Poets instead of politicians took the podium at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 22 November, reading verse rather than bills.
This special event connecting the arts and culture with climate action was sponsored by Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, and co-hosted by Creative Carbon Scotland and Creative Scotland. Four Scotland-based poets read work touching on the natural environment and climate change. An audience including MSPs, government officials, poets, writers, museum and library staff, climate change professionals and others heard and reflected on the poems, in the tailwind of COP27, the recently-concluded UN Climate Change Conference held in Egypt.
Ms Hyslop’s inspiration for this event ties to the speech she gave in Parliament at the time of COP26, which was held in Glasgow in 2021. Hyslop ‘s speech dealt with the impact of the climate emergency on the Global South and she quoted a poem by Glaswegian-Bangladeshi poet, Shehzar Doja. Doja, freshly returned from COP27, was there to kick off the readings on Wednesday.
At the event, Ms Hyslop said: ‘Poetry has the power to change the way we see the world because culture is, by definition, our way of life, who we are, where we are, and ultimately, where we want to be, and there is no issue more important when thinking about the future than climate change.’
The other illustrious poets who read were Jo Gilbert, an award-winning word artist who uses her native tongue of Doric in her work; Kathleen Jamie, Scotland’s Makar, and Alycia Pirmohamed, winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. You can learn more about the poets below.
After hearing the poets read, Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, reflected: ‘The arts and culture inspire, communicate, make visible the invisible, encourage new ways of thinking and almost uniquely enable collective thinking about knotty problems, and we need all of these to tackle climate change.’
Alan Bett, Head of Literature and Publishing at Creative Scotland said: ‘It is always a pleasure to watch poets perform live. It was particularly so at this Poetry in Parliament event, with climate change the important theme at the heart of the work. Creative Scotland has a commitment to address environmental concerns through the Scottish arts sector. At the Scottish Parliament last night, the poets words took centre stage to inspire and challenge their audience, showing how art not only reflects the issues at hand, but can play a central role in their discussion.’
More about the poets
Shehzar Doja is founder and editor in chief of The Luxembourg Review and poetry reviews editor at Gutter Magazine. He was named a ‘Youth icon’ by NewAge newspaper in Bangladesh in 2017 and a ‘Future world changer’ by the University of Glasgow in 2019. His poetry and translations have appeared in journals and anthologies such as Poetry Wales, Dhaka Tribune, Modern Poetry in Translation and Poems from the Edge of Extinction. He co-edited I am a Rohingya: Poetry from the camps and beyond with James Bryne, which was the inaugural ‘World Choice’ selection from the Poetry Book Society.
Kathleen Jamie is Scotland’s Makar. She has made environmental issues central to her work since she was announced as Scotland’s national poet just over a year ago. She curated a People’s Nature Poem, drawn from over one thousand lines submitted by the Scottish public and directed to COP26. In January she harnessed Burns’ nature writings and used January poetic events to discuss the natural world, both in Scotland and abroad. She opened the current sitting of parliament with a reading of The Morrow-Bird.
Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland. She is the author of the chapbooks Hinge(ignitionpress), Faces that Fled the Wind (BOAAT Press), and Second Memory (Guillemot Press and Baseline Press), a collaborative essay co-authored with Pratyusha. Alycia’s debut collection, Another Way to Split Water, was published with YesYes Books and Polygon Books in 2022. She currently teaches on the MSt. Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. Alycia studied creative writing at the University of Oregon and the University of Edinburgh.
Jo Gilbert is a spoken word artist and writer from Aberdeen, who writes in Doric and English. Their work has featured on BBC Radio 4 show Tongue and Talk, in several art exhibitions and short films, as well as spray-painted on a mural at Aberdeen Beach. Jo’s past projects and commissions include StAnza Poetry Festival, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Look Again Festival, Aberdeen Performing Arts and The National Theatre of Scotland. Jo performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year and published her debut poetry collection What The F**k is normal anyway? in August with Seahorse Publications
(Top image: Collage of images of people at Poetry in Parliament: a voice for the climate emergency including [L to R in main image] Jo Gilbert, Shehzar Doja, Fiona Hyslop MP, Scotland’s Makar Kathleen Jamie, and Alycia Pirmohamed.)
The post Poetry in Parliament: a voice for the climate emergency appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.
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