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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251006T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251006T193000
DTSTAMP:20260422T093028
CREATED:20250818T085429Z
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SUMMARY:Words of Welcome: In conversation with Marjorie Lotfi and George Szirtes
DESCRIPTION:Join award-winning poets Marjorie Lotfi and George Szirtes in conversation with Peggy Hughes of the National Centre for Writing for an evening of readings and reflection on the idea of sanctuary in poetry. \nThis special event marks the culmination of Words of Welcome\, a multilingual poetry exchange delivered by Norfolk Library and Information Service with Creative Arts East and National Centre for Writing. \nLotfi and Szirtes will read some of their work and share their own personal insights to celebrate the launch of a new collection of poems on the theme of ‘welcome’\, written by visitors to Norfolk’s libraries. \nFree booking \nPresented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \n 
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/words-of-welcome-in-conversation-with-marjorie-lotfi-and-george-szirtes/
LOCATION:Great Yarmouth Library\, The Place\, 37-39 Market Place\, Great Yarmouth\, NR30 1LX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Literature & Spoken Word,Platforma
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251010T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251010T130000
DTSTAMP:20260422T093028
CREATED:20250831T102254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T102254Z
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SUMMARY:Creative Writing Workshop with Amanda Hodgkinson
DESCRIPTION:Join award winning writer Dr Amanda Hodgkinson for a creative writing workshop taking inspiration from stories of arrival\, community\, and belonging. As well as from the stories of migration within her novel 22 Britannia Road. \nPresented by Suffolk Archives as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nFree booking \nAge 16+
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/creative-writing-workshop-with-amanda-hodgkinson/
LOCATION:The Hold\, Ipswich\, IP4 1LN\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Literature & Spoken Word,Platforma
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251011T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251011T193000
DTSTAMP:20260422T093028
CREATED:20250812T161610Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T092925Z
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SUMMARY:Hearts\, Bodies & Words: Migration Stories with Sulaiman Addonia 
DESCRIPTION:A fascinating in-conversation event about writing the refugee experience with Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist Sulaiman Addonia\, whose acclaimed novels offer an insider’s view of life\, love\, and language through the lens of displacement.\nIn partnership with the National Centre for Writing. Presented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nPay what you wish. Suitable for ages 18+ \nFull details and booking \nDrawing on his darkly poetic novels The Seers and Silence Is My Mother Tongue\, Addonia will reflect on the role of intimacy and agency in narratives of migration\, the healing power of art\, and how writing has shaped his personal journey\, from arriving as an unaccompanied minor seeking asylum to becoming a celebrated author and activist. \nSulaiman Addonia’s third novel\, The Seers\, follows the first weeks of a homeless Eritrean refugee in London. Set around a foster home in Kilburn\, in the squares of Bloomsbury where its protagonist sleeps\, and against the backdrop of the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the UK asylum system\, the novel considers intergenerational histories and colonial trauma alongside the psychological and sexual lives of refugees\, insisting that the erotic and intimate side of life is as much a part of someone’s story as land and nations are. \nAbout the author \nSulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. He spent his early life in a refugee camp in Sudan\, and his early teens in Jeddah\, Saudi Arabia. He arrived in London as an underage unaccompanied refugee without a word of English and went on to earn an MA in Development Studies from SOAS and a BSc in Economics from UCL. \nHis first novel\,  The Consequences of Love (Chatto & Windus\, 2008)\, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was translated into more than 20 languages. His second novel\, Silence is My Mother Tongue (Indigo Press\, 2019; Graywolf\, 2020)\, was a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards 2021\, the Firecracker (CLMP) Awards\, the inaugural African Literary Award from The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco\, and longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Fiction. The Seers (Prototype\, 2024) was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2025 and the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2025. \nHis essays appear in LitHub\, Granta\, Freeman’s\, The New York Times\, De Standaard and Passa Porta. He is a contributor to Tales of Two Planets (Penguin\, 2020) and Addis Ababa Noir (Akashic Books\, 2020). A lifelong advocate of the value of creative writing for refugees\, Addonia is also the founder of the Creative Writing Academy for Refugees and Asylum Seekers and the Asmara-Adiss Literary Festival in Exile (AALFIE). \n‘The Seers is an incandescent howl of anti-colonial rage and insatiable desire; a powerful and taboo-breaking love letter to a London made of stories\, and a scathing indictment of the UK asylum system’s ability to break hearts and bodies to pieces again and again.’ — Preti Taneja\, author of Aftermath \n‘The Seers is a knockout. A complex novel of generational history\, trauma\, eroticism…Not only is this a novel that needs to be read now\, its ambition\, humanity\, anger and an unforgettable narrator mark it out as a classic.’ — Niven Govinden\, author of Diary of a Film \nPhoto: Fred Debrock \nAbout the National Centre for Writing \nNational Centre for Writing is a National Portfolio Organisation for Arts Council England and the literature development agency for the East of England based in Norwich\, England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. NCW promotes\, commissions\, and supports new writing\, writers\, and underrepresented voices; inspires communities through the power of writing\, reading and literary translation; nurtures literary talent and has a year-round creative writing learning programme of courses\, workshops\, and resources. Find out more \n  \n \n \n 
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/hearts-bodies-words-migration-stories-with-sulaiman-addonia/
LOCATION:National Centre for Writing\, Dragon Hall\, 115-123 King Street\, Norwich\, NR1 1QE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Literature & Spoken Word,Platforma
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251016T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251016T140000
DTSTAMP:20260422T093028
CREATED:20250830T195240Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250830T195240Z
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SUMMARY:Food from Home: An Exploration of Food Memories and Identity
DESCRIPTION:From Peterborough Presents: A creative\, participatory workshop exploring connections between food\, memory\, and migration with artist Madhu Manipatruni.\nCo-commissioned and presented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025)\, produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nJoin artist Madhu Manipatruni for a creative\, participatory workshop exploring connections between food\, memory\, and migration. Through storytelling we’ll reflect on how food evokes identity\, belonging\, and home. Participants are invited to bring a recipe with personal or cultural significance to share. Together we will create a simple pop-up book that captures memories of food\, recipes and journeys. \nWheelchair accessible room (Howe Room). \nAge 18+ \nFree tea\, coffee and biscuits available \nDelivered by Peterborough Presents and Migrefhealth \nYou can that the opportunity to visit the free Bridging Landscapes II exhibition as part of Platforma Festival \nFull details and free booking \nAbout Platforma in Peterborough \nPlatforma 2025 in Peterborough is produced by 62 Gladstone Street\, a community-rooted arts space in the heart of Peterborough with a particular focus on supporting South Asian and MENA artists. Through exhibitions\, residencies\, and public programmes\, it provides a vital platform for underrepresented voices and fosters meaningful dialogue between artists and the wider community. \nPartners: Counterpoints Arts\, Landmark Theatres\, Peterborough Cultural Alliance\, Metal Peterborough\, Peterborough Presents\, Peterborough Museum\, HELP Charity & the Aziz Foundation \nDedication: “Our programme is dedicated to the innocent men\, women\, and children who have lost their lives\, those who have been displaced by war\, and all those seeking a safe place to call home.” \n62 Gladstone Street’s Platforma programme is supported by Arts Council England as and presented as part of the wider Platforma Festival across the East of England\, produced by Counterpoints Arts.
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/food-from-home-an-exploration-of-food-memories-and-identity/
LOCATION:Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery\, 51 Priestgate\, Peterborough\, PE1 1LF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Literature & Spoken Word,Platforma
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251017T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251017T130000
DTSTAMP:20260422T093028
CREATED:20250831T101550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T101550Z
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SUMMARY:Home from Home Poetry Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Join local writer Sue Wallace-Shaddad for a poetry workshop reflecting on the challenges of belonging and consider what makes us who we are\, and how our identities are influenced by others.\nPresented by Suffolk Archives as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nFree booking \nAge 16+ \nBeing part of a community and feeling you belong are foundational aspects of human life; they provide stability and a sense of identity. Too often\, reality is rather different. A person may become separated from their community because of personal circumstance\, conflict or war and have to learn how to belong in a different place. People may have links to more than one community through their heritage and feel they have to negotiate who they are\, where they belong. \nIn this workshop you will read and discuss poems and respond to writing prompts drawing on your own experience and that of others. \nPlease bring a photograph or small object to help stimulate your writing.
