Live in the Assembly Bar + Kitchen!
Readings by a different local published poet each month and this month we’re delighted to welcome Doug and Maria Sandle
A PAIR OF SANDLES – POETRY AND SONG
Doug has been published in several publications, including Poetry and Audience, Poetry and Covid, The New European, The Ekphrastic Review, The Psychologist, Manx Reflections, Orbis, and most recently The High Wolds Poetry Collection 2023 and 2024.
Join local poet, Clare Wigzell, for an hour of quiet contemplation. We will listen to some poems, walk in silence within the abbey and grounds, connect to our inner selves.
Pre booking advised. Normal admission applies.
Chemistry is back on Friday 30 May, with another night of poetry and spoken word, two brilliant headliners and our amazing open mic. This time round our headliners are renowned Bloodaxe poet Helen Ivory, and former Poetry Business prize-winner Luke Samuel Yates.
The events are themed on the elements of the periodic table, so this time it’s element number 19, which is K for Potassium. The theme is entirely optional, but we hope you might use it as a creative prompt to come up with some new work to reveal on the night.
Reading doesn’t have to be a lonely hobby – Chapel FM Arts Centre is here to prove it!
Readathon is an overnight reading event. Come for all or part of this Midsummer's Night and help read an entire book out loud, or just listen.
Watch the sunrise through the stained glass in Chapel FM's beautiful radio theatre, followed by a Readathon Big Breakfast.
Blur the Lines returns for a special event celebrating their 10th show since their very first one which took place at the inaugural Leeds Lit Fest.
Expect a night of powerful performances featuring poetry, rap and more! It’s been quite the journey, with two sold out shows at Leeds Playhouse plus an event in association with Come Play With Me, this year they’re also at Howard Assembly Room for Leeds Jazz Festival 2025.
SI Leeds Literary Prize is the biennial award for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women writers.
A national award with proud Yorkshire roots, the Prize has supported the careers of many successful writers, including Bradford's Saima Mir, Kit de Waal, Mahsuda Snaith, Amita Murray, Season Butler and Stella Oni.
Poetry showcase with poets associated with the University of Leeds Poetry Centre. Join us for a reading of poems celebrating or insired by Midsummer with poets including Ian Duhig, Rob Miles, Maia Elsner, Kate Simpson, Matt Howard, and others to be announced.
Join two highly-acclaimed Yorkshire-based writers for an evening of conversation and performance. Andrew McMillan and Maria Ferguson are known primarily as poets. However, Andrew recently published the highly-acclaimed novel 'Pity', and Maria has written and performed two award-winning one-woman theatre shows.
Alongside conversations led by acclaimed poet Matt Abbott, Andrew and Maria will treat the audience to live performances of their work.
Embodied Word fuses poetry, movement, and self-exploration, for a transformative workshop.
Mary and Zac will guide you in reflective writing, somatic practices, and performance techniques for you to grow in confidence, self-awareness, and creative expression.
Rooted in interdisciplinary influences – including spoken word, embodiment, Tantra, and psychology – this workshop fosters authentic connection and meaningful integration.
Veteran Northern poet James Nash launches his fourth collection of sonnets (and more). Notes of Your Music sets out to celebrate what may be gone, or flag up what might be celebrated before it goes. James is a long-term resident of Leeds and Bridlington. His third collection of poems, Coma Songs, was published in 2003 and reprinted in 2006. Since 2012 his poetry has been published by Valley Press, beginning with a selected poems (A Bit of An Ice Breaker) and his first collection of sonnets, Some Things Matter. Cinema Stories came out in 2015.