NPF 2024: Carolyn Forché, Suji Kwock Kim & Patricia Smith
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Overview
We are honoured to have three esteemed poets from the US to share new work and discuss themes of creative practice, refuge and human rights.
Carolyn Forché is the author of five poetry collections. Her most recent, In the Lateness of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the American Book Award. Her memoir, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance was a finalist for the National Book Award, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and others, and won the Juan E. Mendez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. Her anthology, Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness, was praised by Nelson Mandela as “a blow against tyranny.” She completed her doctorate at Newcastle University in 2021. She is Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown University and is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Suji Kwock Kim is author of Notes from the Divided Country, Notes from the North, Private Property, and Disorient: Fugues & Assimilamentations, which is forthcoming. She is 2023 Poet-in-Residence at the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 2024 Writer-in-Residence at the Gladstone Library, Wales, 2025 Writer-in-Residence at the James Merrill House, Stonington, and serves as a Trustee for Connect: North Korea, formerly the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea, a charity based in New Malden, Surrey, home to the largest community of North Koreans in the world outside Asia.
Patricia Smith, recipient of the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, is the author of Unshuttered, a volume of dramatic monologues accompanied by images of 19th-century African Americans; Incendiary Art (winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, the LA Times Book Prize, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize); Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets), and Blood Dazzler (a National Book Award finalist). Smith is a professor in the Lewis Centre for the Arts at Princeton University, a formed Distinguished Professor for the City University of New York, an Adademy of American Poets Chancellor and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
There are two entrances to the theatre, Kings Road Entrance (this is the taxi drop-off/collection point) and the Main Entrance.
Both level entrances have automated doors. These lead into the foyer area where you will find the Restaurant, Bar, Box Office and entrances to Stages 1, 2 and 3.
STEP FREE ACCESS
Northern Stage is fully accessible. The theatre has three lifts providing access to all parts of the building, including the accessible toilets, baby changing facilities, stages 2 & 3 and the backstage area. Buggy parking is available
WHEELCHAIR SPACES
There are five wheelchair positions in Stage 1, two positions in Stage 2 and all seats are removeable in Stage 3.
TOILETS
We have a Changing Places toilet in the Stage 1 lobby and accessible toilets in Stage 3 and Stage 2 lower entrance lobby. Gender neutral toilets are situated in the Stage 2 lower entrance lobby.
HEARING ENHANCEMENT
Induction loop system in all public spaces, and an infra-red system in all three stages. (In Stage 1 the induction loop is best covered in rows E – L).
ASSISTANCE
One free ticket for the assistant of a disabled person who is not able to attend unaccompanied.
BOOKING COMPANION SEATING
To book a free ticket for a wheelchair companion or an assistant, contact our Box Office on 0191 230 5151, via email at boxoffice@northernstage.co.uk or by visiting our Box Office in person.
GUIDE DOGS
Guide, hearing and all working dogs are welcome here.
SEAT ACCESSIBILITY
Stage 1: Seats are 43 cm wide, 41cm deep, with 46cm between arm rests. The aisleway is 51cm deep from the seat back. Arm rests cannot be removed.
Stage 2: Seats are 40cm wide, 41cm deep. The aisleway is 64cm deep from the seat back. There are no arm rests.
Our seats are rated to British Standards at installation and are guaranteed to hold up to 110kg.
More Information
To discuss any access needs, take a look at our access page or please call our Box Office on 0191 230 5151.