Today I'm sharing a project really close to my heart, one that's been in the works since early spring. I was asked by the wonderful Glasgow agency Brand Calibre to create a poem and dance to raise awareness of mental health challenges. This year, the Mental Health Foundation's focus was Nature, so in composing and … Continue reading ‘Breathing Space’: New Poetry/Dance Video
Hello all! The past couple of months have been busy, busy, busy as I and the rest of the I Am Loud team have been working on Return to Form Season 2. I laid out the details in a post at the start of the project, but in case you missed it, this is our … Continue reading That’s a wrap on Return to Form Season 2!
Hello everyone! Hope you're keeping cozy as the days draw in. As the year winds down, I have one final live performance, and it's a special one! On Sun, 21st Nov I'm delighted to be sharing the stage with Pete the Temp for a thought-provoking evening of performances and discussion about UK spoken word poetry. … Continue reading Upcoming Show with Pete the Temp!
Hello all! It's been a busy, busy summer; I realise the last time I posted was to announce that Loud Poets were returning to live events at the Edinburgh Fringe. Happily, that went wonderfully; it was such a joy to return to a physical stage and share space with our audiences. Thank you so much … Continue reading New workshops! *Return to Form Season 2*
Hello all! A quick post today to share a new poetry video. It's a (hot and humid) nostalgia trip: a well-worn poem of mine based on my summers of farm work as a teen. Almost all of it is true (I nearly crashed a John Deere learning to drive), but some aspects are fictionalised (the … Continue reading New poem: “Farm Hand”
I'm so excited to share a brand new project! Today we at I Am Loud released the first episode of Loud Poets: Happy Hour, our new poetry podcast. Bex Sherwood is producing the show and I'm hosting, plus Kevin Mclean and Mark Gallie are along for the ride taking part in the challenges. What is … Continue reading Launching Loud Poets: Happy Hour!
Today has been a bit nuts - a tweet I shared last night has gone mildly viral! As it seems to be resonating with folks, I figured I’d share it on the blog as well. It’s election season in Scotland (and, very excitingly, the first election I’m eligible to vote in here due to extended … Continue reading Cutting up Bigotry: my SFP collage
April has rolled around again, which means it's time for NaPoWriMo! For the uninitiated, this is National Poetry Writing Month, a time when many people challenge themselves to write poetry on a daily basis. Traditionally, the challenge is to write 30 poems in 30 days: quite a feat! The project was started in 2003 by … Continue reading Come Write with Us! #NaPoWriMo 2021
For the seventh (!!) birthday of I Am Loud Productions, this past couple of weeks we've been sharing poetry by the members of our team. Today we've released a video of one of my poems, performed live at our sixth birthday show last February at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. This was one of my last … Continue reading New Poem: “Brightest”
At the start of January, you may remember that here I shared a workshop I'd created on how to write golden shovels. This was part of the Return to Form project we've been running at I Am Loud Productions, showcasing different forms of poetry. In this series we featured the golden shovel, the Shakespearean sonnet, … Continue reading Five Free Poetry Workshops!
Katie Ailes 