Past Events
View our past events here.
Doodle Café
22nd July 2026Doodle Café
Wednesday 22 July, 2pm – 4pm
Come and disrupt your every day with an imaginative one of a kind Doodle story workshop.
Come and disrupt your every day with an imaginative one of a kind Doodle story workshop. It’s a mixed media technique where we apply different colour patches, outline their shape, and fill them in, combining doodling, drawing and words. This immersive art expression is story telling at its core uniting images and words in a unique way. The result? Come and see!
Materials? Bring anything that you would like to use, or be inspired by what’s in the room on the day!
Refreshments? Teas, coffees and some snacks will be provided.
The vibe? Between records playing, soft lighting, a soft breeze and beautiful art, you will be in the perfect spot for creativity, inspiration and relaxation!
This event is part of a soft launch of the Soho Poly Creative Health events, disrupting your everyday with art for your wellbeing and the community’s.
Make a Song Today
17th July 2026POSTPONED. NEW DETAILS TO FOLLOW
11.00-6.00
Make a Song Today is a one-day songwriting workshop for a small group of participants, designed to create the focus and momentum that songwriting often needs. Led by songwriter Pete Astor, the day combines guided exercises, creative prompts, discussion, and independent writing time in a supportive environment.
Whether you want to start new songs, move past creative blocks, or reconnect with songwriting, the workshop is designed to generate ideas and build confidence. Small numbers ensure thoughtful feedback and engagement with each participant’s creative processes.
Photo: Carl Warren
Pete Astor is a musician, writer and educator. As singer and songwriter with Creation Records groups The Loft and The Weather Prophets, he helped define the sound of the label and the emerging indie genre. Alongside his music, he has written widely on songwriting and popular music for Bloomsbury Academic, the Cambridge Companion to Music and publications including NME and Mojo. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Westminster, where he has taught and mentored many songwriters while continuing his own musical career as both a solo artist and leader of The Loft, releasing records on labels including Matador, Heavenly, Warp and Tapete Records.
A song to go…
30th June 20266.00
On this day Pete Astor will be given a set of objects related to the Disrupt your Everyday project and the Go To and Soho Poly spaces and given 3 hours to write and record a song.
The recording will then be lathe cut in Brighton and delivered to the space for a world premiere playback of the track at 6.00 in Go To.
The lathe cut recording will later be framed and put on display.
This is invite only event – please contact the venue for details: info@sohopoly.co.uk
Photo credit: Ken Copsey
Pete Astor is a musician, writer and educator. As singer and songwriter with Creation Records groups The Loft and The Weather Prophets, he helped define the sound of the label and the emerging indie genre. Alongside his music, he has written widely on songwriting and popular music for Bloomsbury Academic, the Cambridge Companion to Music and publications including NME and Mojo. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Westminster, where he has taught and mentored many songwriters while continuing his own musical career as both a solo artist and leader of The Loft, releasing records on labels including Matador, Heavenly, Warp and Tapete Records.
Michael Nath Book launch
26th June 20267.00 Doors
We are delighted to welcome Michael Nath to the venue for the launch of his latest novel. There will be a reading and discussion, and an opportunity for meeting the author and book signing.
About the book
James Tait Black Prize shortlist nominee, Michael Nath, returns with his fourth novel, a spirited consideration of art, death, and ordinary life, interweaving historical visions and a rather cheeky chorus alongside the dual narratives of John Talbot and his daughter, Charlie. Select questions animate Talbot: Can art help overcome our fear of death? Can we make art without knowing death? In exploring them, the novel unites the threads of Michael’s encyclopedic reading, creative energy, and love of a particular band into a postmodern, post-punk romp through a week in the life of its central players. Waiting for the results of a colonoscopy, Talbot, a Welshman and a Tube driver, has seven days to think about his life, even do something significant. Though he never went to university, he’s received an education of a kind from the words and music of The Fall and their lead singer, ‘The Captain’ Mark E. Smith. Charlie meanwhile is entangled with her university writing project, waiting for inspiration, in whatever form, to strike. From this spins out an entire world, moving between London, Wales, and East Anglia. As with Michael’s earlier novels, Talbot embraces an expansive range of characters, mining daily life and all its complications through an exuberant voice and vision. Talbot & The Fall is a work of unrelenting energy and ingenuity, palpated not only by the spirits who observe and describe John’s momentous week, but also by those most ancient dramas: family, death, music, and art.
My Cantopop Nights: Book Party
23rd June 20266.30-9.00pm
A very special celebration of the publication of musician and writer Emma-Lee Moss’s ‘My Cantopop Nights: A Memoir in Songs’ (Penguin).
By invitation only. Contact info@sohopoly.co.uk for further details.
Paint with Darren
17th June 20262.00-4.00ish
Darren Hayman, formerly lead singer and guitarist with the band Hefner and prolific solo artist, also paints and draws. We are delighted to welcome Darren to the Soho Poly to deliver a painting workshop for people of all artistic abilities. Darren’s approach to art is inclusive and in keeping with the friendly approach of the Soho Poly to Badge Cafes and more, tea and biscuits will be provided in a welcoming space. Attendees will be able to take away their painting if they wish
FROM DARREN SITE
About Darrren Darren Hayman is a thoughtful, concise and detailed songwriter. He eschews the big, the bright and the loud for the small, twisted and lost. For 15 years, and over 14 albums, Hayman has taken a singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly. More about Darren here
Stage 81 present a Fitzrovia stand-up comedy night!
9th June 20265.30pm-7.30pm
Get ready for a night of non-stop laughter as 11 brand new stand-up comedians take to the stage for the first time to showcase their freshest material! Come and support Stage 81’s free live community showcase – a very special evening of laughter featuring real life stories and comedy from people living in and around Fitzrovia.
This is your chance to witness comedy in its purest, rawest relatable form. Hilarious, bold, and unforgettable. Bring your friends, bring your energy, and enjoy a night of laughs you won’t forget!
For tickets, email: contact@stage81.info
Stage 81 CIC have been selected to receive The Fitzrovia Partnership’s Community Grant. The grant, offered by The Fitzrovia Partnership, invests in local charities, community organisations, and social enterprises that deliver projects which strengthen connections within the Fitzrovia area.
HABLAN (THEY SPEAK) by Leyla Selman: an Illuminated Lecture
14th May 20262.00pm-4.00pm
An Illuminated Lecture on the translation of the play HABLAN by Leyla Selman, translated as THEY SPEAK by Catherine Boyle.
An illuminated lecture presents academic research in dialogue with creative work. Here, we will explore the processes of translating Chilean dramatist Leyla Selman’s HABLAN / THEY SPEAK. In the play two actresses prepare to perform Schiller’s Mary Stuart. The translation takes us from southern Chile to London, via Scotland.
Directed by Sue Dunderdale, with dramaturg Karen Morash and with two actors, we will read scenes from the play and enter into dialogue about the research, the traces of Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I that haunt the play, and the recreation of their voices for a contemporary audience.
For tickets, please email: catherine.boyle@kcl.ac.uk
Photo credit: Maglio Perez
Soho Poly Poetry
14th May 20267.00pm-9.00pm
In the sixth event of the 25/26 Soho Poly Poetry series, we’re excited to welcome a stellar trio of poets: Joe Carrick-Varty is a British-Irish poet and the author of two books: Before Violence (Carcanet, 2026), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and More Sky (Carcanet, 2023), which won an Eric Gregory Award, was shortlisted for the T S. Eliot Prize and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize, and was named a Poetry Book of the Year by the Irish Times. His pamphlet, Somewhere Far (The Poetry Business, 2019), won the New Poets Prize. In 2023, he was named the Anthony Burgess Fellow In Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. He founded and edited bath magg from 2019 until its closure in 2023. His work has been widely published in magazines and anthologies, including Granta, New Statesman, POETRY, The Poetry Review, The Forward Book of Poetry, The London Magazine, PN Review, and Poetry London. Natalie Linh Bolderston is a Vietnamese-Chinese-British poet from Stoke-on-Trent. She has won an Eric Gregory Award and the Rebecca Swift Women Poets’ Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. Her debut collection, Divinations on Survival, is just out with Pavilion Poetry. She is an alumna of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, the London Library Emerging Writers’ Programme, and Writing West Midlands’ Room 204 programme. Her pamphlet, The Protection of Ghosts, was published by V. Press in 2019. Ruth Padel has written novels, non-fiction and thirteen poetry collections, most recently Girl, exploring the way a girl can figure as the human soul and creative energy, yet her persona has been shaped by male fantasy. ‘Searching, restless poems, formally inventive with a dazzling control of the lyric line…just extraordinary.’ Kim Moore’ Her lucid poems traverse a spiritual quest through ancient mythology, mysticism, European fairytale, searching for “where a girl / can find clarity on who she is”’. (Guardian)Other books include much-loved work on reading contemporary poetry and a novel on the holocaust in Crete. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Zoological Society of London, Professor of Poetry Emerita at King’s College London, and currently finishing a non-fiction book on elephants. www.ruthpadel.com. Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night. Drinks and refreshments will also be available. Please note that free student and lower income tickets are available and we aim to make each night affordable and accessible to all. Please contact Hannah Copley on social media or on h.copley@westminster.ac.uk to join the guestlist.
