BBC Proms and English PEN to showcase refugee talent

English PEN is collaborating with BBC Proms on a new outreach project, Brave New Voices, which introduces established poets to young people with a migrant or refugee background living in the UK.

Featuring more than 90 concerts that take place over eight-weeks during the Proms, on 29th July, pupils at the Capital City Academy in Willesden will perform a piece of poetry as part of the BBC's "Ten Pieces". The poem has been authored by young participants with a refugee background who, with the help of writer and Brave New Voices co-ordinator Rosemary Harris and translator Alice Guthrie in partnership with Salusbury World, were encouraged to create new work that reflects their aspirations and experiences.

The Ten Pieces Prom will be performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Antonia Byatt, director of English PEN, commended the flagship outreach project and its alignment with PEN's values. "English PEN's outreach programme is a crucial pillar of our work to promote literary diversity and gives meaning to the opening lines of the PEN Charter that 'Literature knows no frontiers'. We are thrilled to have been invited by the BBC to showcase the work of our Brave New Voices project, and for the opportunity to present new, culturally significant poetry to BBC audiences," she said.

Funding for the Brave New Voices project is also supported by the John Lyon's Charity and the Limbourne Trust.