Join Francesca Beard and Joelle Taylor for an electric night of performance poetry and spoken word in the International Festival’s Old College Quad venue. Both artists have a strong human-focused repertoire of work, which promises to get audiences thinking about ourselves, our place in the world and our relationship to others.

Francesca Beard is a performance poet whose research-informed work is inspired by emerging knowledge about ourselves and the universe. She is a current Associate Artist with All Change and was previously poet-in-residence at The Barbican, BBC White City and The Tower of London, amongst others. Her stories about what it means to be human touch a raw nerve and she has represented contemporary UK literature with the British Council in 23 different countries, from Azerbaijan to Bangkok and Zimbabwe.

For this A Toast to the People event, Beard is joined by Joelle Taylor. Joelle Taylor is the author of four collections of poetry. Her newest collection, C+NTO & Othered Poems, was the subject of a Radio 4 arts documentary Butch. She is a co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live resident at the Southbank Centre, and the current editor of Out-Spoken Press.

A Toast to the People brings together two spoken word artists, each performing their own set of performance poetry that includes a specially commissioned piece inspired by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s ‘A Toast to the People’. Following their sets, the two artists take part in an exclusive discussion about their work and the pervading issues and themes of today.

Please note that Rafeef Ziadah was originally scheduled to perform on this date. We are very grateful to Joelle Taylor for stepping in to replace her.

In partnership with Edinburgh International Book Festival

Made possible through the PLACE programme