The Platform

    The Platform, was an open call for creatives aged 21–28 to submit new work to be showcased at Hay Festival, Hay on Wye 2024. The successful artists will share their work with audiences on Wednesday 29 May in the Festival’s central Exchange Marquee and across the Festival site, plus meet and network with established artists over a three-day visit.

    Creative event at Hay Festival

    Applications to The Platform were open to a range of art forms, including theatre poetry, digital art, live arts, film, audio and literature, with a focus on bringing together a diverseand representative group of artists from across the UK.

    The successful artists whose work will be featured this year include poet Bradley Taylor; writer and performer Emma Rogerson; theatre maker Grace Waga Glevey; writer and producer Martha Bird; writer and director Paul Koloman Kaiba; poet and film maker Elliot Waloschek; writer and editor Sabine Wilson-Patrick; spoken word artist Samuel Mansell aka DeSide; actor and playwright Tayla Kenyon; and theatre collective Harry Clayton-Lucey, Flynn Mchardy and Arthur Bickers aka Moving Feet.

    Supported by funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, The Platform is a brand-new initiative to promote, support and develop young creative talent.

    The 2024 Platform artists

    Elliot Waloschek - Waterlog

    “i’m gonna come out merman, swimming dickless in the sun”

    Within a bathhouse of spoken word, performance, visual art & sound, poet Elliot Waloschek unravels experiences of transformation & transition. This is a gender-bending genre-blender, exploring the auspicious occurrences between bodies, selves & poetry. What is it to morph, to be multiple?

    Elliot Waloschek is a poet, performer and artist from London. Mundane and the metamorphic, his work weaves a wet mythology of queerness and transmasculinity. He was the winner of the 2020 Roundhouse Slam. An alumnus of Roundhouse Poetry Collective and Apples & Snakes Writing Room, his poetry has been featured on BBC Radio and published by The Poetry Society, Broken Sleep Books, bath magg and Ink Sweat & Tears. He has performed at festivals around the UK and also curates poetry events. He performed his debut solo poetry show, Waterlog, at Roundhouse Last Word Festival 2023.

    Emma Rogerson -  The anatomy of a living thing 

    The story of a thing that barely exists. Soft spots, meeting points. Words for weird times. Inspired by examples of real life gift-giving-as-protest practices,  The anatomy of a living thing  is a love letter to activism, endurance, queer joy and lavender.

    Emma Rogerson is a writer and researcher with complicated and sentimental feelings about pretty much everything. She’s a full-time lover of collaboration and creative community. In 2022, she graduated with an MSt in Writing for Performance from University of Cambridge where she researched experimental playwriting methods; that year, she was also a Resident Artist with the European Theatre Convention. Her writing has been commissioned/performed across the UK: in theatres, museums, schools, galleries and online. She makes work that is joyful, strange, messy, tender and full of love. Sunshine and glitter and queerness and magic.

    Emma said: “I'm really excited to be performing as part of The Platform at Hay Festival 2024. Hay Festival is a brilliant event that presents unique opportunities for writers/performers, in addition to offering a genuine breadth and diversity of programming for audiences. It's especially heartening to be part of the first year of The Platform. Hay Festival's commitment to supporting and elevating young creatives (in what is generally accepted to be a difficult climate for early-career artists) is really valuable.”

    DeSide - 20 Minutes of Truth: The Spoken Word

    Rap, respect and responsibilities. An unfiltered glimpse into the trials and tribulations of toxic masculinity, told by DeSide, a rapper and youth worker from a town best known for its colonial history and academic prowess. This quirky take on a young man's journey to becoming his authentic self, told through rap music, spoken word and children’s book reading will have you travel a range of emotions in his quest to tell his story. The story of so many, yet so few tell.

    DeSide is a spoken word artist and rapper with over a decade of experience performing live in venues across the UK. His focus on global affairs, social injustice and mental ill health have e him a buzz in the Underground Hip Hop scene and coverage in the New York Times, Guardian and BBC News. His encrypted social commentary serves as a poetic guide through the streets of Oxford, which he calls home.

