At this workshop participants will be invited to learn about Polari and its sociohistorical significance, engage in a creative writing exercise using Polari at its base, and develop skills in sharing your writing in an informal, non-judgemental way.

Registration for the event is free, but places must be booked in advance   via   here. The event will be held at our City Campus, Grand Parade and on Zoom so please specify when you book the event.

At the start of the workshop, participants watch a short poetry film by Lee called The Tale of Benny Harris (2022) a film written entirely in Polari (gay slang). Lee then explains how his interest in Polari was triggered when he attended a Polari-writing workshop in Manchester several years ago where he was encouraged to write his own Polari phrases and how this led to the eventual development of a poem he wrote called The Tale of Benny Harris. Participants are then given copies of a Polari dictionary which Lee uses as a basis for discussion including identifying Polari words that they may already be using. Lee then invites participants to write their own rhyming Polari phrases and then, invites participants to speak their phrases out aloud for everyone to enjoy.

Dr Lee Campbell is an artist, performance poet, experimental filmmaker, writer, Senior Lecturer at University of the Arts London, and curator/founder of Homo Humour, the first of its kind project on contemporary queer male film and moving image practices that explore humour and LGBTQ+ storytelling and has screened all over the world since 2020.  His experimental performance poetry films have been selected for many international film festivals since 2019. Lee had his first solo exhibition in North America of his poetry films, SEE ME: Performance Poetry Films at Fountain Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A in July 2022. His film SEE ME won Best Experimental Film at Ealing Film Festival 2022.

Check out more about Lee Campbell: here