writes + bites
writes + bites
in 2020, we launched Writes + Bites: BORN::FREE’s series of lunchtime informal writing sessions, conversations and cultural exchange whilst (virtually) breaking bread.
facilitated by the BORN::FREE team or one of our friends, these 45-minute sessions are for writers of all forms and narratives– previous guests have been playwrights, poets, screenwriters, dramaturgs and musicians.
it’s never too late to start writing; pick up your notebook, grab a munch and watch back previous episodes of Writes + Bites on our Instagram; find out more about previous episodes by scrolling down…
Season 1
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Thee first in a series of lunch time writing prompts, kicked off by our co-director Belinda Zhawi (she/her). This session is about generating language for future amazing poems!
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The second instalment of our weekly lunchtime writing sessions, led by our co-director malakaï sargeant (they/them). They looked at generating ideas to write something for performance that complicates the mundane and makes space for abstraction.
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Writer + filmmaker Chima Nsoedo (he/him) talks us through tips on writing authentic dialogue that can be applied when writing for performance or screen.
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In this fourth instalment of Writes + Bites, Gabriel Akamo (he/him) shares a a variety of exercises to stimulate putting pen to paper. With an engagement on how to generate poetry with meaning(s)– including Terrance Hayes' form, the gram of &s.
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Ola Elhassan (she/her) encourages us to engage with the body and the senses, as well as the textures of the natural environment, to create poetry laden with images.
Season 2
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The poem is a house! A garden! A town! A market! Sarah Lasoye (she/her) takes us through ways to explore the physical space of a poem - attics and trapdoors, unstable ground and textured surfaces, smells and sounds. Imagining spatial geography can help contour a poem, invite movements and turns, and orient otherwise disparate thoughts in relation to one another.
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mandisa apena’s (they/them) session is all about rituals. They get us to consider how we think about and create places of worship:
Where do these places already exist? Can we recreate them in our writing? Can we recreate them in ourselves?
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Musician, comedian, rapper and poet Arnold Chukwu (he/him) considers playfulness in form and lyricism in this Writes + Bites, considering and working with the music of Andre 3000.
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Playwright, poet, actor and broadcaster babirye bukilwa (they/them) takes us on a journey through sound, establishing characters and setting through immersing ourselves in the textures of music. A special extended episode end to the second series of Writes + Bites!