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Kat Beeton, Peterborough's new Poet Laureate

Get to know the new Poet Laureate for Peterborough and her plans for the role a little better!

Kat Beeton is inspired by music, through both singing and listening, she finds herself able to explore how she feels and thinks. With eclectic tastes, ranging from heavy metal to musicals, this poet likes difference. She also found herself getting into poetry in a bit of a different way- actually stopping writing as she didn’t think she was doing it right, having only been introduced to the likes of Byron and Keats. However, upon beginning her degree Kat was able to explore new ways of writing, and realised that what she thought she knew about the traditional rules of poetry was almost irrelevant to her, “It doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write it.”

So, that is exactly what she did, and now in 2022, she has not only achieved the title of Peterborough’s Poet Laureate but is also the editor in chief for the University Centre Peterborough’s first-ever anthology of new writing, entitled ‘The Other Side.' You will be able to find Kat there on the 15th of June from 7 pm-9 pm, and you can get free tickets on Eventbrite here. On the night, there will be readings from the anthology by students, and also a display of artwork by Peterborough College and University Centre Peterborough students.

Becoming Peterborough's Poet Laureate means being able to expand her platform through other events in Peterborough too, attending events such as this year's Peterborough Celebrates and being on stage for the poetry workshop there. It also means being able to have a louder voice to talk about the things that she feels are important, such as how we need to make the arts more accessible to everyone and let people know there is a place for them within it, as well as celebrating diversity. She feels that the arts are now more important than ever. We have spent an unprecedented two years of our lives in a period of lockdowns, loss and uncertainty and in that time we have coped through creativity- even cookery, binging Netflix, reading or writing, it is all attributed to the arts. In her words, on her chosen creative outlet, "Poetry connects humans".

Kat was unable to perform for a long time due to personal trauma, after being a performer who lost confidence and then regained her voice, she wants to show others that they can do the same when facing adversity. Another thing that is important for Kat as a newly appointed Laureate, is to encourage the beauty of difference to other people and the idea that you do not have to conform to other people's ideas. Identifying as Genderfluid and Bisexual, Kat wants to show others that they don't have to live in a box.

Find Kat's winning poem and social media below:

Here I am I spent years in hiding sliding through shadows

screaming in secret swallowed by the dark that throws shade on my future

reshapes my past where they bruised me with labels

and laughed

the violence of words that surge in waves warriors with keyboards piling on, raining down hate

cut down my pride play wargames in my mind

my internal bloodshed I’m a soldier of my time

It’s time for my words like free-flowing ink that splash from the page and fly out into the world rising and churning like a hurricane

dressed by the women that came before

cloaked in kinks and flaws with my fluid lines and thoughts

I pave my own path I don’t need your likes I’m a raptor in full flight making my own light I don’t need you to see you follow my lead but what do you think of me?



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