Join us for the virtual launch of "Darkling," the new poetry collection by Sheree Mack published by Smokestack Books with special guests.
About this Event

Welcome to Darkling: A Poetry Collection Launch!

Join us for an enchanting evening celebrating the release of our latest poetry collection.

Sheree Mack returns to poetry to explore how a Black woman can survive and thrive in a White Supremacy Culture. Darkling is a book about black women, black bodies, black lives and black deaths – like Renisha McBride, Sarah Reed, and Saartjie Baartman (exhibited naked in London in 1810 as the Hottentot Venus). It’s a history of the enslaved, runaways and lynch-mobs, police violence, the Scarman Report and Black Lives Matter, censorship, colour-blind liberalism and anti-Black racism.

Our online event will feature readings from Sheree with the talented writers Dal Kular, Niveen Kassem and Jola Olafimihan as well as a Q&A session where you can learn more about the inspiration behind the collection.

Whether you're a poetry enthusiast or just looking for a unique cultural experience, this launch event is not to be missed. So mark your calendar and get ready to embark on a poetic journey like no other!

Copies of the collection can be brought from Smokestack Books (radical good poetry) from the end of September 2024.

Dr. Sheree Mack is a Creatrix with a practice which manifests through poetry, storytelling, image and the unfolding histories of Black people. Sheree engages audiences around Black women’s voices and bodies, Black feminism, ecology and memory, nature and grief, trauma and healing.

She advocates for Black women’s voices, facilitating national and international creative workshops and retreats in the landscape, encouraging and supporting women on their journey of remembrance back to their bodies and authentic selves.

Sheree holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University focusing on Black British women poets.

Dal Kular is creative in residence for Peak District National Park. Silver-streaked Sheffield born & based artist of Punjabi heritage. Her practice spans the making of creative non-fiction writing, poetry, multi-media arts, zine-making, sound recordings, personal archiving, memoir, nature-allied writing, workshop space-making and holding. Rooted in anti-colonial, Black/global feminisms, ecotherapy, ancestral work and autoethnography.

Niveen Kassem is a PhD holder; tutorial assistant; trained mentor; editor;innovative, competent and successful interpreter/translator; currently Assistant Professor in Arabic Cultural Studies.Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham Dubai.

Jola Olafimihan is the creative in residence for Northumberland National Park. Jola writes as a way of understanding all that is around her. She writes as a form of mindful practise and a way to focus her mind. She’s an industrious individual with a conscientious and positive attitude towards her work, creating, and exploration of new themes.