Workshops with Poet Anthony Anaxagorou

Free and open to anyone aged 18-25

Do you want to take part in poetry workshops led by a published poet? Then this opportunity could be for you!

• Do you have something to say about inequalities within health and medicine? Or are you intrigued to find out more?
• Are you interested in the history of medicine?
• Are you imaginative and creative and looking to express your views?
• Are you interested in museums and making them more inclusive and relatable?

The museum would like visitors to engage with the inequalities within health and medicine caused by protected characteristics, geography and socio-economic factors. To do this we need your help.

We’d like you to bring your perspectives and points of views to this topic. Through a series of four workshops Anthony will help you vocalise your opinions through poetry.

In these workshops, we will look into the nature of health and inequality. Why was it that during the pandemic some countries received vaccinations quicker than others? How was it that we managed to find a COVID-19 vaccination within two years of the outbreak, yet thousands across the globe are still dying from diseases like malaria? These difficult and complex questions will foreground the sessions where you will be encouraged to explore the systems we come to inherit, and what we can do to help generate positive change and awareness through art.

Benefits for you and the museum

• You’ll develop critical thinking skills
• An opportunity to work and learn from an internationally renowned poet
• A printed poetry anthology of your poems which museum visitors will receive on their visit to the museum
• Your poems will be used in museum’s temporary exhibition next year
• Poetry recital event at the museum

• Publication of poems in the Association magazine Anaesthesia News

• Your participation will make positive changes to the museum’s interpretation.
• Your participation will make the museum more relevant to our audiences, new and existing.
• Your participation is valuable and will be valued.

What we’re looking for:

• A maximum of 12 participants
• An ability to attend all four sessions (travel costs equivalent to a day’s travelcard within London will be covered)

Workshops - to be held at 21 Portland Place, London:

• Workshop 1: 11^th January 2023, 17:30 - 19:30pm
• Workshop 2: 18^th January 2023, 17:30 - 19:30pm
• Workshop 3: 25^th January 2023, 17:30 - 19:30pm
• Workshop 4: 1^st February 2023, 17:30 - 19:30pm

How to Apply / Timetable

Please send a short (maximum 250 words) explanation about why you’d like to take part in the project to Caroline Hamson, Heritage Manager [email protected]

If you have any questions about the project or application process please contact Caroline.

Meet the Poet

Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His poetry has been published in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, New Statesman, Granta, and elsewhere. His work has also appeared on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4, ITV, Vice UK, Channel 4 and Sky Arts.

His second collection After the Formalities published with Penned in the Margins is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize along with the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. It was also a Telegraph and Guardian poetry book of the year.

Young Poets Network

This series of workshops is run in collaboration with the Poetry Society's Young Poets Network.

Plug into a poetry community with Young Poets Network, The Poetry Society’s free online platform for young poets up to the age of 25. Discover features about poets and poetry, challenges and competitions to inspire your own writing, new writing from young poets, and advice and guidance from the rising and established stars of the poetry scene. We also bring you the latest news and ideas from the writing world, and a list of competitions, magazines and writing groups which particularly welcome young writers. Head to ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk to find out more.