    Samuel said: 

    “I feel that growing up as a young man in a city of such economic disparity, it's hard not to develop a chip on your shoulder. It's only when you get older and you realise the blessings you have that you start to unlearn some of these toxic behaviours and habits. I strive to create art that is as accessible and engaging as it is gritty and honest. If more young people heard these home truths at a young age I think it might help them develop tools to combat mental ill-health and addiction issues and I'm an advocate that creativity and consumption of art is the key to this.”

    Grace Waga Glevey – For the Birds

    How is an individual supposed to respond to the climate catastrophe? One young woman, to her own embarrassment, finds herself taking up birdwatching. Beginning this hobby in the face of an ultimate ending, the monologue asks audiences to reflect on what it means to come together and the significance of what we give our attention to.

    Grace is a theatre and TV maker from Humberside specialising in new writing, comedy, and outreach. She recently founded Hani Projects, a community arts production company committed to developing new work locally. Its first project, Delulu, a sketch show critiquing the portrayal of girls and girliness in 00s pop culture, was awarded a residency with Sheffield Theatres. Her debut play, Jack and Gill, is currently under commission for Hull’s Fresh Ink Festival for new writing with Middle Child Theatre. She trained on the Old Vic’s Theatre Making programme, and in Sheffield Theatre’s New Dramaturgs Group.

    Grace said: “I’m excited to connect with festival-goers and other creatives through The Platform. My piece, For the Birds, explores themes of nature and class, and individual and collective action so, for many reasons, I’m excited to bring it to Hay Festival. To me, the spirit of the Festival is an openness to new ideas, and sharing, so I’m grateful for this invitation and looking forward to the conversations it will lead to.”

    Bradley Taylor – Poetry on Demand 

    Using his typewriter to gift strangers with a unique, bespoke poem of their own choosing. Bradley Taylor will set up his typewriter across the festival to deliver Poetry on Demand. 

    Bradley Taylor is a poet born and based in Birmingham. He also hosts the monthly spoken word night ‘Overcoat Poetry’, and has appeared on BBC West Midlands showcasing his work. In 2023 he was commissioned to write a poem for the closing ceremony of the Birmingham Festival, using prompts from the public. He writes for - and about, in all their glory - people.

    Bradley said: “I’m beyond excited to be bringing my typewriter to this year’s Hay Festival to type up some bespoke poetry for those attending the Festival and visiting this historic town. Hay-on-Wye and the Festival itself is my home away from home, and I can only imagine what prompts and ideas that the artists, free-thinkers, storytellers and lovers of all things literature will have in store for me there – so that I may gift them with a unique oneoff poem, just for them. It will also be a pleasure to share some of these poems alongside the other wonderful artists showcasing their work thanks to The Platform.”

    Martha Bird – What do you believe in?  

    This participatory poster piece provokes a simple question, What do you believe in?  In the midst of our atomised modern world where the word ‘belief’ can seem increasingly irrelevant, where are we turning to for our spiritual solace? Studies show we are as spiritual as ever, but we aren’t soul searching in traditional environments. This hopeful question spurs consideration of modern forms of belief, however big or small. You are invited to write down your ideas, which will then be recorded and replicated on new posters that will be pasted on the walls of cities across Europe.

    Martha Bird is an interdisciplinary artist originally from the north of England. After a Masters in Gender Studies in Italy and Spain, she attended a film school in Berlin, exploring independent cinema, the written word and political curation. Living across Europe shaped her artistic focus and eventually led her to creating a film in southern Italy based on themes of regional divide, queer utopias and European identity. These concepts are at the core of her current practice, which takes the shape of conversations, curated projects, and experiential art.

