Poetry For All

24-Nov-23 Event Bios

Colly Metcalfe

A close-up, black-and-white shot of a pale, white woman in early middle-age with long, blonde, very curly hair and freckles across her nose and cheekbones. She is wearing a small jewel on a delicate chain around her neck, a small, light metal nosering, and subtle makeup. Her smile is faint and her eyes kind.

Headliner Colly Metcalfe is a deaf performer from Teesside. She has a long history of performance in mainstream and disability theatre, as well as performing at festivals, outdoor site specific productions, radio, voice overs and music videos.

After finding mainstream theatre more difficult to negotiate as a deaf actor, she took a break from performing. She missed the pull of the space, so Colly decided to look at other ways to return to the theatre.  She started to explore her own narrative using poetry.  Colly had never written anything before, so never thought this would be something she would deliver live.  She found herself at an open mic session one evening, and chanced her luck.  Her piece was so well received, that she wrote some more and has performed with Tees Women Poets (TWP) several times at Hartlepool Waterfront Festival and other events.

Colly speaks her words in English, but also brings another element to her poetry performance; she brings British Sign Language (BSL), and sometimes adds music for depth and ambience.  Occasionally, she ‘turns off’ her voice, and performs the whole thing in BSL, leaving the audience to interpret her work as they will.  There is no right way or wrong way in these moments; the audience is free to take from the work what they will.

Colly’s poetry has been published twice in books and 3 times in online spaces.

Kiran Wade

A close-up, black-and-white shot of a pale, white young man with very short, blonde hair and heavy-rimmed, square glasses. He is leaning back at a slant in his wheelchair and laughing heartily, blue eyes very nearly shut in mirth, grin huge and open. He is indoors at the National Motorcycle Museum, according to the logo on the carpet behind him, and is wearing a dark polo shirt, short-sleeved, with white collar and cuffs, and a Sheffield Steelers lanyard around his neck.

Headliner Kiran Wade is a writer and performer originally from Yorkshire, currently living and studying creative writing at university in Lincoln. Exploring the world in the form of poetry, spoken word, and playwriting with a sincere brand of wit has earned him much recognition over the last few years. He has staged two Edinburgh Fringe shows, been accepted into the National Youth Theatre, been published and platformed globally including at diversity and protest events, and won Young Student Of the Year 2021 for his creative exploits. As you may guess, despite his humorous style, he doesn’t shy away from political issues, regularly writing on topics of disability and mental health as well as writing through his own gender transition.

Kiran has thought long and hard about whether or not he’s a political creative and he has determined that, due to his personal experience running through it all, he’s just a teenager, documenting his mistakes, struggles, and growth, and calling it art. It’s not just that, though, he’s also written on the equally serious issues of magical milkshakes, goose invasions and monstrous dental disasters.

Val Horner

photo of an elderly, white woman with short, lightly curling silver hair, staring directly at the viewer with large, blue eyes. She is wearing a dark-blue, collared shirt and is smiling slightly, the cream, interior walls behind her showing a couple of framed pictures. At the bottom right-hand corner is the date 02/07/2021 in orange type.

Local Support Artist Val Horner was born in Portsmouth, married a scientist, and helped raise a family of three. She worked in the Adult and Further Education sector, lecturing in Philosophy, Literature and Psychology. Now retired, she lives in central York on the banks of The River Foss. Her poems have appeared in a variety of periodicals and anthologies. Two of those performed during the evening come from her collection Gooseberries illustrated by Tina Horner and published by Stairwell Books.

Lauren Ruddock

A young, white person with a round face, slightly ruddy complexion, and dark-rimmed, square glasses tilts their head back, smiling wryly at the viewer. They have light stubble on their chin and throat, and pinkish hair swept up in a slicked-back quiff with a side-shave. They are wearing a loose, purple, v-necked top. The indoor walls behind them are crowded with images, framed and unframed, all out of focus.

Local Support Artist Lauren Ruddock (she/they) is an agender, autistic, neurodivergent, published poet living in York. They have experienced various mental illnesses for the majority of their life and have lived through trauma and emotional abuse, recently having a pamphlet Scenes of Silent Horror published which explores their experiences of emotional abuse. Their lived experiences provide much of the themes and inspiration behind their work.

F R Kesby

A performance shot of a fat, white person with short, curly, mid-brown hair dyed bright magenta on top is standing behind a microphone and music stand in what appears to be a large, old church. They are immaculately made-up with large hoop earrings and metallic nail polish, gesturing authortitatively, one finger raised, the other hand cupped beside them. They are wearing a dark, navy blue pinafore dress over a black teeshirt which bears the caption "Fuck Your Sexist Shit", and have a tattoo on the wrist of the hand pointing upwards.

