LGBT Poet Laureate

Admiral Duncan Act of Remembrance

30 April 2023

I read a poem at the 2023 remembrance event.

Lesbian Visibility Week

April 2023

I was interviewed for DIVA Magazine to discuss what it means to be a lesbian in 2023.
Read the article

Good Morning Britain's 'LGBT+ History Makers'

23June 2023

This is the interview I did for ITV's Good Morning Britain. It was part of their series LGBTQ+ History Makers.

In the interview they included a filmed segment called Pride Icon which they had filmed earlier. The poems I performed include, Hatred Hurts Us All and #Nofilter

Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI)

March 2023

The 1995 Conservative Government’s State Pension Act included plans to increase women’s state pension age from 60 to 65 so that it was the same as men’s.

Because of the way the increases were brought in, some women have been hit particularly hard because of when they were born. As a result, they are angry that they have been treated unfairly and unequally just because of the day they were born.

Significant changes to the age they receive their state pension have been imposed upon them with a lack of appropriate notification, with little or no notice and much faster than they were promised.

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March I supported WASPI at a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament by reading her poem ‘Pension Plea’.

Poetry as a Catalyst for Social & Political Change

May 2023

I was invited to be a distinguished guest speaker at Glasgow University to share my poetry and personal experience to illuminate the major social and political activism that impacted on the LGBTQ community from the 70's to now.

Coronavirus: A Living Poem

Would you like to be part of a poem?

LGBTQ Love, Abuse and Oppression: Creative Resilience

May 2023

I performed a poetry set with a poem commissioned for this conference at The Royal Society of Edinburgh, about domestic abuse within LGBT+ relationships.

LGBT+: There’s Power in the Poems

February 2023

Poetry may have a reputation for being exclusionary but it can also be a ‘catalyst for social and political change’, according to the country’s first LGBTQ+ Poet Laureate.

Trudy Howson’s work addresses a wide range of subjects, from the horrors of the Holocaust to endangered LGBT+ venues, bisexual visibility, as well as HIV and Aids.

Sound of the Underground

January 2023

Legends of the London queer club scene came above ground to take over the Royal Court Theatre.

Part-play, part-raucous cabaret, part-workers’ manifesto, joined eight underground drag icons as they spilled the tea, free the nipple and fight the shadowy forces that threatened their livelihoods.

Read my Review

Kissed by Flame

February 2023

Would you rather experience a devastating grief or never having known real love? Kissed by a Flame explored the former.

Directed by James Callàs Ball and written by Simon Perrott , Kissed by a Flame was a window into the final months of that once- in-a-lifetime kind of love. A romantic tragedy for our times shown at the Pleasance theatre.

Read my Review

Behind The Lens

January 2023

I hosted this three day event at the Garden Cinema, WC2 to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month’s theme of, Behind The Lens.

Each screening was followed by a panel discussion with a Q & A session afterwards. 

The programme included:
Blue Jean
Joyland
The Gateways Grind

This new bijou independent cinema is three minutes from Holborn tube. See their website for more information.

Lesbian Life: The Long & Short of it

February 2023

In celebration of LGBT+ History Month, Sappho Events hosted an intergenerational panel event at the Homerton Library to explore LGBT+ queer women and non-binary people's history in London, with a particular focus on queer Hackney residents. As LGBT Poet Laureate, I was on the panel.

Interview with Soho Radio

June 2016

I was interviewed by the lovely Clare Lynch of Soho Radio for the Soho Society Hour.

Trudy Howson appointed LGBT Poet Laureate

June 2017

LGBT Poet Laureate Trudy Howson has relocated to St Leonard’s on Sea and dedicated a poem to the first Hastings Pride.

Trudy was appointed LGBT Poet Laureate in February 2016. She will hold the post for a term of three years. This inaugural post was devised by Camden LGBT Forum to promote LGBT poetry in London and the UK.

Camp Confidential

December 2016

I’m returning to my Theatrical and Cabaret Roots…Hooray!

Camp Confidential is a brand spanking-new residency I’m running at The Library Club WC2

Combining Poetry, Music, Singing, Drag and Burlesque. This glamorous Queer Cabaret has a retro feel, with a contemporary twist in the tale!

MD Nigel Stewart thrills at the piano at this sophisticated members club in St Martins Lane. Our first guests of the season are Drag King & Queen Duo Adam & Apple Derriere. I’ve also been featured in QX Magazine.

See the theme tune to the show.

Many thanks to Dan Dan for designing my poster.

Who/How/Why: Film Triptych With Three Flying Piglets

March 2016

I’ve been collaborating with Three Flying Piglets to create a film triptych featuring my poems, and which has the working title of ‘Who, How, Why We Are’. 

The first part, IDAHOT, is themed around the colours of blue and white. The second, Let There Be Love (green/brown), and third is We Are (red).

Announcement of LGBT Laureateship

April 2016

Gscene have announced that the recipient of the title first LGBT Poet Laureate, which will be formally announced during LGBT History Month in February, is Trudy Howson.

This inaugural post was devised by Camden LGBT Forum to promote LGBT poetry in London and the UK. Camden LGBT Forum is a charity that supports local LGBT residents.

