LVF Eco-Poetry Night

🐢J Spooner works at the intersection of law, research and storytelling, specialising in applied storytelling for climate litigation. J will be performing extracts from “Shell: The Story of Oil”, which premiered at Green Man Festival last summer and tells the history of Shell as the story of oil, capitalism and climate breakdown. Before retraining in law, J spent 25 years working as an writer and theatre director, co-founding and leading the multi-award winning Unlimited Theatre. J now works with NGOs and research institutions to develop legal and storytelling strategies that focus on climate justice and corporate accountability

🐢Jess Grynfeld is a poet, performer and co-founder of eco-poetry collective Wild Thing Poetry. Her work often focuses on the natural world and its relationship to human experience - from the absurdity of our modern age, to queerness and femininity. She’s had poems published in 14 magazines and upcoming anthologies from Inkandsecent and the RSPB, and is also a writer and performer in the comedy sketch show The Best Women I Know. For those interested in writing their own ecopoetry, Jess is holding an ecopoetry workshop at Finchley Arts Depot in March - you can find her on instagram @jessgpoetry. 

🐢Tara Brown is a creative ecologist and facilitator, living between London and the Welsh borders. Founder of collective and enterprise Wild Thing Poetry, when they aren’t off-grid hunting inspiration, they work to build community through creativity and connection with the natural world, running events and workshops across the UK. Their poetry and writing are featured in Free the Verse, Alchemy Spoon and Field Project Magazines.

🐢Chris Thorpe is a writer and performer from Manchester. Chris's current pieces, A Family Business and the solo piece Talking About The Fire, based on several years researching and working in nuclear disarmament spaces and treaty negotiation, developed with China Plate and Rachel Chavkin and directed by Claire O'Reilly, are currently touring internationally. Upcoming work includes Always Maybe The Last Time, directed by Vicky Featherstone and produced by FUEL, Brighton Festival, The Seymour Centre and the Schwarzman Centre, Oxford University, about the psychology of the climate crisis, It's Not Me It's You, produced by China Plate and BAC, looking at radical empathy, I Think You Should Sit Down, a new play for Staatstheater Mainz about coping with societal collapse, and Cinema Tehran with Javaad Alipoor for Factory International, Manchester, about mass hallucination and the Iranian Revolution. His new piece for Meia Volta, Modern Jobs, about the Portuguese gig economy, opened at the National Theatre Lisbon in February 2026.

🐢Kit Miles is a playwright and theatre-maker from The New Forest, now living in London. Their work often centres the ecological, with specific interest in queer ecology, and how theatre can be used to encourage sustainable futures. Their play ‘Bringing The Outside In’ was funded by the New Forest NPA to explore folklore, connection to nature, and youth climate action, and toured across Hampshire earlier this year. Kit is also a Mentor Playwright for the National Theatre’s New Views, supporting young people to write their first plays.

🐢William Wyld is a poet and artist from London who's work tackles grief, chronic illness and sexuality, and is deeply rooted in the natural landscape. They are a member of Wild Thing eco-poetry collective, a Southbank New Poets Collective alum and a Poetry Archive Now winner. Their paintings of found animal remains have been exhibited at the Royal Academy and Discerning Eye, and in 2024 they joined the Horniman Museum to assist in the redisplay of the Natural History collection. William's debut pamphlet The Butterfly Bush is forthcoming in May 2026 with Little Betty Press.