Westminster Culture Network: Creative Health & Inclusion
6th May 20262pm – 4pm
Creative Health & Inclusion: micro-grants information session
A meeting for peers in the health and creative sectors to find out more how arts and creativity can address the social determinants of health.
The event will be facilitated by Shelley Reynolds, Head of Health and Organisational Development at One Westminster, in partnership with Westminster Culture Network. We will be joined by Matthew Couper, Borough Engagement Lead from the GLA, who will talk about their ambitions to make London a Creative Health City.
Details will also be shared on how to apply for One Westminster’s new round of Creative Health micro-grants, funded by Westminster Council as part of its Cultural Strategy delivery. Badge Cafe will also be on-site, hosting a badge making workshop for guests.
Please note: this is a dedicated event for members of the Westminster Culture Network. To sign up and get more details about this and other events, contact: cp@westminster.gov.uk.
Komola Collective R+D weeks
13th April 2026 – 1st May 202613-17 April / 27 April – 1 May
Komola Collective returns to Soho Poly for the Research and Development stage of Elephant in the Room, a new family dance‑theatre production exploring sisterhood, neurodiversity and South Asian girlhood. Supported by Arts Council England, this early development phase brings together playwright Leesa Gazi, director Filiz Ozcan, and award‑winning dancer‑choreographer Ching‑Ying Chien (Akram Khan Company) to experiment with movement, storytelling and early puppetry inspired by A Thousand and One Nights.
Across two weeks of rehearsal at Soho Poly, the creative team will shape the physical language, sound world and narrative of the piece, working closely with community partners Magic Care Moments. The R&D will culminate in a sharing for students, families, carers and invited industry guests, followed by a panel discussion with mental health and neurodiversity specialists. There may also be handful of tickets made publicly available – so watch this space!
This project builds on Komola Collective’s three‑year relationship with Soho Poly and forms part of our commitment to supporting bold, inclusive work that amplifies underrepresented voices. We’re delighted to host this next chapter of Elephant in the Room as it begins its journey toward a full production and 2027 tour.”
A Spring Gathering with Clay Pipe Music
25th April 2026SOLD OUT
3pm-9pm
A Clay Pipe collaboration with Soho Poly
We are delighted to welcome one of our favourite labels to a special all day event to celebrate the arrival of Spring. Artists performing include David Rothon, Micro Moon and the Hardy Tree, with David Boulter headlining.
Other events throughout the day include a Clay Pipe Music Shop, projections and the delights of Vic Mars DJ.
A free signed print will be available for all attendees.
Soho Poly Poetry
9th April 2026Come along on Thursday 9th April for a night of electrifying poetry from Maya Caspari, Keith Jarrett, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Zain Rishi
In the fifth event of the 25/26 series, we’re excited to welcome Karen McCarthy Woolf, Keith Jarrett, Maya Caspari and Zain Rishi to Soho Poly Poetry for another amazing night of performance.
About the poets
Maya Caspari is a poet, researcher, and curator, based in London. Her poetry has been published in magazines including Ambit, Butcher’s Dog, The Poetry Review, Perverse, Propel and Wasafiri. She has been highly commended in the Forward Prizes, longlisted in National Poetry Competition, and shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. She is a Lecturer at the University of York. Almost, with Tenderness (Out-Spoken) is her debut pamphlet.
Keith Jarrett is a writer, performer, and educator from London. His latest collection, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied (Bad Betty Press) is a 2026 Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation. He is also the author of the poetry collection Selah (Burning Eye Books), the play Safest Spot in Town and the pamphlet I Speak Home (Eyewear). He has performed at and coordinated poetry festivals in English and Spanish in the UK and abroad. Jarrett is a former UK Poetry Slam Champion and won Rio de Janeiro’s Literary Festival of the Urban Periphery (FLUPP) in 2014.
His poetry show, Identity Mix-Up (2013), premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Jarret teaches at NYU London, holds a PhD from Birkbeck College, and is a Lambda and Obsidian Fellow. He was selected for the International Literature Showcase.
Karen McCarthy Woolf, FRSL, PhD, is the author of three poetry collections and editor of seven literary anthologies. Her novel in verse, Top Doll, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and her début, An Aviary of Small Birds was an Observer Book of the Year.
As a postdoctoral Fulbright Scholar at UCLA she was poet in residence at the Promise Institute for Human Rights, where she wrote her latest collection, Unsafe (Bloomsbury, 2026): a ‘taut’ and ‘hypnotic’ (Guardian) poetic meditation on the sacred, the city and our access to nature. In 2025 she won a Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award and the Jerwood Prize for Poetry (England). She has performed her work everywhere from The Royal Festival Hall, Kings Place and Barbican, to venues across Asia, Europe and the Americas.Her broadcast credits include a reversioning of Homer’s Book of The Dead for BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week; Miss Birdie’s Letter, BBC Radio 3 Between the Ears and a multi-authored reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando shortlisted for a BBC Audio Award.
She has worked on many collaborations, most recently as a librettist on Divine Feminine, a spatially-realised electronic and acoustic choral opera with the British-Iranian composer and turntablist Shiva Feshareki.
Zain Rishi is a writer from Birmingham, UK. He graduated with a masters in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh in 2023 and has since worked in independent bookselling. He won the 27th annual Ware Poets Competition, placed third in the 2024 Oxford Poetry Prize and was highly commended in the Poetry Wales Award 2024-25. His poetry has featured in Magma, Wildness, Fourteen Poems, New Writing Scotland, Gutter, Propel and various anthologies. He is currently based in Edinburgh. Noon (The Emma Press) is his debut poetry pamphlet.
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.
Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Free student and lower income tickets are available and we aim to make each night affordable and accessible to all. Please contact Hannah Copley on social media or on h.copley@westminster.ac.uk to join the guestlist. Please also be aware that Soho Poly Poetry tends to sell out so we’d recommend getting in touch in good time!
About the series
Soho Poly Poetry is a monthly event series held in the heart of London. Now in its second year, and drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. Curated and hosted by Hannah Copley.
About the Soho Poly
Recently restored after lying vacant for over 30 years, the Soho Poly is an inclusive community hub for creativity, culture and wellbeing. It offers community engagement and diverse programming and provides a contemporary performance and education venue for the London arts community. Creative directors: Matt Morrison and Guy Osborn.
Soho Poly Poetry is supported and made possible by Peter Bonfield, Vice Chancellor of the University of Westminster.
Creative Drop-in
3rd February 2026 – 24th March 2026No need to book. Just turn up between 11 and 1, tea and coffee on us!
Spring Badge Cafe
19th March 202612.00-2.00pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. Hosted by Ben Walters. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Soho Poly Poetry
12th March 2026Join us at the Soho Poly for an electrifying night of poetry. In the fourth event of the 25/26 series, we’re excited to welcome Erica Hesketh, Karen Downs-Barton, Wayne Holloway-Smith and Nick Makoha
Erica Hesketh is a poet and editor, originally from Japan and Denmark, now based in London. Her poetry has been commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall, Spread the Word and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2024 she was Director of the Poetry Translation Centre. Her debut collection, In the Lily Room, was published by Nine Arches Press in 2025, and she has a pamphlet forthcoming with Guillemot Press this summer.
Karen Downs-Barton is an Anglo-Romani writer who, after a peripatetic childhood including times in state care, now lives in Wiltshire. Her collection Minx was published by Chatto & Windus in 2025 to wide acclaim. Winner of the Cosmo Davenport-Hines prize (2021) and Creative Future silver medallist (2022) she holds a PhD from King’s College London, exploring identity through minority languages and multilingualism in entertainment industries. Her pamphlet Didicoy was published by the Poetry Business in 2023 and selected as a Poetry Book Society Choice that year.
Wayne Holloway-Smith is the author of Alarum (2017) and Love Minus Love (2020), which was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Ledbury Munte Prize for Best Second Collection. His latest book, RABBITBOX, is out in March 2026. He won The Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2016 and The National Poetry Competition in 2018. He currently lives in London and is Editor of The Poetry Review.
Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet based in London. His 2025 T.S Eliot Prize nominated collection The New Carthaginians follows his debut collection Kingdom of Gravity (2017), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and named one of The Guardian’s Best Books of the Year. Winner of the Ivan Juritz Prize, the Poetry London Prize, the Brunel African Poetry Prize and the Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize (for his pamphlet Resurrection Man), Nick has been writer in residence for the ICA, the Wordsworth Trust and Wasafiri. He is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, a Complete Works alumnus and founder of the Obsidian Foundation. His play The Dark, produced by Fuel Theatre and directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander, toured nationally in 2019, was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award and won the 2021 Columbia International Play Reading Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.
Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Please note that free student and lower income tickets are available and we aim to make each night affordable and accessible to all. Please contact Hannah Copley on social media or on h.copley@westminster.ac.uk to join the guestlist.
About the series
Soho Poly Poetry is a monthly event series held in the heart of London. Now in its second year, and drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. Curated and hosted by Hannah Copley.
