Physic: An evening of poetry, music, and movement curated by Professor Alice Oswald

A unique and special evening curated by Alice Oswald, the University of Oxford’s Professor of Poetry. TORCH are delighted to support the Oxford Botanic Garden with this roving performance of music, poetry and dance, where each artist responds to the Garden as a place of healing as part of the Transnational Avant Garde Season.

The event will begin at 7.00pm, welcoming visitors to enjoy the Garden after hours, and will include a diverse range of performances from renowned artists that will include poetry, music and dance. The settings will be closely matched to the style of the piece, including music in the Conservatory, dance amongst the Herbaceous Borders, and performances in the Rainforest and Waterlily houses. This rotational experience will culminate in a finale in the Upper Garden.

Please note that tickets are required for this event, available via the Oxford Botanic Garden website.

Confirmed performers:

Alice Oswald will be performing Against Leaves - a protest against deciduousness.
Stevie Wishart will be performing her extraordinary blackbird transcriptions on violin, accompanied with poems performed by Alice Oswald.
Saju Hari will offer danced interventions to the performances.
Peter Oswald will be performing his poem-version of a story, Filo D’Oro and Filomena, collected by Italo Calvino, and several other flower poems written in Bristol.
Erica McAlpine will be reading from a sequence of short rhyming poems based on the flowers she sees and grows in Oxfordshire.
A performance of Kiki Katese's work - more information coming soon.