Poetry for Health and Well-being

Duke Al is a spoken word poet and facilitator. Writing rhymes is Duke Al’s therapy. From a young age, Duke Al would scribble raps and poems in his old lyric book. It was his way of expressing himself; an escapism to challenge his OCD. A passion of words, flow and rhyme flared. After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 23, the pen was there to help him understand and articulate how he felt. Now he aims to make an impactful change using one rhyme at a time. You can find Duke Al’s recent published work on BT Sports, NHS, Artes Mundi journal, BBC Scrum V.

Duke Al Durham was one of the winners of Literature Wales and Artes Mundi's From Now On writing compeition in 2021, with his poem Liquorice. He led a workshop at Tonyrefail Community School as part of the Do You Get Me project, and delivered a workshop alongside Connor Allen as part of the Cymru Ni | Our Wales project, exploring notions of race and identity.

Picture credit: Tyrone Lewis @processproductions

clare e. potter is a bilingual poet and performer with an MA in Afro-Caribbean Literature from Mississippi. She lived in New Orleans for a decade and received Arts Council funding to respond to the trauma of Hurricane Katrina alongside a jazz quintet. clare has translated poems by the National Poet of Wales, Ifor ap Glyn, and collaborates with artists to make poetry installations in public spaces. clare was a Hay Festival Writer at Work and has had several poetry residencies including for The Velvet Coalmine Festival, The Landmark Trust, Wales Arts Review and Moravian Academy, Pennsylvania. Her second poetry collection is under offer
She won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry in 2005 and was on BBC4’s Listening Project with her father piecing together the source of emotion in poetry. In 2019 clare directed the BBC Wales documentary The Wall and The Mirror where she collected people’s stories from her mining community. This resulted in a drive to save the significant cultural and political miners’ institute. She has presented programmes for BBC Radio Wales, with many more in the pipeline.
clare’s biggest passion is working in schools and on community projects with other artists. She is currently mentoring other artists and working on several writing for well-being projects, and thanks to an Arts Council grant, is studying poetry therapy practice with Jill Teague of iaPOETRY.

In 2018-19, clare was a part of A Taste for Life, a Tandem Europe collaboration project between Literature Wales and Solidarios Para el Desarrollo in Spain, an innovative international project aiming to tackle loneliness and isolation amongst older people. In 2020, she worked with dancer Jo Shapland to create a video poem as part of Literature Wales and National Dance Company Wales' cross-artform project, Plethu | Weave. Following a call out in January 2021, clare received a comission from Literature Wales in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales, to present a week’s exhibition spotlight as part of charity Llamau’s Our World project exhibition. clare is currently also working on Literature Wales' Piece by Piece project in partnership with Newport Mind and Maindee Youth. The project aims to support families and young people with mental health issues, especially those from low-income or BAME backgrounds or who are LGBTQ+.

Patrick Jones is a poet and playwright based in Blackwood who has worked widely in community and health settings. Currently a Writer-in-Residence with The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales, he has worked with the Forget Me Not Chorus whose members are individuals living with Dementia on a project documenting the members’ most precious songs and the stories behind them. Patrick has worked with Mind Cymru, The Samaritans, the Welsh Refugee Council, Velindre Hospital, The Big Issue and more on various writing projects for health and wellbeing. His latest publication is My Bright Shadow (Rough Trade Books, 2019), a poetry collection exploring grief, life and love. He worked with dancer Yvette C Halfhide on the video poem Breathe Against the Hurricanes, a cross-artform collaboration created as part of Literature Wales and National Dance Company Wales' Plethu | Weave project.

Rufus Mufasa is a pioneering participatory artist, literary activist, poet, rapper, singer songwriter, theatre maker, and last but not least, Mother. From Barbican Fellow to the first Future Generations Act Poet in Residence, Rufus also works internationally, securing literary residencies from Hay Literature Festival to Sweden, Finland, Indonesian, and most recently Zimbabwe, but always returns to People Speak Up in Llanelli, Wales, promoting hip hop education, performance poetry and intergenerational development. A Hull ’19 artist in conjunction with BBC Contains Strong Language, her full poetry collection titled Flashbacks and Flowers, drops this year with Indigo Dreams, and her second album is also due. Rufus’ work explores motherhood, the spirituality of ancestry, class, climate chaos, and transgenerational/trapped trauma.

In 2021, she worked with dancer Camille Giraudeau to create a video poem as part of Literature Wales and National Dance Company Wales' cross-artform project, Plethu | Weave, exploring themes of motherhood and creating an inheritance for the next generation. Following a call out in January 2021, she received a comission from Literature Wales in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales, O Mam Fach. Working with Plant Dewi, supported by People Speak Up, this ambitious project not only captured some of the most neglected superheroes of the pandemic, but it also planned to honour and celebrate motherhood and ramp up resilience, through creativity & empowerment.

Esyllt Maelor is a poet and educator from Harlech. She won the Crown at the Ceredigion National Eisteddfod in 2022, with poems influenced by her son, Dafydd. She has written, edited and contributed to a number of publications, including books for children and young people, and for new Welsh speakers/learners. In 2017 she edited Galar a Fi (Y Lolfa) a volume of writing dealing with the sensitive subject of grief, comprising the experiences of people who have lost loved ones.
She believes there is a writer in every child and she is proud of the successes of her former pupils who have continued to write and contribute to their communities.

Picture Credit: Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru / Aled Llywelyn

Hanan Issa is the National Poet of Wales. Hanan is a Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker and artist from Cardiff. Her recent works include her poetry collection My Body Can House Two Hearts (Burning Eye Books, 2019) and her contributions to Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales (Repeater Books, 2022) and The Mab (Unbound, 2022), a retelling of the Mabinogi stories for children. Her winning monologue ‘With Her Back Straight’ was performed at the Bush Theatre as part of the Hijabi Monologues. She was also part of the writers room for Channel 4’s ground-breaking series We Are Lady Parts alongside its award-winning creator, Nida Manzoor. Hanan received a 2020 Ffilm Cymru/ BBC Wales commission for her short film The Golden Apple. Her work has been performed and published on platforms such as BBC Wales, ITV Wales, Huffington Post, StAnza Festival, Poetry Wales, Y Stamp, Wales Arts Review, Wales Arts International and the British Council. Hanan co-founded the Cardiff open-mic night Where I’m Coming From. She a member of the first cohort of writers who took part in Literature Wales’ Representing Wales programme in 2021, and has been awarded the Hay Festival International Fellowship 2022-23.

Since starting her role as the National Poet of Wales in September 2022, Hanan has pomposed several poems and creative responses, including a contemporary creative response to Dylan Thomas‘ festive classic, A Child’s Christmas in Wales; a commissioned poem for FAW and Literature Wales for Gŵyl Cymru Festival; and a poem to mark World Alzheimer’s Day.