About the Soho Poly
Recently restored after lying vacant for over 30 years, the Soho Poly is an inclusive community hub for creativity, culture and wellbeing. It offers community engagement and diverse programming and provides a contemporary performance and education venue for the London arts community. Creative directors: Matt Morrison and Guy Osborn.
Soho Poly Poetry is supported and made possible by Peter Bonfield, Vice Chancellor of the University of Westminster.
Shakespeare in Schools
11th March 202611 March – GCSE school workshop in collaboration with the Regent Street Cinema.
One of our ongoing GO TO [reach] projects.
Not available for booking, but watch out for further opportunities to take park in our community / outreach work.
Spring Badge Cafe
5th March 202612.00-2.00pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. Hosted by Ben Walters. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Creative Drop-in
3rd March 2026On Tuesdays throughout the Spring, drop in to our GO TO creative space, 11am-1pm. Come and Write, Make, Play or Read in any way that works for you.
Each week, you can come and listen to some vinyl on our record player, sit and read or write, make things, or just chat about ideas with our artistic directors and other friends. Keep an eye out for extra activities and special guests too.
No need to book. Just turn up between 11 and 1, tea and coffee on us!
Spring Badge Cafe
19th February 202612.00-2.00pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. Hosted by Ben Walters. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Creative Drop-In
17th February 2026POSTPONED
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the event below is postponed – but coming again soon!
11am-1pm – Boardgame week!
As part of our regular Tuesday drop-ins, we’ll be bringing along some modern designer board games.
In fact, there’ll be four to chose from: King Domino: a new take on the classic game of dominos, themed around building a fantasy kingdom. Ticket to Ride, London: Ever dreamed of becoming a TFL journey-planner expert? Make new bus routes through London in this easy to learn and fun game. A modern classic. Artbox: Picasso who? A short and fun party board game where you draw assigned words using only a handful of randomly-chosen shapes. Spyfall: A lttle like “hide and seek”. Everyone is bluffing and trying to figure out who the spy is. The spy on the other hand, must pretend to know where they are… without blowing their cover. Really good fun. If you’re free, come and experiment!
Our Community Valentine
14th February 20262.00-4.00pm
Join us for a very special literature event with two guest readers, Deborah Finding (My Marxist Valentine, poetry) and Tash Walker (The Log Books, non-fiction). Deborah and Tash will be sharing extracts and insights from their newly-launched work, as well as being in conversation about the experience of writing and producing work that highlights the deeply personal and intrinsically political need for community and solidarity.
Deborah Finding, the Soho Poly’s first poet-in-residence, will read from her brand new poetry collection, My Marxist Valentine (Write Bloody UK), which is an exploration of love and solidarity set against a backdrop of capitalism and individualism.
Would he ever say, ‘I love you?’
Would she ever say, ‘You were right about historical materialism?’
The poems in My Marxist Valentine chart a relationship of contradictions between an idealistic and romantic narrator, and her eponymous antagonist, a man of science, study and silence, at least where love is concerned.
Seeking answers in the relationships of revolutionaries like Eleanor Marx, Rosa Luxemburg and Emma Goldman, and attempting to extract dating advice from Marx’s Capital, poet Deborah Finding invites the reader to consider if, when, and how love can be truly radical.
The personal is always political in Finding’s work, and accordingly, the socialist bros who don’t share the domestic and emotional labour at home are subject to just as much of a skewering here as the tired Hollywood tropes of romance. Does Marxist Valentine really hate the Brontës? Or does he just not want to talk about his feelings? Is joy really an indefensible proposition in tough political times? Or can we plan the uprising and have fun at the same time? My Marxist Valentine calls on a wide cast of characters, where Jane Austen goes up against Karl Marx to provide some critiques of leftwing hypocrisy, and a communist Mr Darcy finds himself referencing Judith Butler and Taylor Swift in the same sentence on his search for the ideal anti-capitalist comrade to join him in the good fight.
‘Urgent and playful, My Marxist Valentine restores ‘love’ from the mingily privatised sphere of capitalism and patriarchy, and radicalism from the duties of joyless, grinding anger. With warmth, wit and formal exuberance, Finding gives us an erotics of solidarity: a comradeship that places jouissance, joy and laughter at the centre of shared struggle.’
FRAN LOCK
‘Inventive and tremendously enjoyable, My Marxist Valentine manages to make the incongruities of love and politics sing off the page thanks to Finding’s innate understanding of pace and form, comedy as defence and pathos. A compulsively readable, funny and smart collection.’
LUKE KENNARD
Tash Walker will be reading from their co-authored book (with Adam Zmith), just out with Faber, The Log Books, which is an intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades, discovered in a stash of forgotten, handwritten notes.
In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them out of home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.
These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools ‘promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from – and sometimes speak to – those on both sides of the calls.
Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.
‘A fantastic journey through an overlooked archive bursting with humanity and real life on every page.’ DAN SNOW
‘Among the most vivid social histories I’ve read about contemporary queer life in Britain.’ OISÍN MCKENNA, author of Evenings and Weekends
‘In opening the Switchboard archive, and all the vulnerability and thrill contained within its pages, this book manages to capture something of the essence of what it means to be alive.’ AMELIA ABRAHAM, author of Queer Intentions
Dr Deborah Finding is a queer feminist writer with a background in academia and activism. Her previous poetry pamphlets are Vigils for Dead and Dying Girls (Nine Pens, 2023) and Amortisation (Live Canon, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Magma, Propel, fourteen poems, The Little Review, berlin lit, and she has also written for DIVA magazine, The Guardian and the Huffington Post. She won the Write By The Sea International Poetry Prize, the Indigo Dreams Spring Poetry Prize and the Live Canon pamphlet prize, and has been placed, commended or shortlisted in many other competitions.
Tash Walker is a writer, award-winning podcast producer and community organiser who has worked with institutions such as the Barbican, the BBC and Queer Britain. They were on the board of Switchboard for 8 years.
Independent Venue Week 2026
26th January 2026 – 1st February 2026Huge thanks to the brilliant David John Morris and Marina Yozoro, who played Independent Venue Week for us this year. Two wonderful gigs – and names to check out if you don’t know them already!
And still a day to go of IVW 2026. Check out bands at venues across the country here: https://independentvenueweek.com/uk/
Marina Yozora SOLD OUT
30th January 2026SOLD OUT! NO TICKETS ON DOOR
Doors 19.30.
Performance 20.15
Curfew 22.00
The Soho Poly are delighted to welcome Marina Yozora for Independent Venue Week 2026. Marina is a dream pop–shoegaze singer-songwriter known for her seraphic, cascading vocals and dreamily reverbed guitar work. Born in Japan, she grew up internationally—living in the United States from ages 1 to 7, Vietnam from 15 to 18, and spending the rest of her life in Japan—before settling in London, UK.
She has released “Watermelon Pink Blue Skies,” “Daffodils,” and “Touché.” Her music has been featured on KEXP’s Pacific Notions and praised by notable dream pop/shoegaze outlets such as Shoegaze Blog and White Light White Heat, with reviewers noting her “great potential to create a very unique musical identity.”
Marina has recently toured in Rome, Lisbon, and performed at the UK’s biggest Japanese festival, HYPER JAPAN FESTIVAL in Manchester, while continuing to perform regularly across London.
Come find Marina Yozora on Instagram: @marinayozora
RED RIVER DIALECT (SOLO)
27th January 202619.00-21.30
We are delighted to welcome David John Morris to The Soho Poly for a solo Red River Dialect Show – our first show of IVW 2026. Basic Country Mustard, the recently released sixth Red River Dialect album, picks up where 2019’s Abundance Welcoming Ghosts left off; lyric-focussed folk-rock which is neither transatlantic nor straining for trad-British authenticity. The same lineup returns for Basic Country Mustard, which became an idea for an album title in 2020; a recipe was found, a joke about making a mustard themed English country album was made. The band formed in 2008 in Cornwall around Cornish songwriter David John Morris, but following a decade or more living in London (with other members scattered further) the Celtic claims have hollowed out some; just another Basic Country boy singing in the big smoke.
This solo show will showcase tracks off Basic Country Mustard as well as diving deeper into David’s impressive back catalogue. Praise for the album includes;
“The songs are, as always, beautifully realized… his most successful songs focus not on nature’s myriad wonders, but on what makes us human.” Album of the Day, Bandcamp “Folk Rock alchemy… this is music to soften a rigid heart” 9/10 Uncut “First LP in six years from the undervalued Cornish folk-rockers… conjures a sense of a Rolling Thunder Review raised on sea shanties” 4/5 Mojo
Go To in 2026
16th December 2025 – 10th January 2026Thanks to everyone who helped to make our Go To / Soho Poly year so special!
Wishing everyone a rejuvenating festive season
And here’s to 2026!
World Postcard Day
1st October 2025 – 19th December 2025Soho Poly
c/o Guy Osborn / Matt Morrison
4-12 Little Titchfield Street
London W1W 7BY
(note, postal address is different from our venue address, 16 Riding House Street!)
