Poetry
I have written poetry for over 25 years and became particularly interested in Performance Poetry when I did my dissertation on the topic in 2007 for my Joint Honours BA in Creative Writing and Writing For Stage, Screen and Radio. I have performed at a variety of events and venues since then, including theatres, art galleries, pubs, markets, festivals, variety cabarets, universities, parades and on BBC Radio Manchester.
My first poetry collection, '1000 Years' was published by Written Off Publishing in 2025.
It's A Poem, Duh!
International Women's Day, Girl Gang Manchester & The Met Theatre, 2023.
Not Like It's Gonna Kill You
Broadly Speaking, 2023.
The Loos Of The Noughties
Selina Helliwell Productions & Manchester Art Gallery, 2023.
CW: Adult themes & language.
He's The One
Birds and Words, Leigh Spinners Mill, 2023.
Mancunians Are Waterproof
Open Mind's 12th Birthday, Peer Hat, 2024.
CW: Adult language.
Floorboards
'When She's At Home', Arts & Homelessness & Old Diorama Arts Centre, 2024.
CW: Adult language.
1000 Years
GRT History Month, CultureDale, Leeds GATE & Halifax Market, 2024.
Can't Win (Clean Version)
WOW Fest, AVIVA Studios & Factory International, 2024.
More Pride, Less Fall
Bi Pride Main Stage, University of West London, 2024.
Roma (A Children's Poem)
Kushti Cumpenia celebrating GRT History Month, Factory International at Aviva Studios, 2025.
My Gypsy Blood
GRT History Month Celebration, Halifax Town Hall, 2025.
There's Times
Hey! Festival, part of Art Bomb UK, 2025.
Murmuration
Derby Poetry Festival, 2025.
CW: Adult Language.
10 Years
Girl Gang's 10th Birthday Party, 2026.
Everyone Is Different
(A Participatory Children's Poem)
Lancaster Lit Fest, 2026.
Black Triangles
Whitworth Gallery Romani Resistance Day Celebration, 2026.
CW: Roma and Sinti Holocaust
What Trauma Looks Like
Divertir Theatre, 2026.
Between The Stops
Between December 2025 and February 2026, two of my poems, 'Our Kid's On The Kindle' and 'My Grandma Painted Her Eyebrows On' were featured on buses around Portsmouth. (Pages 109-110).
The Pavement Magazine
I was Issue 160's, (Feb-March 2026), 'Artist In Focus', featuring the poem 'Floorboards'. (Pages 24-25).
Big Issue
My poem '1000' Years appeared in the 15th-21st June 2026, alongside an interview about my artwork, 'Cold Comfort/ Kushti Shillow'.
