Transport for London (TfL) will host a live poetry reading today (11 June) at Covent Garden station to launch a new set of Poems on the Underground for the summer. Anna Gilmore Heezen and a relative of the late Dr. Gboyega Odubanjo will headline and record their poetry at the station before doing a public reading of their works outside the station, alongside TfL staff. The poems will be played throughout the day at the station.
Anna Gilmore Heezen is a 21-year-old poet based in Edinburgh. She was a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award in 2020. Dr Odubanjo, who tragically died in 2023, was an east London poet who was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Hertfordshire for his work.
These summer poems are now live on Underground and London Overground trains, with the launch event taking place at 11:30 at Covent Garden station. As well as Anna Gilmore Heezen and the relative of the late Dr. Gboyega Odubanjo, there will be readings by poet Imtiaz Dharker and members of TfL staff. Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and video film-maker and part of Poems on the Underground.
The poems provide an international set with common themes. All six poems address the relationship of human life to the natural world, as it unfolds in ‘sea and sky and trees’. A Young Poet on the Underground, Anna Gilmore Heezen, observes a housefly in August heat; the British-Nigerian poet Dr. Gboyega Odubanjo rewrites Genesis for modern times, the South Korean poet Jeongrye Choi is lost in a forest. Tube travellers can imagine Shakespeare’s ‘wild thyme and luscious woodbine, sweet musk-roses and eglantine’; the Chinese poet Po Chu-i’s ‘peach-tree blossom’, and the smell of oranges as recalled by the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha.
Mark Evers, TfL’s Chief Customer Officer, said: ”The new set of summer Poems on the Underground are now live across the Tube and London Overground network, and we hope our customers enjoy them as much as we do. The new poems are beautifully written, and the international feel reflects the diversity of London. We look forward to hosting the poetry reading at Covent Garden and to entertaining more customers with poetry on the TfL network for years to come.”
Judith Chernaik, writer, editor and founder of Poems on the Underground, said: “As the sun shines fitfully on our great city, it’s a real privilege to share these wonderful summer poems with millions of Tube travellers.”
