Lament for Sheku Bayoh
'No problem here pal. None at all.ʼ
In the early hours of the morning, thirty-one-year-old Sheku Bayoh set out to walk home from his friend’s place after watching a boxing match. Just hours later, he had lost his life in police custody. Lament for Sheku Bayoh is a poetic expression of grief for the human behind the headlines and a non-apologetic reflection on racism in Scotland today.
'Timely and necessary' The Stage, 5 Stars
Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet, playwright, performer and experienced workshop facilitator.
Her poetry has been published by Gutter Magazine, The Scotsman Newspaper, Neu! Reekie! and others. Her first pamphlet of short fiction, Rocket Girls, was published by Postbox Press (Oct 2018) and her poetry pamphlet, Finding Seaglass: Poems from The Drift was recently published by Stewed Rhubarb Press (May 2019).
She has also been a featured poet at many spoken word and poetry nights including Neu! Reekie! Sonnet Youth, Rally and Broad, Flint and Pitch and Loud Poets, and festivals including, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Stanza, Solas, Kelburn Garden Party, and Electric Fields.
The Drift, her autobiographical play, was part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s season 2019 and Scotland’s Black History Month 2018 and 2019.
Her recent play, The Lament for Sheku Bayoh, commissioned by the Royal Lyceum Theatre, was performed as a work in progress as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2019.
She received a Summerhall Lab 2019 for her play, Three Pints on a Sunday, written with Colin Bramwell.
In November 2019, she was awarded a New Playwright Award from Playwrights Studio Scotland and was named in The List Magazine’s Scottish Theatre Hot List for 2019.
In February 2020, she was also named as one on BBC Writers’ Room Scottish Voices of 2020.
She was commissioned by the Hopscotch Theatre in 2019 to write a play for children. The Unseen Child, was about to go in to rehearsal when social distancing measures were imposed due to Covid-19.
In May 2020, her poem, Scotland, you’re no mine, was selected by Roseanne Watt as one of the Best Scottish Poems 2019.
On the 23 May, Hannah was selected by Owen Sheers’ as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council.
nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/owen-sheers-writers/
She wrote a Scene for Survival for the National Theatre of Scotland’s digital lockdown project called Disco with Mum.
Her short story The Idler was commissioned for BBC Radio Four’s The Poet and the Echo series.
She directed and curated a poetry series Sorry I was on Mute for Fringe of Colour Digital Arts Festival 2020, as well as performing an extract of The Drift for the Festival.
In September 2020, Hannah was announced as an Imaginate's Accelerator artist. Hannah will work on a new piece of writing for age 10+ called The Protest. In 2021, she will share this script as a work in progress alongside projects by Xana Marwick and Shotput.
In October 2020 she became an associate artist with the National Theatre of Scotland.
On the 31st October 2020, her short scene Meeting Tatha will feature as part of Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Shades of Tay project.
In November 2020, her play Lament for Sheku Bayohwill be directed by Hannah and streamed live from the Lyceum stage in a co-production with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland and Edinburgh International Festival.
Hannah has faciliatated writing workshops for children and adults for over a decade including workshops for BBC Words First and Neu! Reekie!, Edinburgh International Book Festival, STANZA Poetry Festival, Fringe by the Sea, Fringe of Colour, Stella Quines and in various community settings such as Edinburgh Women’s Aid and WHALE arts. She is currently a tutor for the Traverse Theatre Young Writers’ Group.
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