themes encompass nature, human emotions and metamorphosis of love and life. Farah received the ‘Youth Leadership Award’ from Unicef, Bangladesh in 1999 for her writing, and won the ‘Story of 1971’ short story competition by Tower Hamlets Council in 2021. Her poems and stories have been widely published in various books and magazines such as Swirl of Words, British Bangladeshi Poetry Anthology, London Folk Tales for Children and many more. Along with writing poetry, Farah enjoys cooking and nature photography. 

Natan Barreto was born in Salvador, Brazil. He has lived in Rio, Paris, Rome, and, since 1992, in London. He is the author of seven collections of poetry in Portuguese: Under the Roofs of the Night (1999); Hiding Places on Paper (2007); Still Movement (2016); Creatures: animal sketches (2017); A backyard and other corners (2018), which won the Sosígenes Costa Poetry Prize, awarded by the Academy of Letters of Ilhéus, in Bahia, Brazil; The Rhythm of the Circle: photographic poems (2019); and The Hollow Soul (2021). He is also a published novelist, biographer and translator. Natan’s poems in English have appeared in Poets Adrift: first anthology of Brazilian diaspora poetry (2013); and, in 2019, an anthology of his poetry was published in German, titled Ausgewählte Gedichte. He has given poetry readings at the Brazilian Embassy in London, the Museum of London, the Royal Court Theatre, the Barbican, and the universities of Queen Mary and Nottingham. www.natanbarreto.com

Isabel Bermudez is a poet and textile artist living in Orpington, Kent. Her collection Serenade (Paekakariki Press, 2020) features poems evoking Spain and the New World, with illustrations by Simon Turvey. Her most recent published collection is Bar de las Reminiscencias (Paekakariki Press, 2024), also with illustrations by Simon Turvey. She performs her poetry widely at readings and festivals and was recently hosted by the Colombian Embassy and the Instituto Cervantes, Manchester, in conversation with Welsh poet and translator, Richard Gwyn. In a previous life she lived and worked as a television producer/director in Sri Lanka and as a documentary film maker in Colombia. She has held many jobs, including grape picker in France, shop assistant and special correspondent; she now works in the Sen department of an Academy in South East London. More at www.isabel-bermudez.com.