Pádraig Ó Tuama

I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the power of naming across your work.

I wrote down as you were reading just that conjugated verb, I am, I am, I am, and then not code for another's sins.

And then I think there is also the way of speaking about oneself as the I and having the opportunity to speak for oneself in conjugating a verb and letting your own language be present in art on the page.

What is it that drives you to poetry, to speak in the I, even as you adopt other personas through Eleanor and others?

We're going to have a conversation, the three of us, in a while after we hear Yomi read.

But I just wanted to highlight your attention to syntax, your really careful attention.

Just as an example, I wrote down Festival of Oxygen and Iron.

How delicious.

What beautiful language words to put together in some kind of lament, something that's past as well.

How long do you spend looking for these words?

Do they kind of trip out of you before morning coffee, or do you labor over them for a long time?

It's my delight now to introduce on the stage here with me Yomi Shode.

Yomi is a Nigerian British poet and playwright and facilitator.

His one-man show, Coat, toured nationally to sold-out audiences.

He's an essayist and librettist, and his essay, The F Word, was featured in Safe, 20 Ways to Be a Black Man in Britain.

Penguin UK published his poetry collection, Mannerism, in 2022, a book that charts the vulnerabilities and rich nuances of black masculinity in Britain.

And it was described by Jackie Kay as thrilling once in a generation.

So please welcome Jörm Ísardé.

The word grace occurs both in your poetry as well as in your commentary on the poetry.

You know, grace as forgiveness, grace as pardon from the Pope, then the line, where was the pardon for them?