CREATIVE
An authentic, emotive, empowering storyteller
Creativity is at the core of who I am, and has fed into my activism over the years, with a passion for empowering and amplifying the voices of those overlooked. A lot of my work as a creative revolves around storytelling, collaboration, and working with charities or grassroots organisations.
With over 10 years of creative experience, which includes hosting cultural events and editing community anthologies, my work is channeled into three main areas:
Poet
Writer
Curator
Through these avenues, I aim to unite people, create work that stays in the hearts of individuals, and most of all, make a positive difference in the world.
Click here for examples of my work.
© Photo: David Parry
Poet
Drawing inspiration from what sets my soul on fire, my poetry covers a variety of subjects, including race, gender, American sports (particularly basketball), and my home of Croydon.
My empathy and adaptability leads to positive results when writing for commissions like the London Mozart Players' Oratorio of Hope, and collaborating with artists like photographer Ameena Rojee for her photography book Crocus Valley. Emotion seeps out of me when sharing poetry with the world through live sets, audio recordings and on film.
I love facilitating workshops, especially with those who are new to poetry. Seeing individuals grow to like poetry or write a poem when they never thought they could gives me the most joy.
Click here for some of my poems.
Services
Let's Talk Poems
Commission a poem to meet your needs, whether it is for an event, film, ad campaign or exhibition.
Let's Talk Workshops
Let's Talk Live
© Photo: Chetna Kapacee
Poetry workshops tailored to meet your wants or specific themes, either as a one-off or series.
Live poetry readings and insightful talks for events, assemblies or personal celebrations.
All services can be booked by an organisation or individual.
Writer
My writing skills cross over multiple genres. My approach is to craft stories with meaning, always telling the tales of others with sensitivity and care. I am most adept at expressing thoughts through articles and blogs, creating text for exhibitions, and script-writing for the stage.
I have had pieces published by local papers, online platforms, and was the lead journalist for the Black Youth Achievements' SOS - Stories of Success magazine. I also wrote interpretive text for the exhibitions Out of Silence and Citizen UK: Croydon's Caribbean Influencers.
I wrote and performed a one-woman spoken word show, Love Warrior, as part of Croydonites Festival of New Theatre in 2023. Additionally, I have written play scripts and theatrical monologues for church-based events.
© Photo: Lukasz Izdebski
Services
Let's Talk Platforms
Blog posts or articles, expressing thought or sharing expertise, for online and offline platforms.
Let's Talk Scripts
Script-writing for the stage, with a special focus on spoken-word theatre.
Let's Talk Exhibitions
Interpretive and descriptive text to craft the story being told through exhibitions.
Curator
Being able to blend creativity and engagement, while making use of my storytelling and organisational skills, sparked my curatorial journey.
Over the years, I have curated a range of cultural events, including poetry and spoken word festivals, and a monthly poetry night that I ran for three years. Notably, I co-curated the exhibitions Citizen UK: Croydon's Caribbean Influencers, exhibited at both the Museum of Croydon and National Portrait Gallery, and Out of Silence, exhibited at the Museum of Croydon.
I also curated and edited anthologies for Young People Insight, and Out of Silence, which marked my final project as Croydon Poet Laureate.
Services
Let's Talk Events
Supporting with the development, design and hosting of cultural events.
Let's Talk Exhibitions
Let's Talk Anthologies
© Photo: Ameena Rojee
Collaborating on the curation of exhibitions, helping to tell the story of the content.
Collating and editing content for community anthologies, with a focus on poetry.
Shaniqua, during her tenure as Croydon Poet Laureate, worked with postgraduate students at CSM proposing policy interventions at an urban scale. She is a fantastic and responsive teacher, and her work on words — both as critical tools and as creative, propositional ones — was key to unlocking new critical perspectives on policies and approaches to thinking otherwise with words.
Shaniqua, the wordsmith and talented woman that she is, has the gift of unlocking the innate poet that we all have within. It was an honour to work with her over a 2 to 3 year period, that included online tuition during lockdown. The joy and liberation of Crisis members suddenly finding a voice to express themselves, under her guidance, was humbling and life affirming. Shaniqua made a great difference to their lives.
Cathie - Volunteer Arts for Wellbeing at Crisis Skylight Croydon
Testimonials
Diana Ibáñez López - Course Leader, MA Cities at Central St Martins
The poems workshop was great fun and opened my eyes to a new hobby. It made my mind think hard about how to structure my poem and what words to use.
Shaniqua brings the most wonderful energy to our work, we love working with her. The Poetry Takeaway is a better place when she’s on board.
Yr 9 Student - Norbury High School for Girls
Michael Bolger – Head Chef of The Poetry Takeaway