Jo Bell
Jo Bell is a poet, performer and event manager who works across the UK. Her poetry roadshows Bunch of Fives and Fourpenny Circus aim to bring live poetry to an audience who don’t normally encounter poetry. The video shown here was filmed in 2009 at Fourpenny Circus’ Liverpool performance. Formerly an archaeologist and now a boat-dweller, Jo’s writing is about Saxon graves, sexy sailors and the deep passions of everyday life. She likes too to write about friendship, ‘the most necessary and most neglected kind of love’.
Jo aims to bridge the perceived gap between those page poets ‘who often write well but perform badly’, and performance poets ‘who often perform brilliantly but write badly’. Her work includes residencies at Derby Royal Hospital and Glastonbury Festival, and she is the Director of National Poetry Day. She is also a playwright, working with Action Transport Theatre in the NW of England. In summer 2010 she will run the Bugged project to generate new writing from a single happening from June 1st onwards.