Derek Bailey Ghost Gig
18th December 202513.00-14.00
On 16 December 1985, forty years ago this week Derek Bailey played the Soho Poly. In a week his genius is celebrated in a sell out series of events at Cafe Oto we add our own tribute, playing a recording of Derek playing the Soho Poly, on the anniversary of the date he played in the space, but at lunchtime to disrupt your day with culture.
Its Christmas, mince pies and light refreshments will be served. No booking required.
A Curious Dream
12th December 2025Join us on 12 December when we’re delighted to host a very special People’s Pantomime produced by our friends at the Fitzrovia Centre. All details coming soon!
Badge Cafe
11th December 202512.00-2.00pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by today’s Badge Cafe for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Creative Drop-Ins this Autumn
30th September 2025 – 9th December 2025On Tuesday lunchtimes throughout the Autumn, starting 30 September, drop in to our GO TO creative space, 12-2pm. Come and Write, Make, Play or Read in any way that works for you.
Each week, you can come and listen to some vinyl on our record player, sit and read or write, make things, or just chat about ideas with our artistic directors and other friends. Keep an eye out for extra activities and special guests too.
No need to book. Just turn up between 12 and 2, tea and coffee on us!
Soho Poly Poetry
4th December 20257pm-9pm (doors 6.30pm)
Join us at the Soho Poly for an electrifying night of poetry. In the third event of the 25/26 series, we’re excited to welcome Caroline Bird, Will Harris and Joelle Taylor.
Caroline Bird is an English poet and playwright, born in 1986 and raised in Leeds. She has had eight volumes of poetry published by Carcanet: Looking Through Letterboxes (2002); Trouble Came to the Turnip (2006); Watering Can (2009); The Hat-Stand Union (2013); In These Days of Prohibition (2017), which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award, The Air Year (2020), which won the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2020 and was shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the Polari Prize, her Selected Poems ‘Rookie,’ (2022,) and ‘Ambush at Still Lake’ (2024.) She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2023, for sustained excellence across a body of work. She was named one of the five official poets at the London Olympics 2012. Caroline was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. Her plays include: The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse (Nottingham Playhouse, 2025); Red Ellen (Northern Stage, Nottingham Playhouse & Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, 2022); The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Northern Stage, 2015); Chamber Piece (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, as part of the Secret Theatre season, 2013); and The Trojan Women (Gate Theatre, 2012).
Will Harris is the author of RENDANG (2020) and Brother Poem (2023), both published by Granta in the UK and Wesleyan in the US. He has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Siblings (a conversation with Jay Bernard, Mary Jean Chan, and Nisha Rammaya) was published by Monitor Books in 2024. He is currently writing about the care sector.
Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry and one novel. Her last collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted both for theatre, and into a television screenplay, and was featured on Radio Three documentary Butch. She is a co- curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is a Poetry Fellow of the University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023 and has judged several poetry and literary prizes including the Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel The Night Alphabet was published in Spring of 2024 and was named both a Spectator and Guardian Book of the Year. Her most recent radio programme A Young Girl’s Guide to Horror was broadcast at the end of last year on BBC Radio Four. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. She was recently honoured with a DIVA Award for Excellence and named as number 15 in the Independent’s 2024 Pride Power list. Her latest collection Maryville, published by Bloomsbury, has just been published.
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.
Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Please note that free student and lower income tickets are available and we aim to make each night affordable and accessible to all. Please contact Hannah Copley on social media or on h.copley@westminster.ac.uk to join the guestlist.
About the series
Soho Poly Poetry is a monthly event series held in the heart of London. Now in its second year, and drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. Curated and hosted by Hannah Copley.
About the Soho Poly
Recently restored after lying vacant for over 30 years, the Soho Poly is an inclusive community hub for creativity, culture and wellbeing. It offers community engagement and diverse programming and provides a contemporary performance and education venue for the London arts community. Creative directors: Matt Morrison and Guy Osborn.
Soho Poly Poetry is supported and made possible by Peter Bonfield, Vice Chancellor of the University of Westminster.
Badge Cafe
4th December 20254.00-6.00pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by today’s Badge Cafe for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
And why not make a night of it by staying for our Soho Poly Poetry Night… https://sohopoly.co.uk/events/soho-poly-poetry-4/
Badge Cafe
27th November 202512.00-2.00pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Tiny (Ultrasound)
26th November 202512.00-13.00 (exact time tbc)
Tiny Wood, lead singer of critically acclaimed cult band Ultrasound, appears live at the Soho Poly. This is Tiny’s second appearance with us – his 2024 show was an absolute joy and we are delighted to welcome him back. A VERY LIMITED number of tickets are available, by invite only and subject to availability, contact G.Osborn@westminster.ac.uk
Home Again?
24th November 2025Mondays 12.00-14.00
For these sessions at the Soho Poly Professor Catherine Loveday invites members of the public to drop in to explore memories related to place and home. You will have an opportunity to try out new techniques that help you collect and curate important lifetime memories. This takes place in our friendly and fabulous GO TO room over tea coffee and biscuits, drop in and stay as long as you wish.
About Catherine
Catherine Loveday is a neuropsychologist at the University of Westminster. She has a passion for public engagement with science and is regularly invited to give public lectures at festivals, community events and in schools. Catherine is author of “The Secret World of the Brain” and frequently appears as an expert psychologist on BBC Radio 4’s All In The Mind, as well as many other radio and television programmes. She is the host of the podcast Mempathy.
Please note that, while it isn’t necessary to book, doing so does help us to keep an eye on numbers – link below.
Zine Making Workshops
20th November 2025Thursdays 10am – 1pm
Zines have the power to tell a fun story about the world we live in, focusing on the very tiny or the huge things that shape our lives. They can range from a zine about your knee after surgery, south Asian identity in the modern world, or a Meal Deal. Soho Poly are inviting this energy in and are putting on three weeks of zine workshops exploring the idea of ‘Place’. We’ll be exploring everything from our front door to our street as we cut, stick, draw, write, or fold. Zines encourage us to focus on the magic and marvel of the things we see around us, come join in!
Week One, 6 November: Home
What does the place that you live in feel like? What do you love? What do you not? This session will give us a chance to think about the place you live. Maybe its about the colour of a wall in temporary accommodation, the sounds in halls, our bodies stretching out on a bed.
Week Two, 13 November: Object
What object feels like home to you? This session will encourage you to make a zine that represents home to you. Maybe it’s a soft toy, or a tissue box, or a blanket. What does it look, feel and sound like? What does it represent?
Week Three, 20 November: Place
What does the area you spend time in say about itself? How does this chime with what you would say? This session will encourage you to make a zine around a place and geography that represents home to you. Maybe it’s a street, a country, or even a neighbour.
The sessions will be led by journalist, author and zine maker Kieran Yates.
Home again?
17th November 2025Mondays 12.00-14.00
For these sessions at the Soho Poly Professor Catherine Loveday invites members of the public to drop in to explore memories related to place and home. You will have an opportunity to try out new techniques that help you collect and curate important lifetime memories. This takes place in our friendly and fabulous GO TO room over tea coffee and biscuits, drop in and stay as long as you wish.
About Catherine
Catherine Loveday is a neuropsychologist at the University of Westminster. She has a passion for public engagement with science and is regularly invited to give public lectures at festivals, community events and in schools. Catherine is author of “The Secret World of the Brain” and frequently appears as an expert psychologist on BBC Radio 4’s All In The Mind, as well as many other radio and television programmes. She is the host of the podcast Mempathy.
Please note that, while it isn’t necessary to book, doing so does help us to keep an eye on numbers – link below.
Soho Poly Poetry
14th November 20257.00-9.30pm
Join us at the Soho Poly for an electrifying night of poetry. In the second event of the 25/26 series, we’re excited to welcome Leo Boix, Sarah Howe, Karenjit Sandhu and Richard Scott. It’s going to be very special.
LEO BOIX is a bilingual Latinx poet from Argentina, now living in the UK. His second collection, Southernmost: Sonnets (Chatto & Windus), is shortlisted for the 2025 Forward Prizes. His debut, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant (2021), was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice and was named a top five poetry book by The Guardian. Boix also edited and translated Hemisferio Cuir (2025), a collection of works by young queer Latin American poets. He is a Complete Works fellow and co-directs Un Nuevo Sol, while also serving on the boards of the Poetry Translation Centre and Magma. He writes for The Morning Star and has received several awards, including the Keats-Shelley, the Bart Wolfe Poetry Prize, and PEN prizes.
SARAH HOWE is a Hong Kong-born British poet and editor. Her first collection of poems, Loop of Jade (2015), won the T.S. Eliot Prize and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Her second collection, Foretokens (2025), is a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
KARENJIT SANDHU’s publications include gestalt and young girls! (the87press), Poetic Fragments from the Irritating Archive (Guillemot Press), and Baby 19 (intergraphia books). She is a Lecturer in Art at the Reading School of Art, and a member of the British Art Network.
RICHARD SCOTT is the author of Soho (Faber & Faber, 2018) and most recently That Broke into Shining Crystals (Faber & Faber, 2025). He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.
Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Please note that free student and lower income tickets are available and we aim to make each night affordable and accessible to all. Please contact Hannah Copley on social media or on h.copley@westminster.ac.uk to join the guestlist.
About the series
Soho Poly Poetry is a monthly event series held in the heart of London. Now in its second year, and drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. Curated by Hannah Copley.
Zine Making Workshops
13th November 2025Thursdays 10am – 1pm
Zines have the power to tell a fun story about the world we live in, focusing on the very tiny or the huge things that shape our lives. They can range from a zine about your knee after surgery, south Asian identity in the modern world, or a Meal Deal. Soho Poly are inviting this energy in and are putting on three weeks of zine workshops exploring the idea of ‘Place’. We’ll be exploring everything from our front door to our street as we cut, stick, draw, write, or fold. Zines encourage us to focus on the magic and marvel of the things we see around us, come join in!
Week One, 6 November: Home
What does the place that you live in feel like? What do you love? What do you not? This session will give us a chance to think about the place you live. Maybe its about the colour of a wall in temporary accommodation, the sounds in halls, our bodies stretching out on a bed.
Week Two, 13 November: Object
What object feels like home to you? This session will encourage you to make a zine that represents home to you. Maybe it’s a soft toy, or a tissue box, or a blanket. What does it look, feel and sound like? What does it represent?
Week Three, 20 November: Place
What does the area you spend time in say about itself? How does this chime with what you would say? This session will encourage you to make a zine around a place and geography that represents home to you. Maybe it’s a street, a country, or even a neighbour.
The sessions will be led by journalist, author and zine maker Kieran Yates.
Zine Making Workshops
6th November 2025Thursdays 10am – 1pm
Zines have the power to tell a fun story about the world we live in, focusing on the very tiny or the huge things that shape our lives. They can range from a zine about your knee after surgery, south Asian identity in the modern world, or a Meal Deal. Soho Poly are inviting this energy in and are putting on three weeks of zine workshops exploring the idea of ‘Place’. We’ll be exploring everything from our front door to our street as we cut, stick, draw, write, or fold. Zines encourage us to focus on the magic and marvel of the things we see around us, come join in!
Week One, 6 November: Home
What does the place that you live in feel like? What do you love? What do you not? This session will give us a chance to think about the place you live. Maybe its about the colour of a wall in temporary accommodation, the sounds in halls, our bodies stretching out on a bed.
Week Two, 13 November: Object
What object feels like home to you? This session will encourage you to make a zine that represents home to you. Maybe it’s a soft toy, or a tissue box, or a blanket. What does it look, feel and sound like? What does it represent?
Week Three, 20 November: Place
What does the area you spend time in say about itself? How does this chime with what you would say? This session will encourage you to make a zine around a place and geography that represents home to you. Maybe it’s a street, a country, or even a neighbour.
The sessions will be led by journalist, author and zine maker Kieran Yates.
GRIMMS Ghost Gig
14th October 202512-1pm
On this day in 1974, the late Brian Patten, poet and author, performed at the Polytechnic of Central London. A year previously his album GRIMMS – co-written with, amongst others, Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Neil Innes – had also been part recorded at PCL.
To commemorate Patten’s passing in September this year, we’re hosting a surprise ‘Ghost Gig’ as part of our Tuesday Creative Drop-ins at our GO TO / Soho Poly space.
Join us to listen to GRIMMS on vinyl – a lyrical and irreverent musical treat – and feel free to get creative while you’re at it!
Soho Poly Poetry
9th October 2025We’re back! In the first of our 25/26 series of poetry events at the Soho Poly, join us for an electrifying evening of readings and performances from award-winning poets Luke Kennard, Isabelle Baafi and Eric Yip.
Luke Kennard is a poet and writer of fiction who was born in Kingston Upon Thames in 1981. He won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2005 and his first collection of prose poems The Solex Brothers was published later that year. He has published several poetry collections, including The Harbour Beyond the Movie (shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection); A Lost Expression; Cain (shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize); and Notes on the Sonnets (winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection); and The Book of Jonah (Pan MacMillan, 2025). He is also the author of two novels: The Transition (longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize), and The Answer to Everything. He is also a professor at the University of Birmingham.
Isabelle Baafi is the author of Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber / Wesleyan University Press, 2025), which was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection 2025 and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her pamphlet Ripe (ignitionpress, 2020) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. She won First Prize in the Winchester Poetry Prize 2023 and Second Prize in the London Magazine Poetry Prize 2022. She edits at Poetry London and Magma.
Eric Yip is from Hong Kong and the author of Exposure (ignitionpress, 2024). He has won the National Poetry Competition and an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors.
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.
Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Please note that free student and lower income tickets are available and we aim to make each night affordable and accessible to all. Please contact Hannah Copley on social media or on h.copley@westminster.ac.uk to join the guestlist.
About the series
Soho Poly Poetry is a monthly event series held in the heart of London. Now in its second year, and drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. Curated by Hannah Copley.
About the Soho Poly
Recently restored after lying vacant for over 30 years, the Soho Poly is an inclusive community hub for creativity, culture and wellbeing. It offers community engagement and diverse programming and provides a contemporary performance and education venue for the London arts community. Creative directors: Matt Morrison and Guy Osborn.
Soho Poly Poetry is supported and made possible by Peter Bonfield, Vice Chancellor of the University of Westminster.
Getting there
TUBE
Oxford Circus
TRAIN
Victoria
ADDITIONAL TRAVEL INFO
Riding House Street is just off Regent Street – and not far from Oxford Street, and Oxford Circus tube station. Bus routes: 3,12,88,453,C2
Access and Facilities
Accessible toilet
Toilets
Drinking water
Family-friendly event
Handrails on stairs
Seating available
Step-free routes
Wheelchair access with a platform lift to the basement
Handrails on the stairs.
Accessible toilets and quiet areas provided.
Don’t miss out on this exciting event!
Creative Drop-In
7th October 202512.00-2.00pm
On 7 October 1977 the band Meal Ticket played at the Poly. Sadly Rick Jones died in 2021 but not before we spoke to him about an unreleased track that he and the band recorded for Gilly Fraser’s play ‘Do a Dance for Daddy’, orginally directed by Verity Bargate. Today, as part of this week’s creative drop-in we will play this unreleased Meal Ticket track for the first time and explain its significance. All as part of another creative drop-in at our GO TO space. No need to book. Tea and Coffee provided.
*On Tuesday lunchtimes throughout the Autumn, drop in to our GO TO creative space, 12-2pm. Come and Write, Make, Play or Read in any way that works for you.
Each week, you can come and listen to some vinyl on our record player, sit and read or write, make things, or just chat about ideas with our artistic directors and other friends. Keep an eye out for extra activities and special guests too.
Creative Drop-in
30th September 2025On Tuesday lunchtimes throughout the Autumn, starting 30 September, drop in to our GO TO creative space, 12-2pm. Come and Write, Make, Play or Read in any way that works for you.
Each week, you can come and listen to some vinyl on our record player, sit and read or write, make things, or just chat about ideas with our artistic directors and other friends. Keep an eye out for extra activities and special guests too.
No need to book. Just turn up between 12 and 2, tea and coffee on us!
Summer Exhibition at the Go To
9th June 2025 – 12th July 2025Following the success of the 2024 exhibition at our upstairs Go To space, we’ll be hosting another one for Summer 2025!
Launching in early June, and running for a month, it will be a celebration of disruptive creative activity, with pop-up arts workshops, badge making, music and poetry – everything that makes this such a special venue!
Full details coming soon!
Summer Music Festival
12th July 2025Year three of our summer music all dayer! Confirmed line up below. Tickets on sale now!
RESPAIR – 8PM
https://respair.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFSW8YCmtjk
Respair is a London-based jazz-electronic quartet, palpably hypnotic and cinematic. Jazz sensibilities, classical training, emotive vocals and an eclectic, soulful palette. Arresting, poignant stories and serene melodies that both envelop and free you, sending you off towards an odyssey-like horizon, healing you like some mystical revelation. A return to hope, true to the name.
GABRIEL MORENO – 7PM
www.gabrielmoreno.co.uk
https://youtu.be/eeMqA8mkZXk?si=ypTfjW9iZ1IAW7aC
Gabriel Moreno is Gibraltarian singer-songwriter, currently based in London. An irresistibly engaging performer, he combines a latin exuberance and passion with a rare lyrical calibre (he is also a published poet, with 12 books in Spanish and English). He creates a live experience that has been described as ”Taberna Folk” – at once both energetic and intimate, anarchic and absorbing.
“Moreno has indeed given us an album of the times.” (Mike Davis, Folk Radio UK) “An Offshoot of Leonard Cohen and Neil Diamond. I love it!” (Cerys Mathews, BBC6) “What sets Gabriel Moreno apart from his contemporaries, however, is his ever-intriguing usage of the English language to address socio-political issues.” (Loz Etheridge, God Is In The TV)
BENNETT VALUKS – 6PM
www.bennettvaluks.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq4LI-6dFH0
Ian Bennett and Benedict Valuks started making music together in late 2018, brought together through the bustling and vibrant south London music scene and their love of alt-folk, finger-style guitar and vocal harmonies. In 2024 Jack Neale joined the band on bass, expanding the sound and energy of the songs. Their debut album ‘Made in London’ is set for release on the 5th July, 2025.
