John Adlam 🌈🌍
@johnadlam.bsky.social
groups 🔄 activist research ✍ #welcometheboats ⛵ #antiracistpractice ✊ #traumanotpd ❌ Gaia theory 🌍 psychosocial studies 📚 practices of equality 🤝 open mic poetry 🎤 Bob Dylan 🎸 Brixton 🧡 https://barrelblog.org https://open.substack.com/pub/johnadlampoems
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John Adlam 🌈🌍
@johnadlam.bsky.social
· Dec 16
I am very pleased & proud to say that I am now officially a Trustee of @survivors-poetry.bsky.social, which exists to promote poetry by survivors - to support survivor poets - to challenge social & cultural definitions of poets and poetry - to make connections between creativity and mental health ❤️
A good way for the day to start me: my poem 'Ferragosto' (the sixth in my Italian trilogy, to over-use one of my little jokes) has been accepted for publication in the forthcoming anthology 'New Contexts: 8' from Coverstory Books (publisher/editor Ian Gouge) coverstorybooks.com/2026/02/01/c...
Coming soon – “New Contexts: 8”
The eighth edition of our New Contexts anthology will be published at end of the first quarter of 2026. The collection will comprise of quality contemporary poetry and fiction, and will be made ava…
coverstorybooks.com
February 17, 2026 at 10:27 AM
A good way for the day to start me: my poem 'Ferragosto' (the sixth in my Italian trilogy, to over-use one of my little jokes) has been accepted for publication in the forthcoming anthology 'New Contexts: 8' from Coverstory Books (publisher/editor Ian Gouge) coverstorybooks.com/2026/02/01/c...
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
As editor + founder, I’m tired of presses cosplaying “community” while using prizes as sales funnels. It’s nefarious, it’s cynical, and everyone knows it. We just don’t say it out loud.
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
We know prizes are bullshit! They’re just taste cosplaying as authority. So we stripped away the lie & left the contradiction standing. No prestige. Just cash. We'll pick our favourite poems & won't pretend we're doing anything else!
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
February 8, 2026 at 3:10 PM
As editor + founder, I’m tired of presses cosplaying “community” while using prizes as sales funnels. It’s nefarious, it’s cynical, and everyone knows it. We just don’t say it out loud.
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
Just ran a final check of proofs for my poem on themes of sanctuary - 'The Arrivants' - which will appear in The Madrid Review Issue 7 - at the end of February, I believe...
themadridreview.com
themadridreview.com
The Madrid Review
themadridreview.com
February 7, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Just ran a final check of proofs for my poem on themes of sanctuary - 'The Arrivants' - which will appear in The Madrid Review Issue 7 - at the end of February, I believe...
themadridreview.com
themadridreview.com
Looking forward very much to this! 🤩
February 7, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Looking forward very much to this! 🤩
It’s that time of year for signing up for conferences - the @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social in Twickenham in June and, a couple weeks before that, the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy, this time in Gozo, Malta - requiring an exception to my general practice of not flying places…😬
February 4, 2026 at 10:36 AM
It’s that time of year for signing up for conferences - the @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social in Twickenham in June and, a couple weeks before that, the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy, this time in Gozo, Malta - requiring an exception to my general practice of not flying places…😬
@survivors-poetry.bsky.social Zoom Party Tuesday 24 February - headliner poet will be Luciano Mezzetta, music from Grae J Wall, I have the honour of being MC/Zoom host …please email survivorspoetryevents@gmail.com to get yourself on the mailing list (and thereby the Zoom link for the event)
February 1, 2026 at 7:28 PM
@survivors-poetry.bsky.social Zoom Party Tuesday 24 February - headliner poet will be Luciano Mezzetta, music from Grae J Wall, I have the honour of being MC/Zoom host …please email survivorspoetryevents@gmail.com to get yourself on the mailing list (and thereby the Zoom link for the event)
I have been out of this loop, trying to manage my online time (without massive success I must admit) but we can't go through this Friday theme day without The Band's glorious version of Long Black Veil...🥰
open.spotify.com/track/2mkz7L...
open.spotify.com/track/2mkz7L...
January 30, 2026 at 5:12 PM
I have been out of this loop, trying to manage my online time (without massive success I must admit) but we can't go through this Friday theme day without The Band's glorious version of Long Black Veil...🥰
open.spotify.com/track/2mkz7L...
open.spotify.com/track/2mkz7L...
