POEMS FOR THE WAITING ROOM

 In Praise of Diversity - a new collection

LAUNCH WITH POET LAUREATE on 5th October

Forty five new poem-posters will soon be going on display in health locations across the UK - with Poet Laureate Andrew Motion helping to launch the initiative at the ACAD Building, Central Middlesex Hospital on Wednesday 5th October. 

Each of the new poems is written in a non-English language, with an English translation beside it. In the most direct way possible, the poems reflect and celebrate the diversity of our present day community.

Following the launch, the hospital will host a permanent exhibition of ten enlarged versions of the poems for the benefit of the patients, visitors and staff alike.

For the past two years the Poems for the Waiting Room project has been funded jointly by: the Arts Council, NHS Estates, the Baring Foundation and the Foreign Office. It is managed by the charity Hyphen-21.

Last year’s Foreign Office collection resulted in ten new bi-lingual poems, one from each of the new European Union countries. This year a further 35 poems have been added to the bi-lingual collection. They include poems in Arabic, Farsi/Persian, Kurdish, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Somali, Turkish and several more poems in European languages.

Starting at 6.00 pm on 5th October, there will be a public reading of some of the poems by a range of readers. Some of the poets will read their own work, followed by the English translation. Some of the poems will be read by NHS staff who speak those languages. Andrew Motion will be one of several who will read the English translations. There will be 10 enlargements of the poems on display.

The venue will be the ACAD Building, Central Middlesex Hospital, Acton Lane, Park Royal, NW10 7NS.  Representatives from several of the partner organisations will also be present.

Besides Andrew Motion, a range of guests will be attending the event including Dawn Butler MP, Brent South; Mary Wells, Chief Executive of the hospital Trust; Kate Crowe and Mara Yamauchi from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Colleen Barron from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Barry Mussenden from the Department of Health Equality and Human Rights Group, David Morris and Audrey Young from the Mayor of London’s office.

Some of the poets who have contributed to the new collection will also be present. These include : Stephen Watts, Debjani Chatterjee, Mevlut Ceylan, Amarjit Chandan, Ayshe Gul, Esmail Khoi, Martin Orwin, Mazhar Tirmazi, Shadab Vajdi.
                                

Notes to Editors 

You are invited to send a photographer/camera crew/reporter to cover the launch of Poems for the Waiting Room on Wednesday 5th October, 6.00 pm in the main foyer of the ACAD Building, Central Middlesex Hospital, Acton Lane, Park Royal, NW10 7NS.  At approx 7.30pm, towards the end of the event, there will be a public Q&A session with Andrew Motion followed by a photo opportunity with him and others.

Biography
Andrew Motion is the author of a number of books of poems, biographies and critical studies. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and has received various major
literary prizes. In May 1999 he was appointed the nation’s Poet Laureate. He lives in London with his wife and their three children.