A spokesperson for the Forum, said: “The Arts is a powerful tool we use to celebrate diversity and promote cohesion amongst our communities. During the last six years our INCITE Poetry event has been paving the way for LGBT talent to foster positive change through spoken and written word.”

The term of the appointment is for three years.

Read the full article

The Smallhythe Trio

June 2017

In collaboration with the National Trust, I launched an exhibition exploring the lives, loves and legends that were the Smallhythe Trio – Edith Craig, Christopher St John, and Clare Atwood.

The event took place in June 2017 at Smallhythe Place, residence of Edith Craig’s mother, actress Ellen Terry. It explored the trio’s unconventional lives and relationships, and compared and contrasted the experiences of women then and now.

My poems for the event included: The Smallhythe Trio and Three Ladies. I have also been invited to create a similar event for the National Trust.

An LGBT Celebration At Smallhythe Place

June 2017

To celebrate National Trust’s Prejudice and Pride programme LGBT Poet Laureate Trudy Howson came to Smallhythe Place to explore The Smallhythe Trio: Edith Craig, Christopher St. John and Clare Atwood, through poetry and prose.

She was also in conversation with House Steward, Susannah Mayor and Curator of the current LGBT exhibition, Carla Danella, about Edy Craig and her circle of LGBT friends that lived at the property. There was a Q&A session to close the event.

Read the full article.

National Hate Crime Awareness Week

July 2016

This project is part of an ongoing theme that I am developing throughout my three year tenure as LGBT Poet Laureate.

Poetry as a means to Power Social & Cultural Change

I wrote the poem for National Hate Crime Awareness Week. (#NHCAW) organised by Stop Hate Crime UK.

I performed it at the launch of this National Campaign on the 8th October at St Paul’s Cathedral, when the National Candle of Hope and Remembrance for those affected by the attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando was lit.

The focus this year was on remembering all those we lost and those affected by that and other awful attacks on our communities and 17-24-30 also put up my poem, Ode to Orlando, on their website.

New Scotland Yard

July 2022

This project is part of a theme that I want to develop during my three year term as LGBT Poet Laureate, called “Poetry to Power Social & Cultural Change”.

On 30th June, 2016, I was invited to New Scotland Yard to attend a conference/think tank about ‘Policing Challenges: Faith, Race and the LGBT Community’.

Camden LGBT Forum has been working with the Police for a number of years offering advice, workshops, whilst monitoring attacks on our community and helping to establish LGBT groups within the force.

Its important to encourage and develop new ways forward in policing our community. Its a two way current of communication. I am part of this new wave.

The Metropolitan Police are currently using my poem IDAHOT on their website to promote positive change in the attitude and approach of their members to the LGBT community.

Junior Citizens Antibullying Pledge

July 2016

As part of “Poetry that Powers, Social/Cultural/Political Change”, I’m writing poetry as part of Camden LGBT Forum’s Schools Programme at Coram Fields, targetted towards 10/11-year-olds (pre secondary school).

Read the poem Coram Fields that I wrote.

The workshops (8 hours over one or two weeks) focus on the negative effects of stereotyping and bullying. they encourage the kids to sign an anti bullying pledge as shown.

British Library Recordings

January 2017

In December 2016, the British Library invited me to record my poetry for posterity, as the inaugural LGBT Poet Laureate.

The interview and my poems should be available for free listening at the library.

Rainbow Poppy

The rainbow poppy is a campaign I’m running to bring attention to the brave soldiers who died for our country during WWI at a time when their sexuality was still criminalised.

I presented one at Stoke on Trent Pride in June 2018.

It’s A Sin

February 2021

‘It’s A Sin’ is a tremendous new series, but it’s unfortunate that lesbians played during the AIDS epidemic was left out of the series. Remember those days – we stood together as family.

Read my poem HIV/AIDS

LGBT Poet Laureate Visits Indian Prince

January 2019

Gay Star News recently published an article on my meeting with Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil at his home in Gujarat.

The Prince is at the forefront of the LGBTI movement in India and it was a great honour to meet him.

Anniversary Of The Sexual Offences Act

July 2017

Thank you to Josh from Ham & High for heralding in the anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act with this piece on my performance at the Town Hall, in July 2017.

Click the image to read the article.

London’s LGBTQ+ Leaders Celebrate Their Own Queer Heroes

March 2019

In an article in the Evening Standard, I was asked to discuss my own queer hero – the indomitable Jackie Forster – amongst many other leading queer London figures. 

Read the full article

Pride Live Radio

I performed three poems for Pride Live Radio as part of Norwich Pride. You can listen to my segment between 27:00 and 34:48 minutes.

Diva Literary Festival

November 2017

The DIVA Literary Festival & Awards at the Hilton Metropole Birmingham.

I was highly commended at the DIVA Literary Festival and received a poetry award.

Interview With Hastings Observer

April 2016

I was interviewed by the Hastings Observer who also kindly featured two of my poems.

In And Around Covent Garden

June 2016

I was interviewed for the February edition of In and Around Covent Garden.
(Click image to expand and read)

Feature In Camden New Journal

July 2016

I received a shout-out in Camden New Journal, 11 February 2016, for my work that was showcased in the ‘London Whispers’ Exhibition. 
(Click image to expand and read)