Press room

Barbican Young Poets: Open Works brings together a vibrant and genre-defying lineup of workshops, live performances and poetry installations that reimagine what poetry can be and where it can exist. 

The event reflects the creative journey of this year’s cohort of twenty-four Young Poets, who have been developing their work together since November 2025, offering audiences a chance to engage with how emerging writers shape their voices through experimentation, collaboration and performance. Their work explores the relationship between poetry, movement and voice; considers poetry as a living time capsule; and engages with themes of conflict, war, and the complexities of personal and collective identity. 

Founded and led by acclaimed poet Jacob Sam-La Rose, Barbican Young Poets is a long-standing creative community and incubator for poetic voices that shape culture. Organised and co-developed by the Barbican, the programme supports young writers to deepen their craft while building creative practices rooted in curiosity, rigour and care. Young Poets explore form and performance, generate new work and refine a selection of writing for presentation and publication. Notable alumni include award-winning writers and performers Travis Alabanza, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Theresa Lola and Laurie Ogden. 

Across the day, audiences have the opportunity to view experimental poetry installations, attend a live showcase of new work from the cohort, and actively take part in workshops that explore voice, movement, writing and performance. From creating sound poetry and experimenting with language, to developing new writing and exploring archives and identity, festival-goers can engage directly with the creative processes behind the work. Whether staying in one space or moving between sessions, audiences are invited to shape their own experience and participate in the ideas and practices that define this year’s programme. 

Founder and long-standing lead facilitator of Barbican Young Poets, Jacob Sam-La Rose says: “The Barbican Young Poets programme continues to be so important because it creates something more than opportunity. Instead, it creates conditions. A space where poets can experiment, question, and develop a practice rooted in curiosity, invested attention and collaborative care.  

What happens in our sessions (and what you’ll encounter throughout Open Works) isn’t preparation for some future version of a creative life. It’s the thing itself: poets making, thinking, failing, and finding new possibilities for their work and for each other. That’s what this programme has always been at its best — not a gateway, but a community actively authoring the world it wants to inhabit.  

These aren’t just poets of the future. They’re vital, now.”  

DOWNLOAD IMAGES HERE