Crosspath

intercultural theatre and performing arts company

John Agard



John Agard was born and educated in Guyana. He came to Britain in 1977 and is an internationally recognised poet. He was winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012. Other awards include the Casa de las Américas Prize (1982), Paul Hamlyn Award (1997), a Cholmondeley Award (2004) and an Eleanor Farjeon Award (2016). His book, We Brits, was shortlisted for the 2007 Decibel Writer of the Year Award and he has won the Guyana Prize twice. In 1989 he became the first poet-in-residence at London’s South Bank Centre; in 1998 he was poet-in-residence at the BBC and in 2007 at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

His many collections of poetry for children and adults, include Playing the Ghost of Maimonides, Travel Light, Travel Dark and Alternative Anthem (all Bloodaxe Books), The Young Inferno - a spin on Dante's classic for young readers which was awarded the 2009 CLPE Poetry Prize - and Book (Walker Books) in which Book tells its own story. He is on the current GCSE syllabus and performs his work widely across Britain as part of GCSE Poetry Live.

John's relationship with theatre began in Guyana, where he was an active member of the
All-Ah-We theatre group. In the UK, he has had three verse plays commissioned by Little Angel Marionette Theatre and collaborated with composer Orlando Gough, writing lyrics for the offbeat requiem, Dead Head, premiered at the Brighton Early Music Festival 2010. He has written four plays for Crosspath: The Pied Piper of Londinium (2010), Calibania (2011, still in development), Puff (2013/2014) and Baron Samedi & Maman Brigitte (2014, still in development) as well as developing his one man show, Roll Over Atlantic (2015)

Links:
Mr Oxford Don (YouTube) »
Alternative Anthem (YouTube) »