Up Coming Events / Poetry Readings / Videos

EVENTS: Winter 2021/2022

Friday 3 December 2021 at 2:30 – 3:30pm at Wolverhampton Central Library for Poetry of the Countryside. Poets will recite poetry from In the Sticks an anthology that takes a dispassionate look at life in the countryside in the West Midlands today is available now. Poets including Cherry Doyle, Simon Fletcher, Kuli Kohli. Free event.

Monday 6 December 2021 @ 6pm – 8pm on Zoom – Kuli Kohli is on the panel for Bursa Ali Solicitors, an international panel discussion with panel members joining virtually from around the globe about Disability and Cultural Stigma.

To book on to be part of this virtual event, please register: https://lnkd.in/ett7VfNi

Monday 13 December 2021 at 5 – 6pm at Foleshill Library in Coventry. Kuli Kohli will be delivering a creative writing workshop with support from Santosh K Dary, a member of the Punjabi Women’s Writing Group. As we’re heading towards the festive season, we will be thinking about food as the inspiration to write a poem or a short prose piece. It should be fun! If you’re around Coventry, please come and join us. Free event funded by Poetry on Loan.

From July 2020 - Commissioned to write for Sandwell Stories by Multistory. ‘Black Country Wonder Woman' by Kuli Kohli is a commissioned long-form poem exploring the anxiety of giving birth to a premature baby at a time of crisis. With beats and rap verses by her son Akaash. You can listen to the poem here: https://bit.ly/3819jIP

I am available performances at gigs, schools, colleges, libraries etc.

I am happy to take commissions.

To contact me please email kuli.kohli@hotmail.co.uk

Poetry for me has been a very important aspect of expressing myself personally, emotionally and getting the people around me to realise that there is someone very sensitive who lives in my body. I was born with cerebral palsy and throughout my childhood and teenage years I was ashamed of myself. I wanted to be “normal” all my life, however, I didn’t know myself what normal was.

Sharing your voice and views to complete strangers can be a scary process but also very rewarding. At first I was petrified, but as I began to perform more to different audience I began to enjoy it, because I could see my work was making an impression.

I think performing is important because the audience can get a feel of the poet, why and what drives them to write. When I sit down on the stage to read my poetry there’s a sudden silence in the room. When I get going the audience begin to relax and start to enjoy my poetry and by the end of the performance the audience fall in love with me. The audience seem genuinely interested in hearing my poetry and stories.

I have read and performed at many events and festivals across the West Midlands, London, Oswestry, Ironbridge, Coventry’s Peace Festival, Shrewsbury Literature Festival and via Skype to University of Delhi, India.

In November 2018 I was invited as guest lecturer at Humboldt University in Berlin.

I have been involved in many projects - including readings at the University of Greenwich and Liverpool Hope University.

In December 2019 I was invited to the British Museum in London for Purple Light Up event for International Disabled Persons Day 2019.

In 2020 I have been commissioned to write bespoke poetry for many events, especially during lockdown, where it has not been possible to attend gigs. I have been commissioned to write, record, video my poetry which has been shared on social media and other media platforms.