SILHOUETTES – 5PM
https://youtu.be/bTpC5e4sj1g?si=IoU3J8eDQuFL9Nei
https://youtu.be/Q_aHXsnZNvM?si=2NulXfqae0YB5sl6
Silhouettes blends alt-folk and retro-soul with bittersweet harmonies. Their sound, while sweet, explores love, life, and loss.
HOUSE ABOVE THE SUN – 4PM
www.houseabovethesun.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjJ1gG-LG2o
House Above The Sun (HATS) are a five piece group from London, England, drawing from the wells of Americana, Indie Rock, and Blues. From bittersweet balladry to intricate guitar based epics, their melodic and lyrical songs are distinguished throughout by rich vocal harmonies and dynamic, stripped down arrangements.
‘Cracking EP from London band with a bright future. 8/10 ‘-Americana UK
‘Powerful folk-hewn storytelling’ – Clash Magazine
‘House Above The Sun deal in beautifully constructed, tightly wound guitar-based epics that unfurl like the best of late 70s Television and Patti Smith, with a folk and Americana twist. Smart lyrics complete the picture’-New Roots
‘This EP should definitely whet the appetite until a new album is released, and on this form, that album could be an instant classic’ – FATEA
DARIUSH KANANI – 3PM
www.instagram.com/dariushkananimusic
https://youtu.be/zoLSG4cqqC4?si=GLIkKDYEtOTiv_c3
Dariush Kanani has studied guitar with fingerpicking guitar legends Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn and supported Grossman by his request on his sell out tour of the UK last year. He has also played frequently alongside British guitar giant Wizz Jones and recently appeared at a special tribute concert for the late John Renbourn at Cecil Sharp House in London alongside Jacqui McShee, Ralph McTell, Bernard Butler, Graham Coxon and more. A consummate musician, his songs skillfully combine pop, folk, soul and jazz to make for a style that is truly his own.
Outside Voice
1st July 2025 – 5th July 2025Today’s performances cancelled due to unforeseen circumstance
Helen’s got the biggest break of her career – the chance to lead a government health committee. But her husband’s science podcast is pushing back against the mainstream. How can anyone know which side to trust? And who stands to get caught in the crossfire?
QHT Live Performance Project present
OUTSIDE VOICEA new play by Matt Morrison
Directed by Hanna Berrigan
14+
Approx. run time 90 minutes
with Dan Starkey Viss Elliot Safavi Phil Cheadle Elle O’Donnell
Set Design – Nicky Bunch Lighting Design – Louise Anderson Sound Design – Ed Lewis Stage Manager – Rose Hockady Producer & General Manager – Alex Deacon Producer – QHT Live Performance Project
Summer Badge Cafes
12th June 2025 – 26th June 202512pm – 2pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Summer Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. Hosted by Ben Walters. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Part of our Summer Exhibition – also free to visit onsite while you craft!
Transformations
17th June 2025Transformations
A creative path is never a straight road, but a journey of flux, unexpected obstacles, enchanted encounters and transformation.In this very special double event for the Soho Poly Summer Festival, musician and author Emma-Lee Moss (Emmy The Great, lei,e) and poet Deborah Finding explore creativity in action, in the form of an afternoon workshop and an evening conversation and performance.
Transformations I – Afternoon Workshop, 3-5pm
In this multi-sensory workshop, participants will be invited to consider their own creative power as we approach midsummer, and flowers bloom into their potential. Together, we will share writing exercises, floral craft activities, and conversation about fairy and folk tales from childhood, as we think about the creative projects we want to transform. We will then bring our snippets of recollection, wishes and incantations together to create a group composition, which may be a song, a poem, or something in between boundaries and definitions, like the magical beings in the old tales. No writing or musical experience necessary!
Transformations II – Evening Conversation and Performance, 7-9pm
Where do we find the breadcrumbs that will lead us out of the woods – those places that scare or unsettle us – and towards something we might recognise as home? Join musician and author Emma-Lee Moss (Emmy The Great, lei,e) and poet Deborah Finding as they embark on a winding journey through their creative worlds, asking curious questions of each other and themselves, and exploring the inherited stories, fairytales and myths that have been their companions or familiars. Expect a unique evening exploring the soft places between prose, poetry and song, as Emma-Lee and Deborah share a broad range of both old and brand new work, celebrating the transformations past and welcoming those yet to come.
PLEASE NOTE: You must buy separate tickets for the afternoon and evening events.
Polyphonic Music Mondays
2nd June 2025 – 16th June 202512.00-1.30pm
28 April
12 May
19 May
2 June
9 June
16 June
Free music workshops, hosted by musician Ian Bennett. Weekly activities include lyric writing, singing, playing instruments, discussing musical memories and watching live performance.
Easter R&D at the Soho Poly
30th April 2025Easter at the Soho Poly
As Easter approaches, we’re dialing down our public programming a little to give some space to companies who we’ve invited to rehearse and develop work at the venue. But we’re also busy preparing our summer programme, and in particular our Summer Festival, which will be our best and busiest ever! Sign up on the website for updates: https://sohopoly.co.uk/join-support/
Song In Your Pocket
1st April 2025Hope Springs… Flowers, Poetry and Song for a new season
Has your creativity and hope been in hibernation over winter?
Invite spring in with a multi-sensory workshop on flowers, poetry and song. Immerse yourself in the colour, scent, history and symbolism of your favourite blooms, while celebrating the season of rebirth with green shoots of new ideas ready to burst into flower.
In this two-hour workshop, we will guide you through exercises of contemplation, writing and floral collage to abandon cynicism and the constraints of genre, and embrace spring – and all it stands for – wholeheartedly.
You will take home your own crafted creation, to remind you of your creative commitments to yourself after the workshop. And, just as we graft apple trees to pear, we will also come together to write a group composition to pool our ideas and dreams for the future, creating a hybrid poem/song together which reflects the wild possibilities of believing in a better world.
Badge Cafe
12th March 202512.00-1.30pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. Hosted by Ben Walters. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
David Dondero in conversation and performance
11th March 202512.30-2.00pm
Acclaimed singer songwriter David Dondero in conversation with Tim Holehouse, punctuated with acoustic musical interludes
About David:
David Dondero, an American troubadour, was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1969. His love of music began with folk rock and country of the early 70’s and evolved to include punk rock and hip hop of the 80’s. He spent his formative years in suburban Chicago and northern New Jersey listening to pirate radio and heavy metal. As a young man, music molded Dondero’s life.
Dondero began writing songs in the late 80’s while at Clemson University. Initially a drummer and lyricist, he formed Sunbrain in 1991. A post-punk indie rock quartet heavily influenced by Donovan and Fugazi. Sunbrain was signed by Grass Records and they recorded 3 albums. When the group disbanded he went on to play drums for the folk punk band, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. After 2 years he left the band in 1998 and began his solo career. He’s been touring ever since and his music has taken him around the world multiple times.
His style and ongoing narratives are hard to fit into a particular genre. He manages to tackle difficult subject matter with a wry sense of humor. The music is inspired by heartbreak, hopefulness, everyday work, and his never-ending state of flux. Dondero’s lyrics are influenced by the angst of Black Flag, the wanderlust of Bruce Springsteen, the sentimentality of Paul Simon, and the politics of Woody Guthrie.
He’s shared bills and tours with Pedro the Lion, The Mountain Goats, Darren Hanlon, Daniel Johnston, and Against Me! In 2006, Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton of NPR put David on their list of the top ten greatest living songwriters. Aside from multiple years at South by Southwest, he was invited by Mudhoney as a featured artist at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Rye, England. God Speed You Black Emperor brought him to The Sled Island Festival in Calgary and he’s played at the Bellow Winter Music Festival in Australia under the recommendation of Australian songwriter Darren Hanlon.
POETRY NIGHT
7th March 2025
Diving Bell Prize for Environmental and Nature Poetry
26th February 20256-7.30pm (doors 5.45)
The inaugural Diving Bell Prize for Environmental and Nature Poetry is a new award set up within the University of Westminster to celebrate new writing and foster conversations around climate change, environmental issues and our relationship with the world around us. Join us at the Prize reading on Wednesday 26th February, at 6pm at the Soho Poly to hear work from the shortlisted poets, as well as a short reading from poet and prize founder Hannah Copley (a winner of the 2024 International Laurel Prize), discussion about environmental writing (and the judging process) from fellow judge Dr Lucy Bond, and to learn the winning poems of the inaugural prize.
We Were Here, We Are Here: A Love Song to Black Queer Lives, Performance, Art + Ancestry
20th February 20256-8pm A very special performance event to celebrate Kobi Ayensuo’s two week artist residency at the Soho Poly, in collaboration with the University of Westminster’s Black History Year and QHT-EDI Programme, and for the Third Annual Queering Academia Conference.
