Last Saturday, the Southbank Centre invited some of London’s most talented poetry collectives to take centre stage at the Urban Festival. An exploration into how city environments inspire people to become artists.

The event was mainly a celebration of collectives – how much of an impact it has made in poet’s lives to be part of a bigger voice. How a community of like-minded artists can make a difference to their confidence, creativity and support.

The Octavia Collective, which I’m lucky enough to be a part of, were one of the four groups featured. Led by the amazing Rachel Long, we are women of colour poets who meet every month at the Southbank Centre to write, read, discuss, edit and critique poetry. Our aim is to encourage women of colour to record their stories – in a safe space that listens and understands.

This was our second performance to date at the Southbank Centre and we were left elated. Seamlessly going from one poem to the next and ending with a piece that combined all of our work together. Proof that artists in numbers is magic multiplied.

Check out photos from the event below which also featured the collectives: Poets Platform, Spit The Atom and BARpoetry:

Words by – Anjali Barot
Rachel Long Twitter
Photography – Hark1karan