Louisa performing at the Exeter Respect Festival © Maisie Hill
Reading at the Quay Words Residency
Readings
Louisa is available for poetry and fiction readings (currently online, and hopefully soon, live). She has performed her work widely in the South West and beyond, including at numerous libraries, prisons, colleges, schools and community centres; the Poetry Café; as part of The Enemies Project South West Tour with Josephine Corcoran; Goldsmiths University; the Dylan Thomas Centre; Ilkley Literature Festival; and Bournemouth Literary Festival. She has frequently performed at the Exeter Respect festival, where she supported Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Watch the recording of Can You Poet: Mixed Heritage Britain, in which Louisa reads some of her poetry, along with some fantastic poets and speakers.
Click here to hear Louisa reading from her collections, How to wear a skin, and She can still sing, for Literature Works & Somerset Libraries: Word Online presents a reading by Louisa Adjoa Parker and Q&A for Somerset Libraries – Crowdcast
Or here for Louisa's reading for the Out of Bounds project: (271) Louisa Adjoa-Parker - - YouTube
Workshops
Louisa can deliver creative writing workshops to participants of different ages and abilities. She can work with the organisation to tailor workshops according to need. She enjoys exploring themes that many people find easy to engage with, such as identity, memory, place and home, and encourages participants to write about their own experiences. Louisa is friendly and open, and aims to create an informal atmosphere in her workshops. She is passionate about making literature accessible to all, and exploring important topics through the written word.
Louisa is one of the Wild Collaborative team, inspiring young people to engage with nature and green spaces through poetry.
Watch the writing workshop Louisa produced for The Arts Development Company, Nature Writing for Wellbeing, here.
Writing workshop at Thelma Hulbert Gallery
Delivering a Lit Up! writing workshop
Co-delivering a writing workshop for B Sharp
‘Louisa was a very supportive tutor; her love and enthusiasm for literature shone through. She valued everyone's contributions, despite our varying levels of experience, and gave us some excellent frameworks/models to help us write. Her feedback was encouraging, signposting ways for me to improve my pieces, without harsh criticism. I liked the fact that our writing was for a purpose and some of our pieces could be included in her anthology. This deadline helped me to be more disciplined in completing my work. Louisa allowed us to develop our own style of writing without imposing hers upon us.’
Hilary Knowles
Louisa has delivered writing workshops at venues including HMP YOI Portland; Dorchester prison; Exeter College; Exeter University; Bournemouth University; North Devon College and numerous schools across the South West. She worked on the Arvon Foundation's Teachers as Writers project in 2016, and co-taught a course for them in January 2017.
‘We really enjoyed having Louisa as our Writer in Residence. She was a real enabler, and packed a lot into her workshops. The final anthology, which included work by participants and Louisa herself, is a fantastic record of the residency and testimony to her excellent teaching.’
Janet Westcott, Poole Libraries.
Talks
Louisa can deliver talks on topics including local and national black history; racism and rural racism; domestic violence and its impact; mental health and racism; or intersectionality and mental health. She has delivered talks at venues including universities; libraries: prisons; and heritage centres.
‘On behalf of the National Trust, I’d like to thank Louisa for delivering such a powerful and impactful session for us about the impacts of racism on mental health, as part of Race Equality Week. We’ve had numerous colleagues contacting us to express how meaningful the session was to them and how it taught them more than any other session we have run on the topic of race. Louisa was a warm and open facilitator who really engaged with our audience. She was professional and efficient to work with beforehand in the organising of the session – taking on board our brief and creating a session which met our needs exactly. Thanks again Louisa – we’d definitely like to work with you again one day.’
Ailish Breen, Inclusion lead
‘Louisa is a speaker of remarkable versatility and has delivered a number of brilliant talks, poetry readings and panel discussions at the University of Exeter, across both Exeter and Cornwall campuses. Her talks on Black history in the region have been incredibly informative and insightfully connected with contemporary lived experiences, inspiring staff and students alike to reassess prevailing narratives and embark on their own research. Each time Louisa has brought additional knowledge and a considered, professional and thought-provoking approach to a range of difficult subjects, including rural racism and mental health, skilfully facilitating space for open questions and challenging discussion. We very much look forward to working with her again in the future!’
Rae Preston, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor, University of Exeter (Cornwall)
Prior public speaking engagements
Why Black Lives Matter in the British Countryside, October 2020
Nature of Prosperity Dialogue—Nature Writing for the Common Good, Nov 2020 (2/2)
OKRE’s Tales Not of the City: Amplifying Rural and Smaller Town Voices
A literary lecture on Dorset's Black History at Dorset County Museum 2007
Dorset's Hidden History talk at Dorset History Centre 2009
Black history at the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival (panelist)
REFUGEES IMMIGRATION RACISM: talk on Dorset's black history 2015
Co-presentor of African American GIs in Devon and Dorset at What's Happening in Black British History? IV
Letters from yesterday - Bare Lit festival 2016 (panelist)
What does it mean to be a person of colour in rural Britain? Talk given to the Bridport Labour Party 2017
Black British histories from the South West - talk given at HMP Channings Wood and HMP Exeter 2017
Black British histories from the South West - talk given at Black Ballad event 2017
History in schools: Time for a change? Cheltenham Literature Festival 2017 (panelist)
Did Black People Exist Before Slavery? Bristol SU (panelist)