Skip to content
Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

BBC Contains Strong Language 2021

September 23, 2021September 26, 2021

BBC Arts’ annual poetry and spoken word festival is in Coventry this September, as it celebrates being UK City of Culture 2021. Mercury-nominated musician Loyle Carner joins Poet Laureate Simon Armitage as part of the four-day showcase taking place all around the city and on the BBC.

Contains Strong Language is a partnership between the BBC, Coventry City of Culture Trust, Writing West Midlands, and Nine Arches Press.

Highlights from BBC Contains Strong Language 2021 include:

  • Loyle Carner performs his poetry alongside poets Grace Nichols and John Agard live on Radio 3’s The Verb on Friday 24 September.
  • Poet Laureate Simon Armitage reads his poetry and performs with Land Yacht Regatta, who set Armitage’s spoken word to intense, atmospheric musical arrangements by Richard Walters and Patrick Pearson.
  • This Little Relic by Karla Marie Sweet is a metaplay about producing Ira Aldridge’s The Black Doctor, directed by the Belgrade’s Co-Artistic Director for 2021 Justine Themen. This Little Relic takes place on Friday 24 September as part of the festival, and audiences at home can hear the performance at a later date on BBC Radio 3.
  • For budding writers, BBC Writersroom hosts a panel event explaining how they scout for fresh talent.
  • BBC Radio Club partners with Creative Lives to share poems written by Coventry schoolchildren in workshops facilitated by Words First 2020 finalist John Bernard.