Creative Reactions Launch Event

Lucy Grace is a writer and researcher in the second year of a creative and critical PhD at Nottingham Trent University, titled ‘Mines, Memory and the Geological Imagination in the Anthropocene’. She combines fictional narratives with work on place, the subsurface, coal mines and the energy humanities. Her research is funded by AHRC / M4C and the Arts Council, and she also works as a writing tutor for Inspire Libraries and Writing East Midlands in North Nottinghamshire. Her fiction is published in over twenty print and online anthologies and has won or been placed in international awards including the Aesthetica, Mslexia, the Bristol Prize, the Berlin Prize, the Alpine Fellowship and first place in the Writers and Artists Yearbook Short Story Competition. Her longer work has also been long and shortlisted in several novel awards. Currently she is working on a novel set in a Midlands colliery village after the pits have closed down, following the characters in their search for a boy vanished in the voids of the abandoned mine. Geology and the subsurface remains
an enduring fascination in her work.

PAUL NOSE, the alter ego of Italian musician Kecco Recchia, blends blues, rock and Italian songwriting. After an intense career in Italy, he first moved to NYC in 2011 then to the UK cultivating his English songwriting and exploring new territories, releasing his debut album PLUG AND PRAY in 2012. He continued producing songs in Italian under the name KECCORE': albums like STRAFATTO IN CASA (2014) the album from which LOGICHE RELAZIONALI is taken. This song is included in the soundtrack of PANE E BURLESQUE, a highly successful Italian film in which he also makes a small cameo appearance, portraying himself. Kecco kept gigging between England and Italy performing both originals and covers as a solo artist with his guitar and loop station, as well as with bands. In 2016 he releases another album in Italian called ANNI MOSSI as KECCORE’, which is promoted through the show IL PENDOLO, inspired by the theatrical songs of Gaber and Luporini. It would be released later as a live album in 2020. In 2020, during the pandemic, he fused his personas into the experimental and provocative project ONE MINUTE OLD: nine one-minute songs with a hidden question: is our attention span really so low? In 2021 he released EXIT his second album as PAUL NOSE with some tracks featured on BBC Introducing Nottingham and aired on Notts TV. Notable for being the musical director with the Paul Nose Band for the FAME UK REUNION in 2019 (Liverpool) and 2022 (Birmingham), Kecco teaches Italian at the University of Nottingham and supports emerging songwriters through INSPIRE charity.

Hailing from Uruguay, Caetano Capurro is not just a DJ and poet, but a true wordsmith who's found his artistic haven right here in Nottingham. * He delves into the rich tapestry of race, immigration, mental health, and a range of other thought-provoking subjects, with a theatre background steeped in directing and writing.

Devjani Bodepudi is an award winning poet based in the UK and has been published widely in several anthologies and zines. She is greatly inspired by the intersectionality of things and is particularly interested in nature, race and motherhood. Devjani’s novel, MIRRORS was published by Holland House in 2019 and her debut poetry pamphlet, FOR THE DAUGHTERS CARRIED HERE ON THE HIPS OF THEIR MOTHERS (Fawn Press) won the Saboteur Award, 2023. She was also shortlisted for the Aurora Prize 2023.

After lurking around the edges of the Nottingham music scene for almost a decade, multi- instrumentalist and educator Undead Presidents decided to pull his finger out and make some music. What came to be was not entirely expected. A bit political; a bit angry; darkly comic even. It wasn’t the warm, organic, soulfilled soundscapes he’d imagined. Instead it had sharp edges and rough sonic surfaces. Using found and homemade samples, digital synthesis and electronic beats the music is definitely for dancing. Undead Presidents have arrived to move you both emotionally and physically. Mostly physically.

Manjit Sahota is the co-founder of Poets Against Racism and a local Nottingham poet who has performed in number of venues in Nottingham and around the country since 2016. Manjit has delivered workshops for several schools, universities and local organisations in Nottingham, sharing his spoken word poetry to encourage others to write, read and perform poetry. He has delivered several projects for the National Literacy Trust, Nottingham Trent
University, National Justice Museum and Refugee Week. Manjit formed PAR in 2016 to rally poets, spoken word artist and rappers to use their poetry
to challenge the rise in racism and spread the word of unity, humanity and Love. ‘Poetry for me is the memory of our history, struggle and resistance’ Manjit

Ben Macpherson is a Nottingham based Writer Performer and Theatre Maker. His work encompasses plays, poems and prose, and each carries his signature playfulness. Ben’s credits include BBC Radio 2, 4 extra and Local radio as well as live shows that have toured the country. He is a director of Nottingham Poetry Festival and also MissImp, the UK’s longest running open access improv theatre company. He has worked for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, completed several Arts Council projects and in 2023 he received the Artists Award from the British School at Athens. He is a member of the GOBS collective and Nottingham Queer Arts collective. His debut poetry book, Serious Nonsense for Terribly Grown Up People was published in 2023 by Big White Shed.

Born in Wales, Chris grew up in a small town in South Devon and now lives in the village of Ruddington, Nottingham. He metamorphosed into a geek at the age of 14, when his request to study O-level Woodwork and make a skateboard deck was rejected. His school had a new computer studies course to fill and needed fodder. The rest was happenstance. By randomly typing letters and strange symbols into these computers, Chris discovered he could make stuff happen. Occasionally the right stuff. Later the revelation came that poetry, writing, and indeed art, utilised pretty much the same process. Never knowingly achieving much, Chris does not let a lack of actual talent stand in his way. He seems happy, and that’s all that matters really.

Paul Giffney, the 10th Bard of Northampton, is a published poet, teacher and personal tutor. He is also a trained celebrant (person who creates and ‘performs’ ceremonies), and continues to be a general supporter of the creative world, loving how words can make a difference in many lives.
He currently lives in Northampton with his husband, his cat and a pile of books that do not fit on any shelf. (The books. The cat fits on every shelf).

Sandy Wardrop is a writer and stand-up poet from Peterborough, where he has been ‘Good Shout’ slam champion and runner up for Peterborough Poet Laureate, 2019/20. His graphic poem ‘It's Safe Here' went viral in 2019, gaining 16,000+ shares across the UK, USA, Australia and the Philippines.
Sandy's style ranges from the conversational to the experimental. Expect topics such as faith, mental health and how the pressures of modern living define what it means to truly be a good Klingon.