In November we lost one of our longest-standing community members, when Pauline May passed away. We all miss Pauline a great deal, and at the top of this episode, we wanted to commemorate her by sharing one of the poems from her pamphlet, Planets, Plants, and the Taste of Salt.

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The remainder of the episode is the same poetry shenanigans you'll be used to by now. From a lively open mic, we have Capitalist King by Auburn Langley, The Distance by Aaron Wright, Shouting Geronimo by Cath Mills, Apocalypse and Verdant by Barry Hall, Our Home by Rachel Emmott, and an early version of The Failing Leaders' Club by Aidan Clarke.

Thanks, as always, to Pop Recs for hosting us, to all of our many contributors, and to everyone who came out to pay their respects. At times like this, it is both humbling and a great comfort to be part of such an incredible community.

Until next time, toodle-oo!

King Ink's podcast is hosted by Helen Wilko and produced by James Whitman.

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All right? This month, we launched the first issue of the King Ink Collection, a celebration of our diverse, talented and raucous open mic regulars.

Some of the poems in this episode feature in the collection (available to buy from our Etsy store); some were from people who just wanted to celebrate the launch with us.

For your listening pleasure, we have Nil Desperandum by Helen Wilko, Tell Me, Physician by AJ McKenna, The After-Lifeguard by Ann Porro, The List by David Farn / Owen Brecon (Wales' Greatest Nature Poet, 1984), Rat With Wings by Helen Rogers, Grow by Laker Turner, and The Dahlias of St Beuno's by Mel McAvoy.

Thank you so much to all of our contributors (both to the collection and to the launch night itself) and to our glorious hosts, Pop Recs. We love you all!

King Ink's podcast is hosted by Helen Wilko and produced by James Whitman.

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All right? From May to October last year, you might have bumped into some of King Ink at Seventeen Nineteen, where we were artists-in-residence. We ran writing workshops and drop-ins, produced a poetry collection and a celebratory spoken word night, and we met some wonderful people.

We also had the privilege of collaborating with fellow artists-in-residence, Dead Good. Dead Good is an environmentally conscious social enterprise supporting people with death, dying and grief, which became a focus of the work people created during our own residency.

We’ll hear from some of those people in this episode, along with a few poems inspired by the time we spent at Seventeen Nineteen.

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This special podcast episode was made possible by the Seventeen Nineteen project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sunderland City Council, Benefact Trust, and The Churches Conservation Trust.

The King Ink podcast is produced by James Whitman, and this episode included contributions from Posy Jowett, Bill Dove, Pat Bell, Katy Vigurs, Sharon Milley, Odette Johnson, Lee Van Roth, and Laker Turner. The cover art for this episode is by the glorious Kathryn Robertson.