Photo Flash: Poetry in the Persian Tent Opens at Edinburgh's Festival of Spirituality and Peace

Yesterday, August 22, Liz Lochhead launched Poetry in the Persian Tent at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh, UK, to raise money for Oxfam project Old MacDonald Had a Farm for Africa. In the first of five Poetry in the Persian Tent readings with music, poets Liz Lochhead, John Glenday, Ryan Van Winkle, and Stephanie Green performed their verse accompanied by John Sampson on wind instruments. Check out photos from the event below!

Liz Lochhead is the current Makar of Scotland. In 2001 she won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award for the play Medea. Her poetry collections include A Choosing (Polygon, 2003) and Dreaming Frankenstein & Collected Poems (Polygon, 1984).

John Glenday was shortlisted for the 2010 TEd Hughes Prize for Excellence in New Poetry and for the Griffin Poetry Prize 2010 for his most recent collection Grain. In 2011, he was a National Poetry Competition Judge along with Jackie Kay and Colette Bryce.

Ryan Van Winkle is Poet in Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries. His first collection, Tomorrow, We Will Live Here, (Salt, 2010) won the Crashaw Prize. In 2012 Ryan was awarded the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship.

Stephanie Green, organizer and master of ceremonies of Poetry in the Persian Tent, is the author of the poetry pamphlet Glass Works which was shortlisted for the Callum MacDonald Award in 2006. Her poems have been published widely, including in The Edinburgh Review.

John A Sampson is noted for his collaborative performances with poets, especially Stewart Conn and Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate. Sampson is a virtuoso on the flute, piccolo, recorder, crumhorn, and other wind instruments.

Old MacDonald had a Farm for Africa Project was devised by Liz Lochhead and Jim Carruth in association with Oxfam to set up a number of farms across Africa, providing communities with livestock and resources to look after them. The twelve-month project aims to found as many farms as possible by the 1st of April, 2013.

Tickets for Poetry in the Persian Tent readings (11am August 22-26) are £10 (£8 concessions) through the Hub box office from their website www.hubtickets.co.uk, email boxoffice@hubtickets.co.uk, telephone 0131 473 2000 or in person from The Hub, Castlehill, Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 2NE. Tickets are available on the door but reservations are recommended due to limited seating.

For more information on Poetry in the Persian Tent and for the full line-up, visit sites.google.com/site/stephgreen1/poetry-in-the-persian-tent. For more information on the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, visit www.festivalofspirituality.org.uk. And join the Poetry in the Persian Tent community on Facebook.

Photo Credit: John Star

Liz Lochhead, John Sampson, John Glenday, Stephanie Green and Ryan Van Winkle

John Sampson

Stephanie Green

Liz Lochhead

John Glenday

Ryan Van Winkle