Building solidarity through poetry: a celebration at Southwark Cathedral

Have you noticed that poetry helps us find our common humanity? We’re on a mission to build connections within and between communities - to reduce isolation and build solidarity and unity. There’s nothing like a good poem to connect us to one another - including people from very different walks of life.

Back in March, we launched a , welcoming anyone and everyone to write a poem on the theme of TOGETHERNESS. We have received poems from young and old, those currently in Pr*son (thanks to our poetry partner, Errol McGlashan), people who have experienced chronic loneliness, doctors, nurses, teachers, and people from a wide range of heritage, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. This event aims to bring as many of these people together as we can - along with interested people and organisations working on similar themes - to listen to some rare and incredible poems, and just have some fun.

You don’t have to be a poetry pro to join us!

The poetry challenge is part of a wider initiative called 32 Steps to Togetherness. Through our various lines of work at Civil Society Consulting, we have witnessed the rising levels of loneliness across all age groups, which leads to people feeling isolated and more hostile to others. To combat this social division, we believe we need more connection and community. That is why Civil Society Consulting is rolling out , a movement based on a manual of practical actions that we can all take to build connections within and between communities.

Why poetry?

Poetry can help us to make sense of the pain we experience as a result of isolation and division. Poetry can also connect us to one another - including people from very different walks of life. For some of us, writing can be therapeutic! The response to our call has been better than we ever expected. We have received over 400 poems, capturing the need for connection and community as human beings. Through these poems, we have identified how writing can be a powerful tool to release painful emotions.

In July this year, we held an in-person poetry workshop in Libreria Bookshop, in London, facilitated by Ovyuki and Aminah Rahman, and it was a beautiful evening where we witnessed the powerful effect of spoken word on people. We are delighted to host the awards ceremony and celebration of the Togetherness Poetry Challenge in Southwark Cathedral on November 30. Whether you’ve participated in the challenge or not, this is going to be an evening of creativity and connection, where everyone is invited to come and listen to spoken word performances. If you did submit a poem, we encourage you to come along and bring your poem!

The challenge has been a huge success. We’re happy to announce it's going to be an annual thing! If you didn’t have time to submit your poem this time, stay in the loop by following us on or receive our updates directly to your inbox .

Reverend Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark

The Very Reverend Dr. Mark Oakley, born in Shrewsbury, became Dean of Southwark in December 2023. He was previously Dean and Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge (2018-2023). Educated at Shrewsbury School and the universities of London and Oxford, he holds a PhD in English literature and has a passion for poetry, having written eight books, including The Splash of Words, which won the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize.

Mark is Canon Theologian of Wakefield Cathedral, Chaplain to the Vintners’ Company, and a respected speaker. He has received honours such as the 2023 Lanfranc Award for Education, a Doctor of Education from Chester University, and a 2020 Fellowship at King’s College London. He is also active in human rights work, serving as Ambassador for Stop Hate UK and Patron of Tell MAMA.

Pascale Petit

Pascale was born in Paris, grew up in France and Wales and lives in Cornwall. She is of French, Welsh and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection, Tiger Girl, from Bloodaxe in 2020, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, and for Wales Book of the Year. A poem from the book won the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize. Her seventh poetry collection Mama Amazonica, published by Bloodaxe in 2017, won the inaugural Laurel Prize in 2020, won the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2018, was shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice.

Ovyuki & Hidden Literature

Ovyuki is an author, poet, photographer, music producer, and founder of Hidden Literature. She has collaborated with brands like American Express, Coventry University, the National Trust, and Barking and Dagenham Libraries. Ovyuki has organised and hosted poetry and music events that have attracted well over 1,500 attendees, and leads workshops and performances. Hidden Literature hosts vibrant monthly open mic events in East London in partnership with the National Trust and Grow, Hackney, and also offers workshops, corporate events, poetry commissions, and a monthly book club.

Brad Young, Challenge Coordinator

Brad spent 16 years as a civil servant, grave digger and factory worker before becoming a teacher. During his 25 years in education he taught in PRUs, religious schools, private schools and state schools. During the time he ran many social projects as well as becoming the first English teacher to be trained at NASA. Since retiring he has indulged his passion for radio to produce music programmes and podcasts. Nowadays he works with organisations to help them train their staff to make their own programmes.

We encourage you to check out the , and watch before joining us.

Civil Society Consulting CIC has recently launched an initiative called 32 Steps to Togetherness, which is all about building connections within and between communities.

Over the last four and a half years, our team of non-profit consultants has supported over 250 organisations advancing health, equality and social cohesion across the UK (we provide affordable or free support). We have come to realise that all the issues we work on have a shared root cause: lack of social connection and loss of community. Isolation and loneliness has a detrimental effect on individuals. What’s more, widespread loneliness leads to social fragmentation, which inhibits democracy. Therefore, without connection and community, we are unhappy, unhealthy, divided and disempowered. Loneliness affects us all directly and indirectly.

So that’s the problem. Now here’s the solution. We’ve come up with 32 practical actions that we can all take - as individuals and as community leaders - to build connections, first within and then between communities. Here’s a video explaining more.

What are we doing? We want to support, celebrate and inspire civil society organisations that are bringing people together in their respective communities across the UK - and we want to bring them together with each other in a community of community leaders, which is united behind the 32 Steps vision.

how we're doing it:

• We’re providing free support to grassroots organisations (like this one in Middlesbrough)
• We’re running events (in-person conferences and online discussions, such as this one with the then Shadow Minister for Civil Society).
• We are also running a national poetry challenge in partnership with the National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre and other notable poets.

Finally, we’re also coalescing a wider community of supporters by building an online community on our Instagram channel, sharing stories of togetherness from diverse communities across the UK (e.g. this one about the Queen’s Walking Group in Lewisham)

32 Steps to Togetherness is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Civil Society Consulting CIC (CSC) is a non-profit working across the UK, with strong connections in the North East, North West and East of England, as well as in London where we are based. In a nutshell: we want health, equality and social solidarity (cohesion). We believe that restoring a sense of community and developing communities is the key, and therefore that the voluntary community sector (VCS) is key! We aim to strengthen the VCS sector by being a reliable source of excellent support for VCS organisations, which is either affordable (to medium-sized and larger organisations) or free (to small, grassroots organisations led by and for marginalised communities).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Cathédrale de Southwark, London Bridge, London, United Kingdom