    Martha said: “I’m incredibly grateful to be given the opportunity to ask questions about ideas of modern European identity and belief through the presentation of my work What do you Believe in?. I’m really excited to be able to engage with audiences in such a culturally and artistically exciting space and look forward to all the conversations, creativity and connections that will be sparked at this year's Festival!”

    Paul Koloman Kaiba -  The Mute Messiah

    The Mute Messiah is a social-satire and theatrical journey exploring the lives of young people within the UK's benefit system, blending verbatim theatre and dark comedy. The piece revolves around the Mute Messiah, and the absurd, heartfelt, comical, humiliating, cruel, and uplifting encounters they have on their journey, growing ever more resilient amidst the harsh challenges the UKs benefits system set its claimants. 

    Featuring a wild mix of characters, including a steadfast sister, social workers, nosy neighbors, potential partners, and government officials, as well as themes of resilience, class struggle, and the power of belief, the piece focuses onmoments of solidarity support, offering a slice-of-life satire filled with humour and heartache

    Paul Koloman Kaiba is a theatre and film director, dramaturg, writer and scenographer who trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Aberystwyth University. His past work includes the National Theatre Wales production A Proper Ordinary Miracle, and the transdisciplinary performance project GALWAD, and is currently part of NTW’s Emerging Dramaturgs group.

    He is a former Artist-in-Residence at Theatr Clwyd, and received the Riverfront Theatre’s Creative Commission for his devised piece LOWLAND. His work revolves around fostering exchange with individuals from diverse lived realities to facilitate access and participation in both creative and democratic spheres, creating a politicized theatre that opens discourse on a spectrum from global to hyperlocal issues.

    Moving Feet - The Light and Sound Show

    An urban opera - a interdisciplinary performance piece that straddles the boundary between theatre, live art and music through improvisation and play. It captures the art of the everyday, the wonder of a person crossing the road, looking to the sky, or singing spontaneously. Taking direct influence from the ethos of 1960’s art movements such as minimalism and instillation, our show takes aim at the separation between art and life through championing the ready made.

    Harry Clayton-Lucey is a writer, actor, director and producer. He is part of the experimental art and theatre collective Moving Feet and organises experimental music performances in Manchester with Skribble.He was president of the Manchester Revue Sketch Society 2022-23, director of award-winning UOM Mifta show and a published poet in Field zine and Blether Magazine, 2024. Arthur Bickers and Flynn Mchardy are musicians in several ongoing performance projects, including ye olde trad folk band Brown Wimpenny, the children’s music quintet Hedgehog, improvised guitar trio Topeka and rock band The No Show.

    Sabine Wilson-Patrick -  me and my mother are migratory birds

    My mother and I have a relationship based on confession. I tell my mother everything. I grew up with my mother in Barbados, but I moved away when I was 16, and since then, I have called my mother every single day. The updates of the day only take a few minutes, but then we talk about everything else. I talk to her about relationships, race, odd dreams I wake up and hardly remember, motherhood, crushing fears, what I was like as a little girl and what to do now that I’m not one. My mother and I talk about everything. In 2022, I was home for the summer and I discovered my mother’s cancer had returned after she’d been in remission for most of my teenage years. Now my mother and I talk about everything

    Sabine Wilson-Patrick is originally from Barbados and is a creative writing student at Cardiff University. Her work can be found in nawr, Quench and Mulberry Literary magazines.

    Tayla Kenyon - FLUFF

    Fluff doesn’t know whose birthday she's celebrating, where she is, and who keeps visiting her room. But before unveiling these mysteries, she needs to navigate through her life's memories; desperately trying to piece it together; story by story, person by person. From her unruly hair and troubled school life to her fame-seeking mother and a father battling dementia, Fluff's story unfolds. 

    Tayla Kenyon is an actor and playwright. She is the co-producer of company Teepee Productions and has co-written and performed Fluff for which she won Best Performance at Birmingham Fringe Fest 2023. Tayla was also the winner of Best Individual Performance at Edinburgh Fringe 2019 for the role of Mary Shelley