Join us for a special evening on 23 March from 18:30 - 21:00 to celebrate the launch of Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson’s debut pamphlet, the heart is a holding. A book that explores a visceral journey through birth, life and death cycles across personal, intergenerational and ancestral time. Published by Burning Eye Books.
An incredible collection of poems that begins with a poet’s To-Do List, which becomes the muscle and heart of a life’s intention and care, until the book ends with the completed list. I love and admire this brilliant and unique book. - CAConrad
For one night only, come along to celebrate this exciting milestone with Lateisha and the community at Common Press. Expect a cosy, warm, and inspiring evening filled with engaging conversation, reflection, readings and celebration. This debut pamphlet introduces Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson’s powerful voice as an author, and invites readers into a space of tenderness, depth, and connection.
Whether you’re a long-time supporter or discovering Lateisha’s work for the first time, we’d love for you to join us for this intimate and unforgettable night. Hosted at Common Press, Lateisha will also be joined by dear friends and co-conspirators. For a celebration of new poetic writing and conversation, in a welcoming and inclusive space.
Event timings
6:30-7 - Doors and grab a complimentary 1st drink (first come first served)
7-7:10 - Common Press and Lateisha intro with opening reading from LATEISHA
7:10 - 7:40 - In conversation with friends ZAHRA and TOMMY from Sacred Circle
7:40 - 8:10 pm - friends share their fave poems from the heart is a holding in relationship to their own work. HASTI, HADIRU and CAROLINE
8:10 - 8:20 - closing reading with LATEISHA
8:20 - 9 - mingling, chat and vibe
event ends at 9pm
About the author:
Photo credit: Kes Gill-Martin
Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson (they /she). Born and raised in London and West Yorkshire to Jamaican parents, Lateisha is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, nature practitioner, social justice facilitator and somatic therapist. Their debut poetry pamphlet ‘the heart is a holding’ is published with Burning Eye Books. Lateisha's writing has been shared across the UK and internationally, including with Montez Press and Radio, V&A Museum, Bethlem Gallery, Camden Art Centre, Queer Ecologies Festival, misery meals cookbook, Free Word, Wort Journal, Skew: Black Embodiment, ]performance s p a c e[, Artsadmin, resting up collective, Southbank Centre, The Albany and For Books’ Sake.
Lateisha’s plays include A Tree, S/He Breathe/S, well de memory came and De Original Sound, with work produced by Raze Collective and Stanley Arts. Lateisha’s film The Gift - was selected for LADA Screens. They are a Roundhouse and Hammer & Tongue poetry slam finalist, and an alumnus of Obsidian Foundation, Apples and Snakes’ Writing Room and Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab.
More information: Linktree
About the Guests:
Tommy Ross-Williams (they/them) is a dear friend, writer, director and artist whose work focuses on embodying a more just world.
Zahra Dalilah is a Black feminist writer and facilitator from Lewisham. She dedicates her life to manifesting her vivid and colourful dreams of collective liberation and deep reciprocal tender and tussling interconnection between the being and the self, the sibling and the land.
Caroline Druitt is a writer and facilitator. Her poems have been shortlisted for the aesthetica creative writing award, the Bridport prize & commended in the National Poetry Competition. She is currently working on a hybrid work exploring pain, chronic illness & folklore around healing.
Brother portrait is a London-born Sierra Leonean artist & writer often thinking on: memory and objects as vessels; how we're shaped by space and place; the limits of language; social living; map making and; freedom dreaming. His preoccupations find form in poetry, prose and song.
Hasti is a poet and writer living in South East London. A member of the inaugural Southbank New Poets Collective and the Ledbury Poetry Critics, they are the recipient of the 2023 White Review Poet's Prize, the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry, and have recently published poems in bathmagg, Propel magazine, and The Poetry Review. They have co-written short sci-fi film DIGGING, produced by Film4, and published pamphlets ‘U’ with Reference Press and ‘Agitations & Birdsong’ with Bleet! zine. Hasti also hosts open mic and poetry night Fresh Lip, and its sister show for Montez Press Radio, Fresh Air. Their debut pamphlet ‘young, dumb, and full of poems’ is out now with Little Betty.
Poster design, Instagram image, and banner - Fredde Lanka
N:B The Common Press is wheelchair accessible with wheelchair accessible toilets
