On June 4th, I cycled 50km, fundraising for The Bike Project – a beautiful charity that donate bikes to refugees and people seeking asylum, giving them access, freedom, and independence.

Throughout the day-long ride I connected with refugee support organisations: Women for Refugee Women, Bread Winners and Young Roots, and found out more about the life-changing support they provide, before ending the ride at The Bike Project workshop. Each of these organisations have been supported by Choose Love and are referral partners of The Bike Project.

My documented conversations with each of these incredible organisations will be shared on social media at the end of June. But you can keep donating, supporting, and showing a little love for this ride. It was a physical challenge for me, but fare less than the difficulty of rebuilding a life. Please give what you can in solidarity with people who move. The donation is open until the end of refugee week.

Donate / Here

Redacted celebrates play and invention with blackout poetry, which is created when text is taken from a book, newspaper, or magazine and, by redacting words and entire sentences, hidden poetry is revealed!

We’ll be redacting a page from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Regularly named one of the greatest 100 novels of all time, it is also one of the most banned – a dystopian classic which has turned out to be more prescient than anyone could have hoped. In this interactive blend of performance, conversation and revelation, guests and audience (yes, you too) will turn the violence of literary censorship on its head and explore how meaning and beauty can found in the deliberate act of erasure.

I’ll be joined by Shami Chakrabarti, Jenni Fagan, Luke Harding, Wayne Holloway-Smith, Jenny Kleeman, Barry Sadid, Chris Thorpe, Otegha Uwagba and Mariah Wilde. Come through!

Thu / 18 Jun 2026
The London Library
Time / 7 - 9pm
Tix / £14 - / £18
Book / Here

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I’m back on Search Party duties, at First Light festival in Lowestoft. If you are planning on coming, make sure to swing by. And if you aren’t but have the weekend free, maybe you should consider coming because it is such a vibe and there is a lot happening across the weekend: musicians, comedians and a lot of other poets.

About Search Party: Pick a word, any word. Prompted by audience suggestions, Inua Ellams will search through his extensive archive of work and perform a reactive and spontaneous selection. Each show is unique and special.

Sat June 20, 2026
First Light Festival
Time / 16:00 – 17:00
Stage / First Word

Info / Here 

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Co-curated and introduced by world-renowned sitar player and activist Anoushka Shankar, It Sounds Like Courage brings a unique blend of artists who stand in solidarity with displaced people all over the world.

Hosted by comedian Nish Kumar, this show brings together performances from award-winning Palestinian musician Nai Barghouti, renowned Kora virtuoso Seckou Keita, Afrofusion rapper MoYah, Mercury Prize-nominated songwriter Nadine Shah, soul singer Nectar Woode and the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames, and Citizens of the World Choir, made up of singers with lived experience of displacement and allies. Plus, poetry from award-winning poets, Nikita Gill, Salena Godden - and me.

It Sounds Like Courage is a night to imagine new possibilities together, with community and solidarity at its centre. This event sits at the heart of Refugee Week during our 75th anniversary year and is presented in partnership with Counterpoints Arts.

Fri 26 June 2026 
Southbank Centre
Time / 7.30pm
Tix / From £22.
Book / Here

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This has been quite a few years in the making, but it is finally here…

Written by Inua Ellams 

Directed by Ola Ince

"There are powers that bind the world together, softer than spirits yet stronger than stone, that tie the river to the tree, the tree to rain clouds, rain clouds to the land, and people to each other." 

The award-winning Once Upon a Time in Sokoto tells the epic story of a beautiful but unlikely friendship forged between a slave and her former master. Differences in faith, culture and heritage are overcome in the face of new enemies, in a gripping family drama set against the backdrop of events leading to the creation of Nigeria. 

Winner of the 2024 Alfred Fagon Award for Once Upon a Time in Sokoto, Nigeria-born Inua Ellams is an internationally celebrated poet, playwright and artist. He has published four poetry collections and his plays include the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles (Fuel/National Theatre, UK and international tour) and the award-winning The 14th Tale (Fuel/UK tour). 



Once Upon a Time in Sokoto is presented in association with Touring Together - a new national programme bringing bold stories that shine a fresh light on the world we live in today to audiences across the country. Touring Together is a China Plate and Fuel initiative in collaboration with Brighton Dome, Leeds Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Warwick Arts Centre, generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. 



- Royal & Derngate, Northampton - 28 September - 10 October 2026 
- Oxford Playhouse - 13-17 October 2026 
- Nottingham Playhouse - 29-31 October 2026  
- Warwick Arts Centre - 5-7 November 2026 
- Leeds Playhouse - 11-14 November 2026 
- Brighton Dome - 17-21 November 2026 
- Bristol Old Vic - 2-13 February 2027