Vanessa Kisuule | Cara Thompson

 

NPF are delighted to present this joint headline show, with support from the mighty GOBS Collective.

Vanessa Kisuule is a Bristol based writer, performer, and facilitator. A multi–award-winning slam poet, she has performed internationally and worked with organisations including the BBC, British Library, Tate, and Glastonbury Festival.

She served as Bristol City Poet (2018–2020), and her poem Hollow, about the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue has reached over 700,000 views and is widely used in education.

Vanessa has written and presented The Poetry Detective for Radio 4, published two collections with Burning Eye Books, and been widely anthologised, including in the Forward Poetry Prize Anthology 2019. She co-tutors the Southbank New Poets Collective with Will Harris and has judged major prizes such as the Forward Prizes and Foyle Young Poets.

Neverland is her debut nonfiction book.

Cara Thompson is a Nottingham-based writer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist, currently serving as Nottingham’s Nature Poet Laureate and Wasafiri’s Writer in Residence. Her work spans poetry, performance, textiles, sound, and oral history, exploring Caribbean-British heritage and the legacies of the Windrush generation.

She is developing NEEDLE, an Arts Council England funded project that uses textiles, oral history, and sound to examine how memory and care are preserved through fabric and handwork.

Cara’s poetry has been commissioned by major organisations including Penguin Random House, UNESCO, and Oxfam. In 2021, she won UNESCO Cities of Literature’s Slamovision with Island Screams (Where Are You From).

Alongside her artistic practice, Cara is a musician, educator, and cultural organiser. She has been a director of Nottingham Poetry Festival since 2023, worked with poetry collective GOBS, and is a founding member of the Nottingham Black Creatives Network.

She holds a First Class BA and a Distinction MA in English Literature from the University of Manchester, and also studied at McGill University.

GOBS Collective is a lively, slightly chaotic (in the best way) spoken-word poetry group from Nottingham that’s all about big feelings, bold voices, and making art that actually says something. Founded in 2020 by Bridie Squires and Ioney Smallhorne, it grew from a bunch of workshops into a full-on creative community where poets hype each other up, experiment with performance, and aren’t afraid to get a bit weird. Their events are less “quiet poetry reading” and more “electric room full of snaps, laughter, and the occasional emotional gut-punch.” From open mics to workshops and zine-making, GOBS has built a space where anyone, from total beginners to seasoned performers, can grab the mic, spill their thoughts, and feel like they belong.