An evening with Caleb Femi

The West Kirby Bookshop and Liverpool Architecture Foundation are pleased to present an evening with the acclaimed, award winning poet, Caleb Femi, to celebrate the launch of his latest collection, The Wickedest.
Join us on Tuesday 3rd December, 7pm, when Caleb will be reading from his collection, before being in conversation with Matthew Ashton, Director of MGMA Architects Limited, answering questions from the audience and signing copies of The Wickedest.

Tickets for the event are £7/ £19 (inc. a copy of The Wickedest).

Please note that tickets are non-refundable, and if you can't make the event and would like to secure a signed/dedicated copy of the book, do get in touch with us- [email protected]
This event is being held at LEAF on Bold Street (L1 4EZ) and is the launch of territory___sancutary, a series of collaborative events between the bookshop and Liverpool Architecture Festival that aims to explore the questions 'where do we build our sancturary?' and 'how do we define our territory?'.

The series will present contemporary writers and architects in conversation, with a whole host of wonderful guests to be announced for 2025.
About The Wickedest:
'Hypnotic and freewheeling' --- Guardian
'One of London’s most renowned poets … His creativity unbound’
--- Salma El-Wardany, BBC Radio London
'I dream to be a Caleb Femi … I love the collection so much; I love everything about it …’ ----- Nick Grimshaw, BBC Radio 6
'From its first word this is poetry that moves and is felt in the body; the poem taken from the page to the dance floor of the club.’ --- Andrew McMillan, author of Pity

This is a minute-by-minute depiction of a typical night at a legendary monthly house party known as 'The Wickedest'. Here, we meet a vivid cast of characters, young and old, all surfing a revelry steeped in camaraderie, community, desire and a spirit of jubilant defiance.

A modern epic, The Wickedest explores the institution of shoobs or house parties and their vital role within working-class communities. The poems range from classical English sonnets to experimental forms and are immersively interwoven with photographs, text messages and ephemera. The collection playfully dissembles parties – in space, sound, law and bureaucracy – to document the precarious existence of our nightlife venues.

In Caleb Femi's inimitable, cinematic style the book builds to a crescendo that is at once euphoric and grief-soaked. The Wickedest calls us to cast our minds to the moments we stood surrounded by our loved ones on a dancefloor, arms outstretched, and freed ourselves from the weight of reality to float.

About Caleb Femi:
Caleb Femi is a writer, director and photographer, and was featured in the Dazed 100 list of the next generation shaping youth culture. Femi’s award-winning debut poetry collection, Poor, was published in 2020 by Penguin, and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2021. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, longlisted for the Jhalak Prize, was selected as a Book of the Year by The New Statesman, Financial Times, Guardian, Observer, Rough Trade and the BBC, and was added to AQA's English Literature GCSE syllabus in the UK in 2022. He has directed TV episodes for HBO, the BBC and Netflix, as well as commercials, high-fashion films and runway shows for brands such as Louis Vuitton, TikTok, Bottega Veneta, Dior, Mulberry and NCS. From 2016 to 2018 he was the Young People’s Laureate for London, working with young people on a city, national and global level.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Leaf, 65-67 Bold Street, Liverpool, United Kingdom