Debut open mic for me at the wonderful Cosmic Pumpkin last night, downstairs at the Royal Society of Arts, with gentle host @mrgeepoet.bsky.social and a good sprinkling of @survivors-poetry.bsky.social peeps among those present 🥰
January 29, 2026 at 7:37 AM
Debut open mic for me at the wonderful Cosmic Pumpkin last night, downstairs at the Royal Society of Arts, with gentle host @mrgeepoet.bsky.social and a good sprinkling of @survivors-poetry.bsky.social peeps among those present 🥰
This 👇👇
Tomorrow evening! Our first Survivors' Poetry Zoom Party of the year. Do come along and join us, read a couple of poems 'from the floor' if you like - no fee!!! 🥰
Zoom Party on Tuesday 27th January, with MC Pat Flowers, and two brilliant headliners Lilac Underworld and Lee Campbell. If you don't have the Zoom link drop us a line to survivorspoetryevents@gmail.com
Doors open 7.00 to say hi, sign in for open mic, show starts 7.30
See you in the Zoom Room! ☺️
Doors open 7.00 to say hi, sign in for open mic, show starts 7.30
See you in the Zoom Room! ☺️
January 26, 2026 at 10:37 AM
This 👇👇
I am very excited that one of my poems will be included in this next issue🙏🥰🙏
All issue submissions have now been responded to! If you haven't got a reply when you should have, please check your spam and then get in touch!
Wow, what a bunch of submissions. Excellent work, and everyone should be so proud of themselves. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted ✨
Wow, what a bunch of submissions. Excellent work, and everyone should be so proud of themselves. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted ✨
January 25, 2026 at 10:35 PM
I am very excited that one of my poems will be included in this next issue🙏🥰🙏
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
Survivors' Poetry are building our website and one work in progress is a gallery of writers and artists connected to the collective - the first four responders are up there now - check it out! survivorspoetry.co.uk/poets-and-po...
Poets and Poetry
survivorspoetry.co.uk
January 24, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Survivors' Poetry are building our website and one work in progress is a gallery of writers and artists connected to the collective - the first four responders are up there now - check it out! survivorspoetry.co.uk/poets-and-po...
Yay, look what just arrived! 🥰
@secretsoliloquies.bsky.social
@secretsoliloquies.bsky.social
January 23, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Yay, look what just arrived! 🥰
@secretsoliloquies.bsky.social
@secretsoliloquies.bsky.social
Me reading my poem 'Voyager' last night - my debut at the White Feather open mic at the Artillery Arms in Moorgate opposite Blake's cenotaph... A lovely evening brilliantly MC'd by Steve Tasane (third Tuesday evening of each month). Headliner yesterday was the VERY brilliant @mrgeepoet.bsky.social 🥰
January 21, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Me reading my poem 'Voyager' last night - my debut at the White Feather open mic at the Artillery Arms in Moorgate opposite Blake's cenotaph... A lovely evening brilliantly MC'd by Steve Tasane (third Tuesday evening of each month). Headliner yesterday was the VERY brilliant @mrgeepoet.bsky.social 🥰
I am so happy that two of my poems have been accepted for inclusion in this anthology - with my massive thanks to @paulwritespoems.bsky.social for believing in them! 🥰
Over the next few days I will be sending out emails in response to submissions for the Unwhispered Legacy anthology.
I’ve read so many wonderful pieces from such a high volume of submissions, it’s been really difficult to choose.
🙏
I’ve read so many wonderful pieces from such a high volume of submissions, it’s been really difficult to choose.
🙏
January 18, 2026 at 8:01 PM
I am so happy that two of my poems have been accepted for inclusion in this anthology - with my massive thanks to @paulwritespoems.bsky.social for believing in them! 🥰
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
Poets of Bluesky, come and join us in the Zoom Room on Tuesday 27th January from 7.00. Always a fabulous evening with @survivors-poetry.bsky.social 🙏🏼
Zoom Party on Tuesday 27th January, with MC Pat Flowers, and two brilliant headliners Lilac Underworld and Lee Campbell. If you don't have the Zoom link drop us a line to survivorspoetryevents@gmail.com
Doors open 7.00 to say hi, sign in for open mic, show starts 7.30
See you in the Zoom Room! ☺️
Doors open 7.00 to say hi, sign in for open mic, show starts 7.30
See you in the Zoom Room! ☺️
January 16, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Poets of Bluesky, come and join us in the Zoom Room on Tuesday 27th January from 7.00. Always a fabulous evening with @survivors-poetry.bsky.social 🙏🏼
Tonight's the night! Ease away those mid-January biorhythmic blues with poetry and music and a friendly crowd in the basement room of the Harrison. Five quid on the door and a legendary and lovely London local pub upstairs also offering its hospitality.... Open mic for anyone who wants to read..🥰
Happy New Year to all our friends & followers! Coming up, our first gig of 2026 at The Harrison. Featured poet is "rude, smutty and comical" Heather Mary Sullivan, guest musician Walthamstow's finest Emma Scarr. MC Carl Chamberlain. Poets & musicians from the floor warmly welcome! Love & solidarity🎆
January 13, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Tonight's the night! Ease away those mid-January biorhythmic blues with poetry and music and a friendly crowd in the basement room of the Harrison. Five quid on the door and a legendary and lovely London local pub upstairs also offering its hospitality.... Open mic for anyone who wants to read..🥰
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
We are greatly looking forward to hosting @jeffcottrill.bsky.social as one of two featured poets in our open mic evening of words and music at The Harrison in King's Cross on Tuesday 9 June...
