Episode 8

Finding your voice w/ Courtney Stoddart

In our eighth episode, Cat Hepburn (CatHepburnWrite) and Kevin P Gilday (@KevinPGilday) have an in depth chat with the insanely talented Scottish-Caribbean writer, poet and performer Courtney Stoddart (@amapoetica).

They discuss finding their art in personal dark places, the cathartic nature of writing, emotional resilience in a world where racism still painfully exists, and how a chance meeting at a festival led to Courtney’s pivotal role in Hannah Lavery’s critically acclaimed ‘Lament for Sheku Bayoh’.

Courtney shares her journey from leaving school at 15, to finding her voice, and what a voice it is! Her career has sky-rocketed since she began dipping a toe into spoken word, only a couple of years ago. Her work has been showcased at BBC Words 1st, the Black Lives Matter movement, Neu Reekie and the Scottish Book Trust to name a few. Courtney also shares some exclusive readings of two of her stunning poems. We can’t wait to see what she gets up to next.

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SY & COURTNEY SUGGESTS: ‘Xstabeth’ BY David Keenan (book), Return of the Obra Dinn - Lucas Pope (computer game), ‘Criminal’ (TV show on Netflix) and check out everything by Bob Marley (but especially the album Survival).

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FOLLOW OUR GUEST COURTNEY STODDART:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amapoetica

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amapoetica/

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FOLLOW US:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sonnetyouth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonnetyouthpoetry/ //

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SonnetYouth//

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonnetyouth/

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Produced by Sonnet Youth Productions //

Theme music by Amelia Bayler (@AmeliaBayler) //

Artwork by Stephen Flanagan (IG: sf_design_ok) //

Supported by Creative Scotland

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Check out our fortnightly stream SY SOCIAL CLUB (#SYSocialClub) on patreon.com/sonnetyouth, every second Thursday at 8:00pm (GMT)