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/home-from-home-poetry-workshop/
LOCATION:The Hold\, Ipswich\, IP4 1LN\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Literature & Spoken Word,Platforma
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251026T110000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251026T120000
DTSTAMP:20260422T093028
CREATED:20250701T153305Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250902T083740Z
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SUMMARY:Sabrin Hasbun @ Norwich Book Festival
DESCRIPTION:Sabrin Hasbun\, winner of the inaugural Footnote X Counterpoints Writing Prize\, will be speaking at the Norwich Book Festival about her book  Crossing: A Love Story Between Italy and Palestine\,\nThe event that is also part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nFull details and booking \nA beautiful and compelling family memoir\, Crossing retraces the love story between Sabrin Hasbun’s Palestinian father and Italian mother\, and the life of her half-Italian\, half-Palestinian family from the 1960s to 2020. After the loss of her mother\, Sabrin tries to renegotiate her mixed identity and understand her mother’s choices which led her from an oppressive childhood in a village in Tuscany to finding love and community activism in Palestine. \nThe book was highly praised by the judges of the Footnote X Counterpoints Writing Prize \n‘Vivid\, compassionate\, captivating\, Sabrin’s writing is both deeply rooted in place and culture\, and transcending borders in its universality and humanity.’\n– Elif Shafak \nThis is a story about overcoming grief and what it means to lose not only loved ones\, but also a place in the world and a sense of belonging.\n‘Sabrin’s writing is captivating\, drawing us warmly into a world that is both different and familiar\, that we want to know about. A special and original voice\, one for our times.’\n– Philippe Sands \n‘A moving and tender story about love and identity\, and a meditation on the people who make us who we are.’\n– Dina Nayeri \n \nAbout the author\nSabrin Hasbun was born in Palestine\, spent her childhood in Palestine and Italy\, and now lives in the UK. She holds a PHD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and lectures in Creative Writing at Cardiff Met University. \nThe £15\,000 Footnote X Counteproints Writing Prize includes an advance of £5\,000 and a publication agreement with Footnote Press. The prize\, which recognises narrative non-fiction centred around themes of displacement\, identity or resistance\, was developed in association with the Southbank Centre\, and is supported by the John Ellerman Foundation\, Doughty Street Chambers\, Spread the Word and The Bookseller. \nAbout Norwich Book Festival\nNorwich Book Festival (NBF) is a new festival that took place in Norwich\, City of Stories\, for the first time in October 2024. NBF will return 24-31 October 2025\, with eight days of brilliant events. \nThis city-wide festival brings together readers\, writers\, bookshops\, literary organisations\, and other key Norwich institutions to celebrate stories of all kinds. \nNorwich Book Festival is designed to be for every kind of reader\, and brings nationally renowned authors to England’s first UNESCO City of Literature for fantastic events\, readings\, signings\, interactive experiences and much more. The Festival highlights Norwich’s literary heritage\, and contributes to the city’s thriving culture of reading and writing. \nIn 2024\, Norwich Book Festival welcomed 22\,000 visitors across four days\, to six venues in Norwich city centre. For 2025 we will be building upon the successes of 2024\, and expanding the Festival to take place over eight days. \nNorwich Book Festival is presented by The Forum\, alongside key partners National Centre for Writing\, Norfolk County Council – Library and Information Service and University of East Anglia. The Forum is a landmark cultural organisation in the centre of Norwich\, which presents Norwich Science Festival\, Norwich Games Festival\, and coordinates Norfolk Heritage Open Days. The Forum is also home to one of the country’s busiest libraries – Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library. \nNorwich Book Festival is supported by First Bus East\, and The Hays Travel Foundation.
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/sabrin-hasbun-norwich-book-festival/
LOCATION:The Forum\, Millennium Plain\, Norwich\, NR2 1TF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Literature & Spoken Word,Platforma
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