Jimmie Daniels was an internationally renowned cabaret singer and an active part of New York’s nightclub scene during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Famous for his interpretations of jazz classics and other musical numbers, Daniels was notable for the open way in which he lived his queer desires. Daniels’ archives are housed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC and, for LGBTQ+ History month, Black History Year, the Soho Poly, and Kobi Essah Ayensuo will be working together to explore Daniels’ archive and to foster a creative response to his legacy. In late-January, performer, poet and musician Kobi Essah Ayensuo will visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture to study Daniel’s archive. Then, from February 10th, they will undertake a two-week residency at the Soho Poly on behalf of Black History Year, culminating in a performance of ‘We Were Here, We Are Here’: A Love Song to Black Queer Lives, Performance, Art + Ancestry
Kobi Essah Ayensuo is a poet, musician, playwright, mover and creative of many hats based in London. Their work often explores their black queer, trans identity and coming of age, black queer ancestry, their Ghanaian heritage; navigating relationships and reimagining/decolonising the lens with which black history, black present and black future is told. Musically, their sound can be described as soulful, alternative and harmonic. Kobi’s work is also a reminder that growing into our skin happens when we listen in to our spirit and look to the ones who came before us. Their work often is soundtracked with vocals, harmonic soundscapes and music – which interweaves with several art forms such as poetry and theatre.
Kobi Essah Ayensuo has been published with Ink Sweat and Tears, South London Gallery, Flipped Eye and Marques Almeida for London Fashion Week 2020. They have performed their work at several venues and festivals across the UK such as Brainchild festival, Wilderness Festival, Mighty Hoopla Festival, the Roundhouse, the Barbican, Disturbance at Ugly Duck and the Southbank Centre.
They are also are a BBC Words First finalist and an alumnus of Barbican Young Poets, The Writing room, the Roundhouse Resident Artist programme, Soho Writers Lab 23/24 and the Obsidian Foundation. Most recently they debuted their Live Art performance ‘In Honour of My Body Spirit and Of Worlds to Come’ which received a standing ovation at Disturbance, at Ugly Duck. At present, they are working on their debut EP.
Black Queer archives: Unearthing Jimmie Daniels, Art, Life and Performance
11th February 20256-8pm
Talk: Kobi Ayensuo on Black Queer archives: Unearthing Jimmie Daniel’s, Art, Life and Performance.
The Soho Poly is thrilled to announce this event, the first of two public celebrations of Kobi Ayensuo’s Soho Poly artist residency, in collaboration with the University of Westminster’s Black History Year and QHT-EDI Programme, and for the Third Annual Queering Academia Conference.
Jimmie Daniels was an internationally renowned cabaret singer and an active part of New York’s nightclub scene during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Famous for his interpretations of jazz classics and other musical numbers, Daniels was notable for the open way in which he lived his queer desires.
Daniels’ archives are housed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC and, for LGBTQ+ History month, Black History Year, the Soho Poly, and Kobi Essah Ayensuo will be working together to explore Daniels’ archive and to foster a creative response to his legacy.
In late-January, performer, poet and musician Kobi Essah Ayensuo will visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture to study Daniel’s archive. Then, from February 10th, they will undertake a two-week residency at the Soho Poly on behalf of Black History Year.
Kobi Essah Ayensuo is a poet, musician, playwright, mover and creative of many hats based in London. Their work often explores their black queer, trans identity and coming of age, black queer ancestry, their Ghanaian heritage; navigating relationships and reimagining/decolonising the lens with which black history, black present and black future is told. Musically, their sound can be described as soulful, alternative and harmonic. Kobi’s work is also a reminder that growing into our skin happens when we listen in to our spirit and look to the ones who came before us. Their work often is soundtracked with vocals, harmonic soundscapes and music – which interweaves with several art forms such as poetry and theatre.
Kobi Essah Ayensuo has been published with Ink Sweat and Tears, South London Gallery, Flipped Eye and Marques Almeida for London Fashion Week 2020. They have performed their work at several venues and festivals across the UK such as Brainchild festival, Wilderness Festival, Mighty Hoopla Festival, the Roundhouse, the Barbican, Disturbance at Ugly Duck and the Southbank Centre.
They are also are a BBC Words First finalist and an alumnus of Barbican Young Poets, The Writing room, the Roundhouse Resident Artist programme, Soho Writers Lab 23/24 and the Obsidian Foundation. Most recently they debuted their Live Art performance ‘In Honour of My Body Spirit and Of Worlds to Come’ which received a standing ovation at Disturbance, at Ugly Duck. At present, they are working on their debut EP.
Soho Poly Poetry
6th February 2025Doors open 6.30pm, 7pm start
In the first of our 2025 series of poetry events at the Soho Poly, join us for an electrifying evening of readings and performances from acclaimed poets Anthony Anaxagorou, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Anita Pati and Rushika Wick.
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night.
Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Free student and lower income tickets are available. Please contact Hannah Copley h.copley@westminster.ac.uk.
About the series
Soho Poly Poetry is a new monthly event series held in the heart of London. Drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers.
Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand, Matinee SOLD OUT
1st February 2025Soho Poly is delighted to present Withered Hand and Kathryn Williams as part of Independent Venue Week 2025.
Dan Willson is Scotland’s acclaimed singer songwriter Withered Hand. He has released three albums and a number of EPs over the last 15 years and has toured internationally, amassing a devoted following while staying close to his DIY roots in the underground music scene. Kathryn Williams is a Mercury Music prize nominated English singer songwriter who has released 16 albums. She had collaborated with poet Dame Carol Ann Duffy, author Laura Barnett and written songs with Paul Weller, Neill Maccoll and Michele and Romeo Stodart, to name just a few. She has written a novel The Ormering Tide, hosts her own podcast Before the Light Goes Out and tutors at the Arvon and Moniack Mhor Foundations.
THIS IS A STANDING SHOW
Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand. Evening Show
1st February 20257.30-10.00pm
Soho Poly is delighted to present Withered Hand and Kathryn Williams as part of Independent Venue Week 2025.
Dan Willson is Scotland’s acclaimed singer songwriter Withered Hand. He has released three albums and a number of EPs over the last 15 years and has toured internationally, amassing a devoted following while staying close to his DIY roots in the underground music scene. Kathryn Williams is a Mercury Music prize nominated English singer songwriter who has released 16 albums. She had collaborated with poet Dame Carol Ann Duffy, author Laura Barnett and written songs with Paul Weller, Neill Maccoll and Michele and Romeo Stodart, to name just a few. She has written a novel The Ormering Tide, hosts her own podcast Before the Light Goes Out and tutors at the Arvon and Moniack Mhor Foundations.
THIS IS A STANDING SHOW
Barbican Estate: SOLD OUT
27th January 20257.00-10.00pm
As part of Independent Venue Week, The Soho Poly are delighted to welcome Barbican Estate.
Barbican Estate formed in Tokyo in 2019 and consists of Kazuki Toneri (Gt, Sitar), Miri (Ba, Vo), and Koh Hamada (Dr, Percussion). They’ve consistently played shows in the Tokyo underground scene along with releasing an EP and 3 singles in 2020. They released their 1st album Way Down East in winter 2021. Barbican Estate uses drones, psychedelic soundscapes, driving rhythms, and vivid lyricism to create their massive sound. The band’s influences include Japanese psychedelic/noise rock, US experimental bands, classic film, as well as literary and architectural movements.
From 2022, they moved to London.
More on Barbican Estate here.
THIS IS A STANDING SHOW
Radio Drama – Everyday Disruption
14th January 202514:30 – 16:30pm
Soho Poly is delighted to welcome legendary ‘radio play collectors’ Alison and Nigel Deacon for two talks followed by networking with audio drama writers and listeners.
In this second talk Nigel responds to the history of Soho Poly and its aim to Disrupt Your Everyday by considering disruption in Radio Drama, and radio plays of the 1970s and 1980s written by Soho Poly playwrights, illustrated by excerpts of plays from his collection. Followed by short discussion with contemporary Radio Dramatists.
A radio drama fan since childhood, Nigel Deacon began collecting and archiving radio drama in 1972. His many overlapping collections now comprise around 20,000 plays and his Sutton Elms website is consulted by radio historians, writers, and the BBC, to identify and locate recordings. Visit Nigel Deacon’s Sutton Elms Diversity Website Radio Plays & Radio Drama here.
This event is presented by the Audio Writers Theatre, a group of writers celebrating audio drama through live events in association with The Nosocomial Project.
The Art and Craft of Radio Drama
14th January 202512:00 – 1:30pm
In this first talk Nigel will explore the Art and Craft of Radio Drama from the listener’s perspective, illustrated by excerpts of plays from his collection. Followed by a short interview with Nigel and Alison.
A radio drama fan since childhood, Nigel Deacon began collecting and archiving radio drama in 1972. His many overlapping collections now comprise an archive of around 20,000 plays, which is consulted by radio historians, writers and the BBC to identify and locate recordings. The Sutton Elms website was set up and is managed by Alison.
Visit their Sutton Elms Diversity Website Radio Plays & Radio Drama here.
This event is presented by the Audio Writers Theatre, a group of writers celebrating audio drama through live events in association with The Nosocomial Project.
