Midsummer Readings with poets Chiamaka Enyi Amadi and Roger McGough

We welcome two poets to the stage for a very special Midsummer Reading.

Chiamaka Enyi Amadi is a Lagos-born, Galway-raised and Dublin-based writer, editor and spoken-word performer. Her work is published in Architecture Ireland 309, Poetry International 25/26, Poetry Ireland Review 127, IMMA Magazine, The MASI Journal, RTÉ Poetry Programme, Smithereens Press, The Bohemyth, The Irish Times, Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories (ed. Sinéad Gleeson), and Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets (co-ed. Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi & Pat Boran). She was the 2019 recipient of the Poetry Ireland Access Cúirt Bursary and her work was longlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Writing.ie Short Story of the Year 2020. A columnist at rogue, Enyi-Amadi lives in Dublin.

Roger McGough, the ‘Living proof of himself,’ and President of the Poetry Society not only helped kickstart the musical careers of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, but inspired hundreds, if not thousands of young poets on their poetic journeys. 85 years old and at that awkward age now between birth and death, he puts on a brave face and takes to the stage for a reading of new poems as well as old favourites. The show takes audiences on a journey back to key moments of his life. McGough reflects on his Liverpool childhood before World War II, with memories and poems including The Overall Winner and Learning to Read and a throw-back to the 60’s and poems of the Mersey Beat. New verses have been added for Lily the Pink which takes a playful update on the Scaffold’s 1968 classic.

As well as laughs, there will be poems about growing old; A Joy to be Old, A Cure for Ageing and Let me Die an Old Man’s Death, which aptly round up the new show.