Michael Rosen’s Brighton Birthday
Writer and poet Michael Rosen celebrates his 75th birthday at Brighton Festival, sharing stories of his life and work with Hannah Azieb Pool
One of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for both children and adults, Michael Rosen has published over 100 books, won myriad awards, and served as UK Children’s Laureate from 2007-2009. He is also a tireless activist for social justice and widespread access to reading, a former guest director of Brighton Festival and certainly one of Britain’s most famous survivors of the Covid-19 virus. After an eventful year that did not stop him from publishing two new books, we are ecstatic to be able to celebrate Michael at Brighton Festival for his 75th birthday. Specially invited by this year's Guest Director, Lemn Sissay, he will be in conversation with journalist, author and curator, Hannah Azieb Pool, sharing some of his work and unpacking his remarkable life in letters.
Supported by Brighton College Nursery, Pre-Prep & Prep School
Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures in the children’s book world, universally loved for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. He is a familiar voice to BBC listeners as the presenter of Word of Mouth, the magazine programme that looks at the English language and the way we use it, and his YouTube channel – Kids’ Poems and Stories with Michael Rosen – has been viewed over 45 million times around the world.
Winner of several awards, including the 1982 Signal Poetry Award for You Can’t Catch Me and the 1989 Nestle Smarties Grand Prize for his classic picture book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael's most recent books are Rigatoni the Pasta Cat and the remarkable NHS tribute, Many Different Kinds of Love.
Hannah Azieb Pool
Hannah Azieb Pool is Artistic Director & CEO of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, London. Eritrean born, Hannah Azieb was previously the Senior Programmer for Contemporary Culture at the Southbank Centre, where she curated Africa Utopia, the annual festival celebrating arts and ideas from across Africa and the diaspora, she was also a lead programmer of the WOW Women of the World festival.
A Guardian journalist for over a decade, Hannah Azieb has written for many international publications including The Times, Stylist and Vogue Magazine UK. Hannah Azieb is the author of two books: Fashion Cities Africa and My Fathers’ Daughter, and was co-curator of Fashion Cities Africa exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Associate Editor of Arise Magazine, and Chair of UKFeminista. Hannah Azieb is a trustee of LIFT (the London International Festival of Theatre) and is a patron of the SI Leeds Prize, the biannual award for unpublished fiction by UK Black and Asian women.