First ever Canal Laureate appointed
Boating poet Jo Bell is appointed
October 19, 2012
The Canal & River Trust and the Poetry Society have announced the appointment of the first ever 'Canal Laureate'. Boating poet Jo Bell has been appointed, with a brief to bring a new perspective to the nation's historic canals and rivers and to encourage more people to see their local waterways in a new light.
Jo Bell - photo Andy Pratt
The appointment is part of a wider partnership between the Canal & River Trust and Arts Council England, which aims to attract more visitors to the waterways while surprising and delighting existing communities through exciting and innovative art projects. In her role as Canal Laureate, Jo will engage new and existing audiences through community workshops, performances and blogs. She will write new verse inspired by the canals and rivers and will begin an ‘anthologising’ of the waterways by bringing in work by other poets.
Jo is a poet, archaeologist and boat-dweller, working all over the UK on poetry projects large and small. As well as her recent role as Director of National Poetry Day, Jo has also been Glastonbury Festival poet in residence and Cheshire Poet Laureate. Her most recent show, Riverlands, is about the River Nene in Northamptonshire. Her work has appeared in many reputed journals, in National Trust restaurants, on Radio 4 and even on a milestone in her native Derbyshire.
Tony Hales, chair of the Canal & River Trust, said: “Many poets have been inspired by the magnificent canals and rivers that form the green veins of Britain’s landscape and they are firmly part of the national creative consciousness. I’m delighted to welcome Jo Bell as our first ever Canal Laureate and hope that her work touches people and encourages them to explore their local waterways, and maybe even craft some words of their own.”
