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Dr Malika Booker

@malika.booker

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Writer, Poet, Theatre & Multi-disciplined artist, Writing Mentor, Founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen

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It was a joy to come together on Monday night to celebrate @kwame.dawes, who was joined by @malika.booker and @jallenpaisant for a wonderful evening of poetry readings and thoughtful discussion 📖

We were so proud to be part of organising this event - thanks to Kwame, Malika, Jason, all the wonderful people at @renaissanceone @outofmanypeople @leedslibraries who made it happen, and to the lovely attendees! Great to see so many of the Peepal Tree family in the audience 💕🌱 by @malika.booker

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Prompt-A-Mania - the online one day poetry generating writing retreat is back. Join me on Saturday 5th or Sunday 6th 11am-5..30pm for a fun filled day using creative prompts to write poetry. Book one of those dates if you would like to generate numerous first drafts, are working towards a collection, would like to carve out some time to devote to your writing and are keen to write in community. It is always a good experience. So if you are serious about your writing, and would like to invest a day devoted to your craft this is the retreat for you. Please use the link in the bio to book your tickets and spread the word to anyone you feel would be interested. There are discounted tickets available. Hope to see you there. by @malika.booker

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🔥 THE BLACK POETRY SHUTDOWN 🔥

Forget a poetry night. This is a takeover.

10 of the UK’s most electrifying poets on one stage. Zero holding back!

@malika.booker, @jahdigga, @sanitythemc, Kadija Sesay, Rachel Long, @casey_bailey, @johnpoetbernard, @thaughtonpoetry, @nick.makoha

Hosted by @sbellgam of @poetictemple.

Political fire, personal truth, unfiltered stories, heavy bars. Words that hit you before you’ve even had time to process them.

📍 Barbican Theatre
🕖 19:00
📅 4 October 2026
#BBBF2026

🎟 Tickets are LIVE. Get yours now via the link in bio. taken in United Kingdom by @malika.booker

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This October, we’re joining Manchester Literature Festival (@mcrlitfest) for an evening of poetry and music celebrating the women who shaped our communities through activism, service and grassroots organising.

🎟️ Tickets £10 / £8 via the link in our bio!

📅 Saturday 17 October 2026
🕢 7:30pm
📍 St John's Church, Manchester

Honouring the legacies of Olive Morris, Louise Da-Cocodia and Kath Locke, the evening brings together an incredible line-up of artists:

🎤 Malika Booker (@malika.booker), Mali Hayes (@malihayes), Shirley May (@shirleymay44poet) & Clive Hunte (@bushamann) and Young Identity; Janoma Omena (@janoma.omena), Setira Reid (@s3tira) & Faheezal Taiwo (@faheetriestowrite)

Expect poetry, soulful music and an evening celebrating the enduring impact of women who fought, organised and created change in our communities.

@zioncentremcr
@dacocodiatrust taken in St John the Evangelist C of E Church by @malika.booker

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🌱 “We have innumerable examples of what we do with language. Not just its innovation but the dynamic ways that language helps us to resist.” - Shauna M. Morgan

Thank you to everyone who attended our fifth Welcome Table Talk with @torchliteraryarts: “Parables and Provisions” with Shauna M. Morgan and Malika Booker!

How can Black women writers navigate language as an inheritance, a histories-long struggle, and a site of resistance? Over a beautiful conversation moderated by Wintergreen sister Carmin Wong, our guests discussed how they navigate language as Caribbean writers of the Diaspora, how they feed and nourish literary community, and the unlikely importance of a home garden in one’s creative practice.

If you missed the event, you can now watch a recording on Youtube - link in bio 🔗 by @malika.booker

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This beauty arrived in my University post - I cannot wait to read it. #cricketpoems #poetlife #poetbookshelve taken in Chapeltown, Leeds by @malika.booker

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When you go into the office after a few weeks away and find out that the third year graduates have gifted their lecturers with gifts and there on my desk are a back of gifts. Thank you so much. @mcrpoetrylibrary @english_manmetuni @thewritingschoolonline #creativewritinglecturer #poetrylecturer #mcrwritingschool by @malika.booker

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What does it mean to be fed and nourished by, and to feed and nourish, literary community? And what responsibilities do writers bear towards the lands that have fed and grown them? 🌿

Feat. Shauna M. Morgan, Malika Booker, and moderator Carmin Wong, our next Welcome Table Talk - "Parables and Provisions: Feeding the Soil and the Soul" will explore these questions and more on July 11th via Zoom Webinar. Link in bio to register. 🔗 ASL access provided by @probonoasl.

In anticipation, we share two poems from our incredible speakers:

"New Provisions" Shauna M. Morgan

I step through the yard, toes combing
the damp grass, my feet in adjuration,
toward the provision ground where
plots of dirt darken beneath dew,
waiting for the sun to stretch
this morning’s promise across the sky.

I pull deeply a breath of life,
as if this inspiring could make me
understand what the air is whispering
about seeding and rooting,
and when to ready the earth
for planting in difficult soil.

I close my eyes and see my sapling self,
barefooted and eager, Madras shorts
and slampatta shoes following my mother
to pick limes and cherries and globe grapes
at the arbor where the passion fruit vines
emigrate from the fence, tendrils hoping away...
🌿

"A Parable of Sorts" by Malika Booker

We danced to rancorous tunes on spiked ground and
our knees sang with each puncture, so that several

agouti colonies, melanic in our russet strengths,
learned as wild rats to scurry or guard ourselves from

skin-spite. Immune from nocturnal drowsiness
we strong-bellied creatures assembled, campaigned;

gyrated to blowed trumpets and cradled songs, but,
us black rats with our rogue swagger that spoke

of foreign ports, pranced our survival shuffle in
night’s murky dance halls. Each step our single

prayer, each jab our benediction. This tart sermon
containered our septic hurts and lean swaggers. On

the strike of dawn, we skittered from shadows, the
redeemed walking day’s straight-road into warpland.
🌿 by @malika.booker

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Prompt-A-Mania the all day online writing retreat is back on the 25th and 26th July - 11.00am-5.30pm (British time). Book to come along on one of these days. Come prepared to write considerable amount of 1st drafts responding to poems using food, rituals and ceremony as starting points and conduits for us to create rich powerful poems alluding to all things human. Link to book your tickets on Eventbrite is in the bio. Tell a friend and don’t stick. Look forward to seeing you all there. by @malika.booker

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