Women Speak Volumes in Conversation throws the spotlight on the work of pioneering creative older women whose stories need to be told. Over the course of seven weeks we will present seven ground-breaking women who have forged careers across different art forms and whose stories are an inspiration to us all.
Wednesday 14 May 2025 at 7.00–8.30pm
198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, 198 Railton Road, London SE24 0JT
£5
Nowadays Caribbean English is often regarded as cool, but that wasn’t always the case. In Jamaica, icon Louise Bennett made Jamaican English popular from the 1950s on through her poems, recordings, radio and TV programmes. Valerie Bloom MBE, rightly seen as Miss Lou’s successor, has brought this rich tradition to UK audiences through her own writing over the last 30+ years, enabling ‘nation language’ – the term coined by the late Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite – to be celebrated as a vibrant and valid form of English.
Valerie Bloom was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1956 and came to the UK in 1979, attending the University of Kent. She is the author of several volumes of poetry for adults and children, picture books, pre-teen and teenage novels and stories for children, and has edited various collections of children’s poetry. She has also written articles for teaching periodicals and for newspapers such as the Guardian and The Independent. Valerie has presented poetry programmes for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and has contributed to various radio and television programmes such as Fine Lines, Woman’s Hour and The Verb. Her poetry has been featured on Poems on the Underground, included in the GCSE and Caribbean exam syllabuses and is in over 600 anthologies worldwide. Valerie’s awards include: Poetry Book Society Choices for ‘Hot Like Fire’ (2002) and ‘Whoop an’ Shout’ (2003); Nestle Smarties Bronze Award for ‘Fruits’ (2000); and the 2022 CLIPPA Award for her poetry book ‘Stars With Flaming Tails’. She was awarded an Honorary Master’s Degree from the University of Kent and received an MBE in the 2008 New Year’s Honours list. Valerie currently lives in Kent.
Come and hear about the life and work of this pioneering author whose captivating poetry and stories has enabled readers and audiences young and old to enjoy and value Caribbean English. Valerie will be in conversation with literary co-founder of .
These conversations are part of a wider project: Women Speak Volumes Between Generations. Produced in collaboration by Speaking Volumes, Words of Colour and the George Padmore Institute, in association with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning and the University of Coastal Carolina.
This is the final of seven conversations running from 19 February to 14 May which will throw the spotlight on the work of pioneering creative older black women whose stories need to be shared.
The Women Speak Volumes project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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