Over the last few months, Polish poet Bohdan Piasecki has been taking his Pop-up Poetry Station around Hull, gathering stories and writing poems with the local Polish community as part of Hull Gada.
Form Sunday 24 September to Saturday 30 September his work will be displayed in Princes Quay at Hull Gada Shop of Poems offering a glimpse into this foreign world, steeped in art and culture, just a language away.
Bohdan said: “Hull Gada is a fantastic project: I get to talk to people, get to know their stories, and offer them brand new poems in return.
“This is poetry at its best, there on the street, made by the city, jotted down by me.
“I have been talking a lot to members of the Polish community, of course, but not exclusively, and that’s very exciting – we don’t get to shape many writing projects , us Poles, especially not ones which will make our stories heard on the other side of the language barrier.”
Shop of Poems is a space with poetry for all. The exhibition features brand new poems from and about Hull’s Polish community.
The ‘shop’ allows people to sit down with a book of Polish poems in English translation, write their own text and add it to the collection, or even catch a poetry workshop.
Shop of Poems will be open from 11am – 6pm, with free admission.
It will be located on the second level of Princes Quay, near River Island.
There is a launch event at 3pm on Sunday 24 September, featuring a unique bilingual open mic event of brand new Polish and English poetry.
There will also be two free workshops as part of the week open to people of any experience with poetry, and suitable for both Polish and English speakers.
The first is on Sunday 24 September at 11am and is suitable to anyone over the age of 16.
The second, suitable for all ages, is on Saturday 30 September at 2.30pm.
Hull Gada is part of Contains Strong Language, a major new national spoken word and poetry festival as part of Hull UK City of Culture 2017.
Hull Gada is supported by British Council and Polish Book Institute.
Contains Strong Language takes place across four days from National Poetry Day on Thursday 28 September to Sunday 1 October. It has been produced by BBC Radio in partnership with Hull 2017, Hull City Council, Humber Mouth, The British Council, BBC Learning, Wrecking Ball Press
The finale of Hull Gada will see two live free poetry shows at Kardomah 94 in Alfred Gelder Street on Saturday September 29.
The shows will feature Bohdan Piasecki, Weronika Lewandowska, Wojciech Cichoń and Hull-based Polish poets discovered over the course of the project.
The shows start at 2.30pm and 3.15pm, for more information and to book tickets visit the Hull 2017 website, www.hull2017.co.uk.
Martin Green, Director of Hull 2017, said:
“There is a strong Polish community in Hull and it’s fantastic that Bohdan has been able to work with them over the last couple of months to ensure that they can be part of Hull 2017.
“Hull Gada has seen internationally renowned poets performing in Hull alongside some of the most exciting spoken word performers the city has to offer.
“Thanks to the support of the British Council, it has offered a taste of what can be expected from the wide-ranging programme being put on for the Contains Strong Language festival which starts next week.”
