Lockdown Norwich-based online arts programme ASSEMBLY ONLINE continues with an international poetry reading hosted by a Norwich-based poet

Poets from across the world are joining for a special arts event hosted by Norwich arts charity The Assembly House Trust on Thursday.

The live stream event will be hosted by Norwich-based Cai Draper with Ellen Renton (Edinburgh), Gboyega Odubanjo (London), Precikus Okpechi (Nsukka, Nigeria) and Jordan Hamel and Sinead Overbye (New Zealand) joining from across the world.

ASSEMBLY ONLINE is a live stream series of arts events hosted and funded by arts charity The Assembly House Trust which includes talks, screenings, discussions, performances, critical readings and poetry.

The free-to-view programme, which is running throughout lockdown, sees live events broadcast from artists’ homes to viewers’ homes. The live stream video event is open to everyone and can be joined via a link which will be posted on www.assemblyhousetrust.org.uk/assembly-onlineat 7.30pm on April 30.

Cai Draper is a poet from South London living in Norwich after completing an MA in Creative Writing (poetry) at the University of East Anglia.

His poems have been published in Draft Lomdon, PNYX and Burning House Press, among others, and he organises free poetry workshops at Norwich independent bookshopThe Book Hive.

Ellen Renton is a poet from Edinburgh and has performed her poetry at venues including The Roundhouse, The Royal Albert Hall, the Scottish Parliament and at events such as Verve Festival, Hidden Door Festival, and the First Minister’s National Advisory Council for Women and Girls.

She is the recipient of the Unlimited Emerging Artist Award and the Create Inclusion Fund from Creative Scotland in support of her debut poetry show ‘Within Sight’.

Gboyega Odubanjo is a British-Nigerian poet born and raised in East London. His pamphlet While I Yet Live, was published by Bad Betty Press in 2019 and he is a

Resident Artist at the Roundhouse.

Precious Okpechi studies Biochemistry at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He is a recipient of the 2020 Singing Bullet Workshop Scholarship. His works appear or are forthcoming in Memento: An Anthology of Nigerian Contemporary Poetry, Brittle Paper, Kissing Dynamite, The Shore and Palette Poetry.

Jordan Hamel is a P?neke-based poet and performer. He was the 2018 New Zealand Poetry Slam champion and competed at the World Poetry Slam Championships in the USA.

He is the co-editor of Stasis Journal with Sinead Overbye and the co-editor of a forthcoming Climate Change Poetry Anthology for Auckland University Press. He has poems published in Sport, takah?, Poetry NZ, Mimicry, Kissing Dynamite, Okay Donkey, Queen Mob’s Teahouse and elsewhere.

Sinead Overbye (Te Aitanga-a-M?haki, Rongowhakaata, Ng?ti Porou) is a writer and research assistant living in Wellington. Her poetry, essays, and short stories have been widely published. She has experience with editing, and is a founding member of Rangatahi o te Pene, a group who in 2019 self-published Te Rito o te Harakeke, a collection of Sinead Overbye poetry and writing by M?ori authors in response to the protection of Ihum?tao.