Visiting Artist’s Talk – Vahni Capildeo

The Visiting Artist’s Talk (VAT) series hosts talks by an exciting range of arts practitioners from around the world every Monday afternoon during teaching weeks.

Vahni Capildeo lives between Scotland and Trinidad. Capildeo completed a DPhil in Old Norse literature and translation theory at Christ Church, Oxford.

Their six full-length books include Measures of Expatriation (Carcanet, 2016; Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection award, T.S. Eliot Prize nomination) and Venus as a Bear (Carcanet, 2018; Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection shortlist, Poetry Book Society summer choice).

During their Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, Capildeo, who is a traditional masquerader (Midnight Robber; fancy sailor) began experimental performances based on Euripides, Shakespeare, and the poet Martin Carter. Capildeo’s non-fiction extends to microtravel (Granta), cocoa farming and feminist gardening (adda, Commonwealth Writers), researched during their Harper-Wood Studentship from St John’s College, Cambridge.

Forthcoming publications are Skin Can Hold (Carcanet, 2019), and a pamphlet responding to textiles in the ULITA archive at the University of Leeds, where they are the Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in Poetry.

The venue for this talk is Lecture Theatre F, Chemistry West Building, University of Leeds.

All of our talks are compulsory for all Fine Art students but open to anyone else who would like to join us.

For more information, email Nick Thurston.

Image: Portrait: Vahni Capildeo. Photo: Kavir Mootoo.