The FA teamed up with Poet in the City to host one of the most unusual and exciting poetry events of the year in which some of the poets most associated with football read from their work and paid homage to the beautiful game.
Sceptics may view the pairing of football and poetry as an incongruous one, however, unbeknown to most, many football clubs now play host to resident poets.
“Football and poetry have a lot in common: they are performance arts with more socially communicative panache than many other forms of entertainment or competition – though of course both provide superlative entertainment too," performer Michael Horowitz explained.
The event supports The FA’s national education programme which aims to promote literacy and numeracy through its association with the National Literacy Council. Commenting on the event Sir Trevor Brooking, Director of Football Development at The FA, reiterated that: “The FA is keen to encourage young people to participate in the sport and to use their interest in the game to stimulate creativity and educational achievement.”
The evening included performances from:
Michael Horowitz – one of the UK’s most popular poets and singer-songwriter-musicians. Michael is the author of the ‘Wolverhampton Wanderer’ epic.
John Hegley – the celebrated bespectacled poet and performer is widely known as one of the UK’s most innovative comic artists. He is well known for his football poems and his lifelong support of Luton Town FC.
LJ – The FA’s ‘Football for All’ performance poet, LJ is also poet in residence for the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign and has recently performed at the UEFA ‘Unite against Racism’ conference in Barcelona.
Poet in the City is an official project of the Poetry Society, a registered charity and is committed to promoting poetry in the City of London and to raising funds to place poets in inner city schools to encourage children to read and write poetry.
The FA would like to congratulate Graham Henderson and all involved with Poet in the City for their hard work in staging the event and wish the project all the very best for the future.
You can find more information about Poet in the City by visiting http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/
