Poets & Players presents Imtiaz Dharker, Ella Frears, Martin Zarrop with music from Natalie Sharp

Please join Poets & Players on Saturday 29 March 2025, 2.30-4.00 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation for a wonderful line-up of poets and musicians.

You will find all the information you need regarding visiting the IABF on their website here. The event is free and everyone is welcome (no need to book tickets). Performers often bring along books and CDs to sell, please note we are only able to accept cash payments.

Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and video film maker, awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014, Chancellor of Newcastle University since 2020. Her seven collections, all published by Bloodaxe Books, include Over the Moon and the latest, Shadow Reader. Her poems have featured on BBC radio, television, the London Underground, Glasgow billboards and Mumbai buses. She has had eleven solo exhibitions of drawings and scripts and directs video films, many of them for non-government organisations working in the area of shelter, education and health for women and children in India.

Ella Frears is a poet and artist based in London. Her debut collection Shine, Darling was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the T. S. Eliot Prize. She has held residencies at the Tate Gallery, the National Trust, Royal Holloway University physics department, the Dartington Trust’s Grade II listed gardens, 16 motorway service stations, the number 17 bus in Southampton, and Exeter University’s environmental history department. Ella’s latest book Goodlord, which takes the form of one long email to an estate agent, was shortlisted for The Forward Prize, a Sky Arts Award, and was long-listed for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. She hosts chat and music show Tears for Frears on Soho Radio.

Martin Zarrop is a retired mathematician who wanted certainty but found life more interesting and fulfilling by not getting it. He started writing poetry in 2006. He has published three pamphlets: No Theory of Everything, Making Waves on the life and science of Albert Einstein, To Boldly Go as well as three full collections: Moving Pictures (Cinnamon 2016), Is Anyone There? (High Window Press 2020) and Turn Around When Possible (V.Press 2023) He has lived in the Manchester area since 1980 but zooms everywhere.

Natalie Sharp is a British artist, musician, and radical body activist of dual heritage. With a multidisciplinary practice spanning over 15 years, she challenges societal norms and advocates for inclusivity and accessibility within the art world and beyond. As a disabled artist herself, Natalie’s work traverses sound, vision, and costume, weaving together ambitious interactive multimedia performances that challenge perceptions and ignite conversations. Rooted in body activism, her practice embraces composed sound, electronic music, video, performance, and lighting, all underscored by a profound commitment to inclusivity and environmental consciousness. Drawing on her dual heritage, she incorporates elements of her cultural backgrounds into her art, weaving narratives of identity, heritage, and belonging.