Poetry Day!

View the rarities, hidden gems and new acquisitions from the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world. The National Poetry Library’s annual Poetry Day! brings out all of the collections’ greatest hits. This year, the curated displays include a new artist’s book from Sam Winston – featuring poems by writers such as Raymond Antrobus – a series of concrete poetry sculptures in the shape of buildings and highlights collected by the National Poetry Library librarians so far this year. Throughout the day there are also free drop-in poetry workshops open to all. Live event at 1.30pm As we celebrate five years of the Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective, five performers from past collectives bring their recent pamphlets to the stage: Hasti, Erica Hesketh, Patrick Romero McCafferty, William Wyld and Annina Zheng-Hardy. With themes spanning land and labour, hauntings, intimacy, self-reinvention, late-stage capitalism and the anthropocene, this is an electric hour of wordplay from some of our most exciting emerging poets. Launched in 2021, New Poets Collective is the Southbank Centre’s year-long development programme. Co-facilitated by Vanessa Kisuule and Will Harris, the programme nurtures and showcases around 16 emerging voices per year.