Warwick community pioneer Kenilworth Arts Festival

Members of the University of Warwick community will be centre stage next week during the first ever Kenilworth Arts Festival taking place in the historic town of Kenilworth between the 12-18 September. There are close connections between the festival and the University, as not only is Warwick sponsoring the festival but two directors of the festival, Lewis Smith and Charlotte Thomas, are current students at Warwick, and a number of the artists are university staff and alumni. The programme features intimate gigs, poetry readings, talks, workshops and a free, open-air fiesta in the beautiful Abbey Fields including: Award-winning British poet and critic, Professor David Morley of English and Comparative Literature Studies is curating an evening of poetry as part of the festival programme. Five other award-winning poets will appear alongside David, including a number of Warwick alumni (Claire Trévien, Luke Kennard and Jonathan Edwards) Kitty Macfarlane, Warwick alumni, singer-songwriter is appearing at a concert in Kenilworth Castle on Saturday 17 September The illustrations that appear on the festival's website and on promotional materials were produced by Warwick alumni Victoria Watson Warwick Arts Centre will be running interactive workshops at Fiesta , the free open-air event in Abbey Fields on Sunday 18 September Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, writer-in-residence at Lacuna (a project stemming from the Centre for Human Rights in Practice at Warwick), is running a workshop on human rights journalism Chairperson and co-director of the festival, Lewis Smith, a History PhD student at the University of Warwick said: "I am really pleased that we have been able to formalise a relationship between Kenilworth Arts Festival and the University of Warwick.