Local Support Artist F R Kesby is a writer and creator from Leeds. They have a string of publishing credits including Strix, Riggwelter, Picaroon, and Laldy, as well as having headlined for events such as Stirred, Word Space, neurodiVERSE and Verse Matters. Their debut pamphlet Shul is out now from Maytree Press. When not poeting about town they co-run the arts collective Subjective Silhouettes. They describe themselves as a queer disability activist who wants to make the world better. Others describe them as “a difficult cow with a big mouth”. We’ll let you decide which is true. (Spoiler alert: it’s both.)

Elmien Wolvaardt

Headshot of a white, tanned woman in early middle age smirks mischievously at the camera against a backdrop of woodland and meadow on a slightly overcast day. She has long, mid-brown hair with a hint of auburn, growing in silver at the roots and temples and happy, dark brown eyes. Her sunglasses are perched on top of her head.

Local Support Artist Elmien Wolvaardt is a bilingual, multi-neurodivergent poet and editor living in York, United Kingdom. Her sparse yet resonant poems reflect on – and occasionally rebel against – the gentle and not-so-gentle oppressions of life, love and parenthood. 

“Elmien Wolvaardt’s writing, and warm presence in performances, are deeply moving. Gorgeous, well-wrought work.” – David Leo Sirois, Canada

Dave Wycherley

a slender, middle-aged white man with a slightly ruddy complexion and light stubble has his head turned to one side, presenting a strong profile in front of a large projection screen, mouth open as he gestures emphatically, one hand, with a wedding band, on one finger, cupped in front of him, the other arm crooked high as he beckons towards his shoulder. He has very short-cropped, salt-and-pepper hair, and is wearing a black teeshirt. End image description.

BSL Interpreter Dave Wycherley qualified in 2004 from the UCLAN/SLI Post Graduate programme and has been working as a freelancer ever since. He lives on the outskirts of Leeds, and was our first terp at Poetry for All in 2018.

He is a founder member of Visual Language Professionals, the association for professional sign language interpreters, and has been on the Steering Committee since its outset.

Find out more here.

Vicci Ackroyd

a black-and-white shot of the upper body of a pale, round-faced, white woman with shoulder-length, straight, very pale hair, sitting at a table in a coffee shop, next to a window. She is still wearing a dark, subtly plaid coat, zipped up, with a broad collar splayed to show a slightly sparkly, dark, loose-knit scarf. Her smile is small and complex and she gazes directly at the camera with calm, light eyes through rectagular glasses with light, metallic frames, a coffee pot at one hand.

BSL Interpreter Vicci Ackroyd began her formal sign language journey at 15 years old and graduated Wolverhampton university with a degree in BSL/English interpreting in 1997. She first worked as a communication support worker with deaf children and young people across all educational settings, ranging from primary school to university courses. Later she worked with with Leeds Sign Language Interpreting Services which gave her an opportunity to be mentored and supported into working across a wide range of community settings e.g. medical, legal, social, social care, conferences etc. She is currently studying an MSc in language and communication impairments in children. Interpreting is interesting and no two days are ever the same; she think it is a privilege to have had the opportunities that this career has given her.

Vicci was our second terp at Poetry for All 2019 and, when she’s not working, you’ll find her at the beach with the dogs, on the allotment, or crafting away.

Find out more here.

Rose Drew

A slender, bespectacled, white, middle-aged woman with very long, blonde hair, stands spotlit on a dark stage in a dynamic, side-lunging pose with one hand raised in a loose fist and the other out to one side, holding a small, black device. Behind her is a bookcase and a cut-off word on a banner which ends in "ington".

Host and Founder Rose Drew, from York UK via Miami, is a performance poet, publisher, teacher, and anthropologist. She writes about death & skeletons, love & grief, nature & disability, and presented a TEDx talk on performance poetry in 2015 but she swears she doesn’t bang on about it anymore. Really. Rose is tall on the inside.

Find out more here.

Fay Roberts

A slender, white, goatee bearded person with curly, shoulder-length heair of an indeterminate colour is standing, spotlit, gesturing broadly on a darkened stage behind a microphone and a basic music stand with an ereader on it. They give the impression that they're expanding on a difficult point.

Host and Web-Wrangler Fay Roberts is a performance poet, musician, storyteller, events host, accidental voice actor, Artistic Director for Spoken Word at PBH’s Free Fringe, and an enormous geek. During weekdays, ze persuades people to make lists and say no to shiny things. For every role, there is a different hat, and a spreadsheet to match. Zir first full collection, Spectral, came out with Burning Eye in March 2022, and ze describes it as “a kind of poetry concept album, with illustrations”.

Find out more here.