Patience Agbabi
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24/08/09
PATIENCE AGBABI IS CANTERBURY LAUREATE 2009-10
The Canterbury Laureate 2009-10 is pioneering poet and performer Patience Agbabi. Her laureateship was launched during Canterbury Festival 2009. Patience Agbabi headlines the ‘Laureate Line-Up’, a series of exciting events and activities extending throughout the year – from regular performance nights, to workshops, publications and special events – to put literature into the limelight and get the Canterbury district into writing!
Patience Agbabi has performed her work all over the world, from a tent in Zimbabwe to a metro station in Prague. She has held several posts, including Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent (2004-2005) and has carried out residencies in venues ranging from Eton College to a tattoo studio in North London. She has published three poetry collections – R.A.W. (Gecko Press, 1995), Transformatrix (Canongate, 2000) and Bloodshot Monochrome (Canongate, 2008).
Also paving the way in the Laureate Line-Up are the Laureate Squad – four acclaimed writers based in the Canterbury area, who have been active in encouraging others to write and perform as well. They are: novelists Danny Rhodes, author of Asboville and Soldier Boy (both Maia Press) and Andrew McGuinness, author of The Portrait of the Arsonist as a Young Man (Bluechrome), together with Vicky Wilson, who was named Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year in 2007, and Gary Studley, who has contributed to numerous publications including The Stubborn Mule Orchestra.
Patience Agbabi is taking her inspiration from Canterbury and its rich literary history, particularly The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. ‘I’m a dedicated Chaucer fan,’ says Agbabi, ‘and I’m looking forward to creating new work inspired by The Canterbury Tales.’ Patience previously gave the Tales a contemporary twist in her poem The Wife of Bafa, based on the notorious Wife of Bath. This poem, along with Agbabi’s analysis and other articles can be downloaded on the Canterbury Laureate website www.write-here.net, and is a great introduction into the Laureate’s work and her exciting plans for the Canterbury Laureateship.
Alongside this, just as the original Canterbury Tales were told by a whole range of characters from Chaucer’s Medieval society, so other writers and members of the public are encouraged to produce pieces entitled ‘My Canterbury Tale’, telling stories associated with the area from an individual’s point of view, which together will produce a new set of contemporary ‘Canterbury Tales.’ Ideas, guidelines and examples are available on the Canterbury Laureate website.
The Canterbury Laureate scheme is funded by Canterbury City Council.
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