Contains Strong Language poetry and spoken word festival heads to Leeds

Now in its seventh year, the 2023 CSL festival comes to the north as part of Leeds 2023, the city’s year long celebration of culture. Lemn Sissay, Malika Booker, National Poet of Wales Hannan Issa and Poet Laureate Simon Armitage are among the famous names from the world of poetry heading to the city this week.

I’ll be back, all being well, launching the festival with a live version of Front Row on Thursday evening at the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds Grand theatre where my guests will include the internationally renowned actor Toby Jones and Leeds’s own beatboxing world record holder Testament.

Sue Roberts, head of culture, art and music for BBC Audio North and the CSL director, says: “We are thrilled to be bringing Contains Strong Language to Leeds with an inspiring range of performances from local, national and international poets.

“With newly commissioned work tackling everything from identity to climate change and activities for families across the city centre, we have something for everyone. We welcome audiences to join us as writers from across the globe share the stage with the wealth of talent found in Leeds and West Yorkshire.”

There are a number of other live radio programmes to the festival, with Start the Week, presented by Tom Sutcliffe at the Howard Assembly Room on Friday at 1.30pm and Yorkshire Post columnist Ian McMillan recording his Radio 3 programme The Verb on Friday evening at 10pm.

On Sunday I will also be presenting a special programme marking a century of radio drama.

Alison Hindell, Radio 4 commissioning editor for drama and fiction, says: “This year marks the centenary of audio drama on the BBC, so I’m delighted that Contains Strong Language is building on the BBC’s history of providing audiences with the very best audio drama and letting listeners into some behind-the-scenes insights and stories. Whether you’re already a keen listener of audio drama or looking to explore this unique medium for the first time, there will be plenty to discover.”

So that’s the radio stuff covered and then, of course, there’s the poetry. Being involved behind the scenes, I can tell you it takes a serious amount of organisation to pull this festival together. The effort is worth it. For four days from this Thursday, Leeds will truly become a Mecca for those who like their words powerful, potent.

Forward Best Power Prize winner Ian Duhig will be performing on Friday morning at the Howard Assembly Room alongside Forward Prize winning Kim Moore and Trinidadian writer Andrew Bagoo. Leeds legend Khadijah Ibrahim will be hosting a performance of personal poetry from members of the public at Leeds Central Library at 2pm on Friday and then back at the Howard Assembly Room, Friday night sees a performance from one of the country’s most popular poets, Lemn Sissay, who will be sharing his collection Let the Light Pour In. Taken from a collection amassed over the past decade by Sissay, who has composed a short poem as dawn breaks each morning, he will read the poems and also hold a Q&A session.

Leeds Playhouse on Friday will play host to a seriously impressive event: the premiere of Italo Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller, dramatised by and starring Toby Jones and Tim Crouch. Jones, an actor known for his outstanding work, joining a theatre maker like no other, it is a seriously tempting prospect.

bbc.co.uk/containsstronglanguage