6-8PM

Join Ancestral poetry collective during the turning of the light on December 21st with a Yalda celebration hosted by Hasti. We will sit around a candlelit table together, sharing poems both Persian and international. Traditional snacks (including nuts) are included in the price. Hasti will also read from their pamphlet fresh out with Bad Betty Press.

Ancestral is a collective run by by Sitron Panppoulos and Rushika Wick.

Ancestral aims to celebrate and engage with specific late modernist or contemporary poets, their gifts and strange fruit. Each session will be a little different, but expect some introduction slides, readings and communal writing practice. There will be guest poets and the opportunity to share your own work. Ritual and solidarity will feature.

Hasti is a poet and writer living in South East London. A member of the inaugural Southbank New Poets Collective and the Ledbury Poetry Critics, they are the recipient of the 2023 White Review Poet's Prize and the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry. Hasti also hosts open mic and poetry night Fresh Lip, and their debut pamphlet young, dumb, and full of poems is out now with Little Betty.