Name: Bad Betty Live May
Start: 2026-05-15T18:00:00+01:00
Location: New Art Exchange

A dynamic night of live poetry and music, showcasing exciting acts from Notts, the UK and beyond in a warm, inclusive setting. BSL signed.
“Fierce and bristling with life” – The Guardian
“The very best of contemporary poetry” – The Book Hive
Award-winning publishing house Bad Betty Press presents poetry and music.
Featuring poetry from Nick Makoha, Maria Ferguson, Hannah Silva, Keith Jarret and Tyrone Lewis and music from Daudi Matsiko.
Hosted by Bridie Squires and Jake Wild Hall.
BSL interpreted by Steph Lehrle.
Supported by Arts Council England.
VENUE & ACCESS:
This event is part of NAE's Friday Night Socials. It takes place in the Performance Space of New Art Exchange, on the first floor. NAE has a lift and accessible toilets. The building is fitted with induction loops for enhanced sound. Disabled parking is available on request. Full accessibility info here.
New Art Exchange (NAE) is the UK’s largest gallery dedicated to contemporary visual arts from the Global Ethnic Majority. Based in Hyson Green, Nottingham, NAE champions inclusivity and equity in the creative industries, nurturing and celebrating talent from diverse backgrounds About Us page on our website.
ABOUT THE ACTS
NICK MAKOHA
Dr Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright based in London and founder of Obsidian Foundation. His new collection is The New Carthaginians, (Penguin 2025). Winner of the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and the Poetry London Prize. In 2017, Nick’s debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity, was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was one of the Guardian’s best books of the year. His poems have appeared in Poetry, the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, 5 Dials, Boston Review, Callaloo, Birmingham Lit Journal and Wasafiri. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) and one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2025.
MARIA FERGUSON
Maria Ferguson is a writer and performer. Her poetry has been widely anthologised and published in literary magazines such as Magma, The Rialto, The North and The Poetry Review. She was a finalist of the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2024 and her debut collection, Alright, Girl? (Burning Eye, 2020), was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. On the stage, her one-woman show Fat Girls Don’t Dance (Oberon, 2017) won the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show; Essex Girl (Oberon, 2019) was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award and won Show of the Week at VAULT Festival. She has been commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts, Stylist magazine, The Bronte Parsonage and BBC Radio. Her work has been featured in The Guardian and on Radio 4’s The Verb and Woman’s Hour. She is the Associate Producer of LIVEwire Poetry and teaches creative writing in a variety of settings. Her second poetry collection, Swell was published in 2025 by Penguin Random House.
HANNAH SILVA
Hannah Silva is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction. Their eighth BBC radio play, “An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love” was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm – a memoir exploring love and queer single parenting, woven into surreal and funny contributions by an early, open source large language model, and a toddler. Silva won the Tinniswood Award for radio drama and has been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes award and the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness. Silva’s first collection, Forms of Protest (Penned in the margins) was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Talk in a bit, Silva's record of sound poetry in collaboration with award-winning musicians is available on Spotify or on vinyl through bandcamp. Crow, Pirate, Fly (Bad Betty Press) is their second poetry collection.
KEITH JARRETT
Keith Jarrett is an international slam champion and was selected for the International Literary Showcase as an outstanding LGBT writer. His poem, ‘From the Logbook’, was projected onto St. Paul’s Cathedral. His play, Safest Spot in Town, was performed at the Old Vic and aired on BBC Four.
His work has been widely anthologised across poetry, fiction and essay forms. He has appeared in Benjamin Zephaniah’s BAFTA-winning show Life & Rhymes and in documentaries on Black and queer history.
Keith is a Lambda Literary and an Obsidian Fellow, and holds a PhD from Birkbeck University, where he was awarded the Bloomsbury Studentship. He currently teaches at NYULondon. His collection, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied is a PBS Spring recommendation.
TYRONE LEWIS
Tyrone Lewis (He/him), UK Poetry Slam Champion, Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion, Axis Poetry Slam Champion and Author of his debut collection 'Blackish' and its sequel, '2 Black 2 Furious'.Tyrone is the Founder of Process Production as well as its monthly Spoken Word Night; Process. He was also one of the inaugural Albany Associate Artists as well as hosting, producing, and featuring at many Spoken Word nights across the UK.Tyrone has also been involved with a number of major national poetry events over the years including 2010's Word Cup, 2012's Shake The Dust and 2015's Shot From The Lip, as well as helping out with UniSlam in from 2016 - present.
DAUDI MATSIKO
Nottingham based, British-Ugandan singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko carefully crafts modern albeit reverent folk. Deft, melancholic picking reminiscent of Nick Drake is tempered by contemporary percussion and instrumentation. Matsiko's vocals derive their strength from their seeming fragility
ABOUT BAD BETTY:
Bad Betty Press is an award-winning independent poetry publisher, and curator of live literature events taking place across the UK. London-born, Nottingham-based, Bad Betty was set up in 2017 with the aim of showcasing risk-taking poetry, supporting poets’ artistic development and celebrating stories less often told.
Bad Betty was Highly Commended in this year's British Book Awards' Small Press of the Year category, has been a Midlands Finalist the last 3 years, won the Michael Marks Publishers' Award in 2022, and is the parent of pamphlet imprint, Little Betty.
“The epitome of bold independence” – The Big Issue
“Serious quality” – LeftLion