Image: Thomas Byron Photography
Clare was Poet Laureate for Peterborough from Nov 2017-19. She is a founder member of Syntax Poetry Festival and an associate artist of Jumped Up Theatre. In 2016, she was awarded the Future Floodlands playwriting commission with Eastern Angles Theatre Company and the Peterborough Environment City Trust, going on to write for the modernisation of the Mystery Plays with Eastern Angles. She has worked with Jumped Up Theatre, in collaboration with Battersea Arts and the One to One Development Trust. With Jumped Up Theatre and filmmaker Emily Steele, she wrote for and performed in a film celebrating Peterborough as part of the 100 Moments campaign, receiving over 40K views.She was a judge for the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2018 & 19 and has worked in schools and with community groups.
During the Covid pandemic, Clare was commissioned by Eastern Angles and Paines Plough to write, film and perform a one-act play; A Little Understood explores lockdown and connection:
https://www.youtube.com/user/painesplough
For the Nene Park Trust, Clare worked on 42Words, a project in which a group of artists responded to words, related to lockdown. These were submitted by volunteers and visitors to the park. Clare wrote and then developed her use of cyanotype to produce poems for display.
Taking up a Writer-in-Residence position at Metal – Southend’s Pop Up Writers’ House, Clare developed a new work for theatre: ‘Cold Snap‘ – exploring being female, a sports woman and mother. She was commissioned to deliver a scratch performance of this with Jumped Up Theatre and was then awarded Arts Council England DYCP funding to develop the work and expand her own practice by working with Bryony Kimmings, Ross Sutherland, Jumped Up Theatre and the One to One Development Trust. She was selected to perform the piece at the Cambridge Junction as part of Views From The Bridge and is currently developing the work for touring.
Clare has taken part in the Essex Book Festival, Verse Festival (Stamford), the launch of the Deepings Literary Festival and alongside artists such as Mark Grist, Carmina Masoliver, Ross Sutherland and Panya Banjoko. She has recently relocated to Gorleston, Great Yarmouth and is eagerly getting to know her new surroundings. Her writing has been described as ‘beautiful, honest and brave.’
