Hot Poets (http://www.hotpoets.org)

Description

Bringing poetry and science together to imagine a better possible future.

In collaboration with the Met Office, the London School of Economics, the RSPB and nine other climate change partners, Tongue Fu, Chris Redmond and Liv Torc present Hot Poets – poems of agency and action for COP26 and life beyond, written by 12 of the UK and Africa’s most well-known spoken word artists, working with scientists, climate educators and engineers from leading environmental organisations and charities across the world.

From whale poo to wildfire, each poem covers complex, vital and inspiring scientific subjects, including: flood and fire prevention; empowering African women on the equator to plant forests; the regreening of the Sinai Peninsula; putting Forest School education on the National Curriculum; beach data as a way to leverage change in plastic manufacturing; climate litigation; the restoration of peatland; the hidden energy underground; more effective weather warning systems; and the green whale’s impact on climate recovery.

Thanks to support from Arts Council England, Hot Poets aims to prove the intrinsic value of placing the arts front and centre in the climate change conversation, reconnecting people to hope, cutting through the doom and despair, and sharing positive ways to gain agency and take action in the fight against climate catastrophe.

University of Manchester As part of the project, I worked with Joelle Taylor (http://joelletaylor.co.uk/) to develop a poem around wildfires and how we understand and navigate our relationship to fire. This draws on work from a number of ongoing research projects (e.g., UKFDRS, TOFEWSI - links below) as well as wider engagement with UK and international wildfire communities. 

Period	Sept 2021 → …
Degree of Recognition	National