About

Welcome to The Live Poetry Book Club, an evening summer book club exploring and celebrating live readings from writers of colour.

For those who love nothing more than reading a good book (ones that move us and inspire us and allow us to see the world differently) and for those who adore listening to a writer bring their work into being through performance, at each of these unique events we will listen to the poet read their work in person, then take their collections home to enjoy afterwards.

15th September, welcome Jasmine Cooray. After spending her 20s oversharing on the poetry open-mic circuit, she spent many years balancing writing, performance and arts facilitation, delivering creative writing projects for The Barbican, the Southbank Centre, First Story, The Arvon Foundation and the National Literacy Trust, among others. Inheritance, her first full collection of poetry, was published with Bad Betty Press in November 2023 and was nominated for the 2024 Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She can often be found up a tree, mending a garment, or sending an encouraging voice note.

We will also be joined by Ruby Darbyshire. Ruby's first performance was standing on a street bollard at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, playing harmonica at the age of 4. Following which, she went out most weekend,s finding her voice and playing guitar, busking and raising money for Save the Children. Inspired and being homeschooled, she was able to circumnavigate the planet performing in many different countries.

Now at college studying music, at the age of 18, Ruby is a multi-instrumentalist branching out from being a Highland Bagpipe player, now a singer-songwriter supported and encouraged by some influential names and is passionate in all her endeavours.

"Ruby's music will grow into a phenomenon, and you need to hear it blossoming." Devizine

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm, Percy Community Centre Annexe. You can book now via the ticket link on this page.

Tickets are just £5 and include a free poetry book of the writer's work and free refreshments.