Special Edition: Echoes and Reflections — John Hegley, Inua Ellams & Shephali Frost
Write to Life presents an evening of music and spoken word with poet-comedians John Hegley and Inua Ellams at the National Poetry Library.
Why we picked this
Fifty-two seats inside the National Poetry Library, three poets whose work spans comedy, performance, and political testimony — this is the kind of intimate evening larger venues can not replicate.
Write to Life, the creative writing group for refugees and asylum seekers at the Southbank Centre, hosts an evening that pairs established poets John Hegley and Inua Ellams with emerging voice Shephali Frost. The setting is the National Poetry Library itself on Level 5 of the Royal Festival Hall — a 52-seat room surrounded by the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world.
Hegley brings his distinctive blend of humor and pathos; Ellams, whose work spans the Barber Shop Chronicles and An Evening with an Immigrant, brings a voice shaped by displacement and belonging. Together with Frost, the three poets bring the kind of close-range encounter with language that only small rooms allow.
Part of the Special Edition 2025-26 series transforming the National Poetry Library into a live performance space.