To celebrate National Poetry Day on Thursday October 5, Winchester University is hosting a performance by Antosh Wojcik in the Stripe Auditorium. 

Antosh is also a drummer and sound artist and he combines these skills with his poetry. 

His cross-disciplinary performance piece, How To Keep Time: A Drum Solo for Dementia, was commissioned by Penned in the Margins and toured the UK and abroad in 2019. 

He will be reading from 7.30pm and his appearance will be followed by a Poetry Slam competition, where students, graduates, and members of the public are invited to perform their work. 

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Antosh says his performance will be an exploration of the National Poetry Day theme, 'Refuge' and will include poems that navigate being a descendant of a Polish refugee and how that definition has changed over time. 

This year’s National Poetry coincides with National Homelessness Day. All those attending the Stripe are encouraged to bring an item to support Winchester Beacon and Winchester Basics Bank on the day. 

Earlier in the day the university will be holding two poetry workshops in the St Alphege Building. 

Dr Mark Rutter hosts the first, from 4pm to 5.30pm, which is dubbed Poetic Ideas and Inspirations. 
Performance Poetry – Finding Your Voice with professional poet Kaycee Hill, runs from 5.45pm to 7pm. 

All the university events, under the umbrella title Spreading the Word are open to the public and free to attend. 

Event organiser Glenn Fosbraey, associate dean of humanities and social sciences at the university, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate this diverse and ever-evolving art form, and to raise the curtain on another exciting Winchester Poetry Festival.” 

The events are an unofficial curtain raiser for Winchester Poetry Festival (October 13-15) which includes the university as a sponsor.