MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY: Apples & Snakes

Apples & Snakes, the UK’s leading organisation for performance poetry, has appointed Bohdan Piasecki as its new West Midlands Coordinator.

Bohdan will be based at The Drum, Birmingham with the remit to develop performance poetry in the West Midlands. He is a performance poet himself, and is a host of poetry slams.

Apples & Snakes has built an international reputation for its work with performance poetry, which focuses on working with emerging artists, producing new work and putting poets in education. Apples & Snakes runs regular events across England alongside pioneering artist development programmes. It also works extensively with schools, prisons and libraries to develop literacy, communication skills, motivation and self-esteem through high quality performance poetry workshops and events.

Bohdan Piasecki, West Midlands Coordinator, Apples & Snakes: I am really looking forward to working with Apples & Snakes as Regional Programme Coordinator. The West Midlands is an exciting, diverse region, with a thriving poetry scene and amazing potential, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to support the community and develop new, electrifying projects for poets and audiences.

Mukhtar Dar, Artistic Director, The Drum: The Drum is delighted to be working in partnership with Apples & Snakes to further develop and consolidate the performance poetry sector within the region. We look forward to welcoming and hosting Bohdan Piasecki within our venue both as the West Midlands Programme Coordinator and as a poet.

Lucy Crompton-Reid, Director, Apples & Snakes: We are delighted to introduce Bohdan to our national team, and look forward to developing our programme in the West Midlands, building on the excellent work that is already taking place in the region.

Biography: Bohdan Piasecki

Bohdan is a performance poet and slam host born in Warsaw, Poland, currently based in the UK, where he is putting the finishing touches on a PhD in poetry translation. Before his move to England, Bohdan started the first poetry slam series in his country, introducing Poles to spoken word and creating a platform for a whole new generation of performers. Bohdan has travelled around Europe (with some forays into North America) with his poetry; he represented Poland at the 2007 Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris (and was the only European poet to reach the finals), proudly wore the title of the 2008 Hammer & Tongue Oxford Season Slam Champion, and was an artist in residence at the European Poetry Slam Days in Berlin in 2009. He has a keen interest in literary translation and ways in which it can be used in performance, and actively pursues collaborations with other poets as well as artists from fields such as photography, video, music, and dance.

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