When the schools go back in September, Southbank Centre, London, starts planning ahead how we can keep kids entertained during the February half-term at our Imagine Children’s Festival. This year Imagine is taking place from Wednesday 7th until Saturday 17th February with theatre, comedy, music, literature and dance for ages 0-11 and their grown-ups. Making suggestions of poets that we can bring to the festival is one of the joys of working with the children’s books in the National Poetry Library.
Our regular Friday morning Rug Rhymes sessions for under-5s in the NPL are as popular as ever and so we’re thrilled to be going large on the Clore Ballroom with a free Rug Rhymes led by Chitra Soundar, based around her picture book Pattan’s Pumpkin: An Indian Flood Story. Join Chitra to flap like a firefly, float inside a pumpkin and sing familiar nursery rhymes on Friday 9th February at either 10.30am or 2pm, and stick around for Choogh Choogh at 11.30am or 3pm for a delightful train journey through India.
Then on Monday 12th February it’s our Day of Poetry within the festival in the National Poetry Library. This year we’ve planned three poetry workshops aimed at different age groups.
At 10.45am we have a writing and illustration workshop for ages 3-6 led by Antoinette Brooks, Picture a Poem. I’ve fallen in love with Antoinette’s rhyming picture book Grandma Grandma Brave and Tall (Bright Thoughts Publishing) about the stories and courage grandmothers pass on to their grandchildren, and we’re delighted Antoinette is bringing another creation, Tippy Tappy Catkins to the library to inspire little ones to write simple poems and create their own Tippy Tappy picture to take home.
Next up at 1pm we have Poems Aloud! a writing and sharing workshop for ages 5-7 with Shagufta K Iqbal. Shagufta will focus on writing poems to share with family and friends about your thoughts, hopes and dreams, and she’ll also pass on some performance tips. Her poems for adults have seen her named as one of Asiana Magazine’s favourite British Asian poets and we’re delighted that she’s started to write poems for children and will be featured in the upcoming SPIN anthology (along with Antoinette) from Otter-Barry Books.
Finally, at 2.45pm we have Putting It in a Letter with Stephen Lightbown. In this workshop Stephen will guide children aged 7-11 in a workshop exploring letter-writing as a technique to write poems as a way to try and understand things that may at first seem confusing or difficult to put into words. Stephen’s book And I Climbed and Climbed draws on his own experiences as a wheelchair user and tells the story of a boy called Cosmo as he comes to terms with the accident that has changed his life. It was one of my favourite children’s poetry books of 2023.
Tickets for our workshops usually sell out, so grab one for a child and their accompanying adult while you can. If you miss out, on Thursday 15th February poetry is taking centre stage on the Clore Ballroom with SPIN: Raps, Poems and Stories.
This free drop-in event, taking place from 10.30am and again from 1pm, will be an interactive performance for children aged 5+ celebrating the launch of a new poetry anthology for children, edited by Joseph Coelho (the Waterstones Children’s Laureate) called SPIN. The anthology features ten diverse poets from across the country who have been mentored by Joseph in association with Apples and Snakes and Otter-Barry Books.
Please find out about all the events taking place at the Imagine Festival here: Southbank Centre
And we hope that if you do come to the festival you’ll come and visit the National Poetry Library or our Little Library. Our usual opening hours are 12-6 on Tuesday, 12-8 Wednesday through to Sunday.
Lorraine Mariner
Lorraine Mariner is an Assistant Librarian at the National Poetry Library where she has worked for over 15 years. She has published two poetry collections for adults with Picador, Furniture (2009) and There Will Be No More Nonsense (2014), and two pamphlets Bye For Now (The Rialto, 2005) and Anchorage (Grey Suit Editions, 2020).
Children's Poetry Summit 
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