Badge Cafe
20th November 2024 – 11th December 202412.00-1.30pm
Fancy a crafty utopian hangout? Drop by one of our Badge Cafe lunchtimes for some free, easy, friendly creative fun, reusing old pics, books and mags to make unique badges. Hosted by Ben Walters. See more at https://badgecafe.com/and @badgecafe on Insta.
Song In Your Pocket
10th December 2024December 10th, 12:30- 2:30 – Play: make a badge and write a song with Ben Walters and Emma-Lee Moss (Emmy the Great/ lei,e)
In this workshop, we will consider the badge as analogue social media, having fun with representing ourselves, and coming together to write a song about play, pleasure, and the power of images. There may be sprinklings of Christmas cheer during this afternoon!
Coming soon:
Preserving Identity: Pickles and Song with Jenny Lau (Celestial Peach) and Emma-Lee Moss (Emmy the Great/ lei,e)
“You never step in the same brine twice” – What do we preserve of ourselves, and how? Former bandmates Jenny Lau and Emma-Lee Moss bring together the art of pickling and the craft of songwriting, to tell a story about who we are as individuals, and as a collective.
Phil Davis Memoir Reading
21st November 2024 – 5th December 20241.00-2.30pm
On November 21st and 28th, and on December 5th, actor Phil Davis (Quadrophenia, Vera Drake, Bleak House, Whitechapel, Poldark and much else) will be reading extracts from his memoir. This as yet unpublished text charts a fifty plus year career in film, TV and theatre and his account of growing up on a council estate in Essex in the 50s and 60s. A few laughs guaranteed.
Phil has a distinguished history with the Soho Poly. His superb performance in Barrie Keeffe’s Gotcha (1976) was critically acclaimed, and was later recorded by the BBC for Play for Today.
Poetry Night
5th December 2024Doors open 6.30pm, 7.00pm start
In the second of the new series of poetry events at the Soho Poly, join us for an evening of readings and performances from Mona Arshi, Dzifa Benson, and Jackson Phoenix Nash.
Mona Arshi is a poet, novelist and essayist. She trained as a Human rights lawyer at Liberty before she started writing poetry, which she studied at the University of East Anglia. Mona Arshi’s debut collection Small Hands (2015) won the Forward Prize for best first collection. Her second collection Dear Big Gods was published in 2019 (both books published by Liverpool University Press’s Pavilion Poetry list). Her writing has been published in The Times, The Guardian, Granta, The Yale Review and The Times of India as well as on the London Underground. She was writer in Residence at Cley Marshes in Norfolk and during lockdown she spent time in the area working on poems that were transformed into digital assets and embedded in the landscape. In 2020 she was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Liverpool and she is a fellow in creative arts at Trinity College , Cambridge .Her novel Somebody Loves You was published by And Other Stories and was most recently shortlisted for the Goldsmith prize. Mona is currently co-editing a nature anthology Nature Matters which will be published by Faber in May 2025.Her third collection of poetry Mouth will be published by Chatto and Windus in July 2025.
Dzifa Benson was born in London to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. She is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, technology, the body and ritual which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre, libretto, performance, curation, visual arts, immersive technologies, essays and criticism. She has read and performed her work in many contexts such as Tate Britain, the Dissenters Chapel of Kensal Green Cemetery, BBC Contains Strong Language, the Royal Festival Hall, King’s Place, and in Italy, South Africa, France and Norway. Her poetry has been widely anthologised, most recently in Staying Human (Bloodaxe Books), More Fiya! (Canongate) and Part of a Story That Started Before Me (Penguin), and has been recognised with fellowships from Jerwood Compton Poetry and Hedgebrook. She publishes essays and criticism covering poetry, theatre, music, fiction and nonfiction in The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Wasafiri, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry London and The Poetry Review. She was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize in 2021. Her first collection, Monster, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2024.
Jackson Phoenix Nash (he/him) is a queer transgender poet and associate lecturer from Essex. His poetry and fiction have appeared in magazines including Propel, Under the Radar, Rattle, Channel, Impossible Archetype, Baffling Magazine and many more. His poems have recently been anthologised in Transmasculine Poetics (Sundress, 2024) and Propel Anthology: 2022 – 2024. Jackson is a fellow of the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. He was shortlisted for the Creative Future Writer’s Award, and selected for Creative Future’s Next Up development programme. His poem ‘Call me boy on Saturdays’ won the Rattle Ekphrastic Competition. His debut pamphlet, Some People are Trains, was published by Little Betty in 2024. He has a PhD in Gender Studies. Jackson is neurodivergent (ADHD and dyslexia).
Books and pamphlets will be available to purchase on the night. Drinks and refreshments will also be available.
Free student and lower income tickets are available. Please contact Hannah Copley h.copley@westminster.ac.uk.
About the series Soho Poly Poetry is a new monthly event series held in the heart of London. Drawing on the Soho Poly’s history of radical and disruptive theatre and music, the events bring together poets and performers for collaborative, innovative and genre-bending work, as well as celebrating new and up-and-coming voices alongside more established writers. For more information about future events, and to sign up to our mailing list, please contact Hannah Copley h.copley@westminster.ac.uk.
Tiny (Ultrasound) Live performance
27th November 202411.00am-12.00pm
Tiny Woods, lead singer of critically acclaimed cult band Ultrasound, appears live at the Soho Poly. Tickets are by invite only and subject to availability, contact G.Osborn@westminster.ac.uk
UNSUNG: UNSAID. IN CONVERSATION AND BOOK SIGNING
25th November 202412.30-2.00pm
Rob Chapman in conversation about his book Unsung: Unsaid. Syd Barrett and Nick Drake in the Soho Poly? Whilst you may be aware of the Soho Poly’s recent relaunch as an arts space hosting over seventy events over the last year, and you may know of its history as an important place in alternative theatre history, do you know about its musical roots? In the past couple of years we have hosted Emmy the Great, Beatowls, Pete Astor, and more, and in the 1970s experimental musicians such as Derek Bailey graced the stage. Before that though, in the late 1960s/early 1970s the space was host to the Polyfolk club. Shelagh Macdonald, Michael Claire, Hratch, Johnny Silvo, Maureen Kennedy Martin played amongst others, and we know Syd Barret visited. But did his path collide with Nick Drake in our basement?
The Attendant
21st November 20246.30-9.30pm
An EP Release show for Pete Astor’s The Attendant project.
Polyphonic Music Monday
18th November 202412.00-1.30pm
Weekly Monday lunchtime music events – completely free!
Upcoming Events
11 November: Musical memories / singalong.12:00-1:30pm What do you love about music? What memories to you attach to certain pieces? Has music helped you through hard times, or been the soundtrack to some of your best moments? Share your stories with the group in this celebration of personal history through a musical lens. Hosted by professional musician Ian Bennett.
18th November: Live gig, 12:00-1:30pm
Mapping Local Landmarks
15th November 20242.15-3.30pm
A guided walk, beginning at the entrance to the Soho Poly. Following a short orientation at the GO TO exhibition in the space, the walk will trace a route created as part of a National Lottery Funded project entitled ‘Soho Poly: Inspiring Generations’. It will take in key forgotten spaces from the radical theatre movements of the1970s and 1980s. Led by members of the Soho Poly team, the walk will last between 60 and 90 minutes.
This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 7–16 November 2024. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.
Landmark Performances
15th November 20241.00-2.00pm
Audiences will visit the Soho Poly for a performance-style event. Drawing on the Ghost gig project, audiences will listen to recorded extracts of past concerts linked to the place in which they originally took place. They will be encouraged to share their memories of significant musical events from their own lives and consider how these can be thought of as personal ‘landmarks’.
This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 7–16 November 2024. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.
Landmark Plays: Youth by Thornton Wilder
12th November 202412.30-2.00pm
A celebration of the first ever lunchtime plays produced at the original Soho Poly in 1972. Lunchtime theatre went on to become a prominent feature of London’s alternative theatre scene in the 1970s, reaching new audiences and contributing to a radical change in the way plays were written and understood. Come and enjoy the experience firsthand with this reading of a rarely performed work – ‘Youth’ – by the great American playwright Thornton Wilder, in collaboration with the Noël Coward Foundation. Directed by Alice Fitzgerald.
This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 7–16 November 2024. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.
Vanishing Landmarks
7th November 20246.00-8.00pm
Curated by Dr Monica Germanà, this event features a private viewing of an exhibition of local and international artists whose practices engage with the urgent environmental questions raised by the current climate crisis. In particular, by focussing on the melting icecaps and rising water levels, it considers the vanishing landmark that is the Arctic, and the repercussions that a potentially ice-free Arctic might have for the rest of the world in the near future. Among others, the works on display will feature multi-media artist David Cass’s ‘Where Once the Waters’, an installation made of letters addressed to project participants to remind audiences of the local impact of such global environmental threats. The private viewing will be accompanied by a talk by fibre artist Jen Cable, who will be in conversation with Monica Germanà about the inspiration behind her two pieces on display (‘Going, Going, Gone’ and ‘Floods’), and the environmental questions that, more widely, preoccupy her practice.
This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 7–16 November 2024. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.