Scroll through to see a selection of our completed projects
(We are working to get all of our projects back online – please bear with us)
Anthony Joseph: The Frequency of Magic
As part of his The Frequency of Magic project, giving the novel a musical backing from some of the UK’s finest musicians, Anthony Joseph recorded the entire book, and it is being released in partnership with Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad, one chapter per day. Listen to the chapters here
City Central
City Central is a collaboration between author/photographer Johny Pitts and poet/musician Joshua Idehen. Using Johny’s 2019 non-fiction book Afropean: Travels in Black Europe, and the work of Josh’s band Benin City, the pair are creating a live performance that fuses poetry and prose, music and photography, film and field recordings. Find out more…
Breaking New Ground
Breaking New Ground is a project celebrating British writers and illustrators of colour who are creating stories for children and young people, launching at London Book Fair 2019 with a new booklet featuring over 100 contemporary creators. Find out more…
Surge – Jay Bernard
Surge is a poetic performance explorating of what came after the 1981 New Cross Fire using poetry, archive film and audio. Find out more…
Another Great Night Out – Joshua Idehen
A project documenting and remembering lost community spaces of London as gentrification swallows up creative venues – starting with Passing Clouds. Find out more…
Writing the Everyday Stories of a Diverse Britain – Colin Grant
Journalist, historian and award-winning author Colin Grant work with older people from Caribbean communities to help the Windrush Generation tell their own stories. Find out more…
A Windrush Legacy – Anthony Joseph
In 2018, Anthony Joseph published and toured Kitch, his fictionalised biography of calypso legend Lord Kitchener, to tie in with the 70th anniversary of the Empire Windrush’s arrival in Britain. Find out more…
Mixtape – Nick Makoha and Roger Robinson
Poets and friends Nick Makoha and Roger Robinson created a show using the music, art, culture and family influences that shape their lives to present their poetry. Find out more…
Home is Not a Place Tour
Stunning new photography and poetry collaboration by Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts explores what it is like to be black in Britain, outside urban centres. Speaking Volumes is producing a tour offering audiences the chance to hear Johny and Roger explore these ideas. Find out more here.
Your Local Arena
Your Local Arena is a collaborative project with producer Lucy Hannah, making use of the extensive archive of films from the legendary BBC Arena series to produce poetic responses, panel discussions and creative writing workshops alongside screenings of the films. Find out more…
A Portable Paradise Tour
To celebrate the publication of Roger Robinson‘s latest poetry collection, A Portable Paradise, we have produced a year-long tour of readings and events for Roger to share his important and powerful work with audiences around the UK and overseas. Watch Roger in conversation with Bernardine Evaristo here.
Breaking Ground: Celebrating Writers of Colour
A booklet resource featuring 200 of the best contemporary British writers of colour, and international showcases of a selection of those writers in six European countries. Find out more…
Breaking Ground USA
The beginning of our Breaking Ground project: taking 10 black British writers on two tours to the East and West Coasts of the USA. Find out more…
Poetry Parnassus UK Tour
When the London 2012 Olympics brought a poet from every Olympic country to the capital, Speaking Volumes took at group of them further afield. Find out more…
Ber/Lon – A Tale of Two (Gentrifying) Cities
Artists Joshua Idehen and Adelaide Ivánova, Johny Pitts and Joanna Legid as they confront issues of gentrification in the London and Berlin neighbourhoods at the forefront of change, exploring them through multilingual poetry and prose, photography and music. Find out more…
Come On In: Life Journeys
Six poets and musicians collaborated, interviewing people who use a range of places – a train station, a women’s centre and an urban community farm – and created a performance of poem songs about the lives they discover. Find out more…
Partners
