A West Bromwich student has performed alongside some of the UK’s leading poets at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Salford, Manchester, following her appointment as Young Poet Laureate for the West Midlands.
Jessica, a student at West Bromwich Collegiate Academy, joined fellow Young Poet Laureates at MediaCityUK to perform her work as part of the four-day festival, which celebrates emerging voices in poetry.
Her appearance follows her selection for the Young Poet Laureate programme earlier this year, after impressing judges in a national competition that attracted more than 1,100 entries from schools across the UK.
Since being selected, Jessica has taken part in workshops and masterclasses with professional poets, developing her writing and performance skills. The festival provided an opportunity to take that work to a major public stage. She performed alongside established poets including former Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Toria Garbutt and Owen Sheers.
Now in its 10th year, the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival was delivered in partnership with the National Poetry Centre.
For Jessica, the performance marks another huge milestone in her writing career. Her poem, Finding Shadows, was previously selected for performance at a development masterclass at the Library of Birmingham, while her work is also set to feature in an anthology produced by the National Literacy Trust.
School Principal, Mary Henderson, said: “Opportunities like this show our students what can happen when they are prepared to put themselves forward and pursue something they care about. We’re incredibly proud of Jessica’s achievement and of the way she has embraced every opportunity.
“Experiences like this matter because they give young people the chance to challenge themselves, meet people working at the highest level and begin to see where their own talents could take them. We believe that students from West Bromwich Collegiate Academy can be the equal of any students anywhere in the world, provided they are given the right opportunities, and Jessica is a shining example of this.”
Jessica’s latest performance marks the next stage in a journey that began with a poem submitted to a national competition and has already taken her from the classroom to the stage at some of the UK’s leading poetry events.
