About this Event
Creatives of Colour Festival: Opening Night of Poetry & Spoken Word
Jim's Bar, Queen Margaret Union | Thursday May 7, 2026
Part of the , May 7-10, 2026.
Creatives of Colour Festival 2026 opens with an evening of spoken word and poetry from four incredible Scotland-based artists: Titi Farukuoye, Theresa Muñoz, Tawona Sithole, Chisom Okoronkwo; hosted by Esraa Hussein. Festival Co-Directors Zahra and Kevin will present the Festival welcome speech.
Tickets: £15 (solidarity) / £10 (standard) / £5 (concesion)
Pay what you can / no one turned away for lack of funds - please email [email protected] for this option.
Artist Info
Titi Farukuoye
Titilayo Farukuoye (they/them) is a writer, educator and organiser based in Glasgow. Their work addresses social justice and community care and is informed by rights and cultural leaders like Assata Shakur and Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. Titilayo invites us to dream and use our radical imagination to seek more just realities. Titilayo is part of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network and is a winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Their poetry pamphlet In Wolf’s Skin is available with Stewed Rhubarb Press and Titilayo’s non-fiction book But We Did: Dismantling colonialist myths towards collective liberation is forthcoming with Saraband.
Theresa Muñoz
Theresa Muñoz is a Canadian poet living in Edinburgh, Scotland, with a PhD from the University of Glasgow. She has published one collection of poetry, Settle, which was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize. Her second collection Archivum, an exploration of what it means to engage with archival artefacts, is published by Pavilion Poetry (2025) and was nominated in the Saltire Literary Prizes 2025. She has been awarded the Muriel Spark Centenary Award, Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, Creative Scotland Award, and shortlisted for The Kavya Prize and a Sky Arts Royal Society of Literature Writers Award. She has directed several literary initiatives in the UK, including the Newcastle Poetry Festival and the James Berry Poetry Prize. She was recently Writer-in-Residence at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Tawona Sithole
better known as ganyamatope dzapasi, my spirit name inspires me to connect with other people through creativity and the anticipation to learn. my work is inherited from ancestors and modified through my professional education practice. I am lecturer in creative practice education at University of Glasgow, within the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Education, Languages and the Arts (UNESCO RIELA). I am co-founder of Seeds of Thought, a non-funded arts group, and continue working in the creative sector as poet, playwright, mbira musician, and facilitator. As i continues to write, teach and perform, mostly I appreciate this work for the many inspiring people it allows me to meet.
Chisom Okoronkwo
Chisom Okoronkwo is a Nigerian-Scottish writer and founder of Afro-Scottish Events. She holds an MLitt in Creative Writing (Distinction) from the University of Glasgow. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Brittle Paper, Isele Magazine, Ake Review, Blue Marble Review, and others. A finalist at the 2025 Loud Poets Slam, she won the 2023 Shuzia Journey of the Soul Poetry Contest and has been shortlisted for the Isele Short Story Prize and Glasgow Women’s Library Bold Types Competition. Her work has also been longlisted for the 2026 Bournemouth Writing Prize and The Writers’ Prize.
Esraa Husain
Esraa Husain (any pronouns) is a creative writer, community organiser and researcher based in Glasgow. Their writings are published online and in print in SINK, Lumpen, On the Other Side of Hope, Scottish BPOC Writers Network, Gutter, Somewhere for Us, The Bottle Imp amongst others. Their PhD is in Black Scottish literary studies at the University of Glasgow. Their work include: founding U Belong Glasgow, Community Curator with Curating Discomfort intervention at The Hunterian Museum, Festival Programmer with Scottish Refugee Council, and most recently, Human Rights Participation Officer with Human Rights Consortium Scotland.
Creatives of Colour Festival
The festival centers the voices, experiences, and creativity of people of colour in Glasgow. Storytelling sits at the heart of these creative practices, and celebrates the resilience, joy, and talent of BIPOC artists. Curated by Zahra Khosroshahi and Kevin Leomo.
Our stories. Our lens. Our terms.
The Festival is supported by ‘Thinking Culture’, a cultural programme from the School of Culture & Creative Arts and the Ferguson Bequest, University of Glasgow.
Accessibility
Information on QMU accessibility can be found here.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Queen Margaret Union, 22 University Gardens, Glasgow, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00 to GBP 50.00