Hey you.
Tell your British friends: my 2026 U.K. tour is on for this spring.
Dates so far:
May 31: Poetry in the Park, Aberdeen
June 9: @survivors-poetry.bsky.social, London
June 11: Worcester Litfest, Worcester
(also planning to hit the open mic at Fire & Dust in Coventry on June 4)
Tell your British friends: my 2026 U.K. tour is on for this spring.
Dates so far:
May 31: Poetry in the Park, Aberdeen
June 9: @survivors-poetry.bsky.social, London
June 11: Worcester Litfest, Worcester
(also planning to hit the open mic at Fire & Dust in Coventry on June 4)
January 12, 2026 at 10:25 PM
We are greatly looking forward to hosting @jeffcottrill.bsky.social as one of two featured poets in our open mic evening of words and music at The Harrison in King's Cross on Tuesday 9 June...
New post on my Substack of a poem from last year. Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the original prompt and to The Starbeck Orion for publishing this reading last July 🙏🙏🙏 open.substack.com/pub/johnadla...
Blank
Doubt sidled quietly through the doorway like a late arrival – two-faced, like January, settling in dank and chill between us.
open.substack.com
January 8, 2026 at 10:35 AM
New post on my Substack of a poem from last year. Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the original prompt and to The Starbeck Orion for publishing this reading last July 🙏🙏🙏 open.substack.com/pub/johnadla...
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
Check This Out People!
This issue is going to blow your socks off and send your rockets into space!
www.frazzledlit.com/p/issue-4-la...
This issue is going to blow your socks off and send your rockets into space!
www.frazzledlit.com/p/issue-4-la...
January 8, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Check This Out People!
This issue is going to blow your socks off and send your rockets into space!
www.frazzledlit.com/p/issue-4-la...
This issue is going to blow your socks off and send your rockets into space!
www.frazzledlit.com/p/issue-4-la...
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
🗞 "We need a stepchange in how we deal with homelessness."
Our codirector Jess Turtle wrote the New Years opinion piece for The Big Issue saying what is needed from politicians in 2026:
www.bigissue.com/opinion/home...
Our codirector Jess Turtle wrote the New Years opinion piece for The Big Issue saying what is needed from politicians in 2026:
www.bigissue.com/opinion/home...
What is needed to fix homelessness in 2026?
Efforts to tackle homelessness in 2026 will see the Vagrancy Act finally scrapped. But politicians must make it more than a symbolic gesture.
www.bigissue.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:36 PM
🗞 "We need a stepchange in how we deal with homelessness."
Our codirector Jess Turtle wrote the New Years opinion piece for The Big Issue saying what is needed from politicians in 2026:
www.bigissue.com/opinion/home...
Our codirector Jess Turtle wrote the New Years opinion piece for The Big Issue saying what is needed from politicians in 2026:
www.bigissue.com/opinion/home...
VERY true this 😠
When a Vice Chancellor forgets that a university is about more than just satisfying the labour demands of the market, they simply side with the philistine attacks on higher education
The shallow materialism of this article, yet another graduate saying there are ‘too many graduates’. Vomit-inducing.
The shallow materialism of this article, yet another graduate saying there are ‘too many graduates’. Vomit-inducing.
UK university degree no longer ‘passport to social mobility’, says King’s vice-chancellor
Prof Shitij Kapur says there are too many graduates and degree is now just a ‘visa’ to enter professional world
www.theguardian.com
January 3, 2026 at 12:13 PM
VERY true this 😠
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
Advance invitation for our first Survivors' Zoom Party of 2026 with Lee Campbell www.instagram.com/leejjcampbel... and Lilac Underworld instagram.com/lilacunderwo... and an international gathering of open mic artists...the original and best! 🥰 Drop us a line to get onto the mailing list 🙏🤜🤛🙏
January 3, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Advance invitation for our first Survivors' Zoom Party of 2026 with Lee Campbell www.instagram.com/leejjcampbel... and Lilac Underworld instagram.com/lilacunderwo... and an international gathering of open mic artists...the original and best! 🥰 Drop us a line to get onto the mailing list 🙏🤜🤛🙏
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
Richard Wilson's '20:50' installation of recycled engine oil is showing at the Saatchi gallery, as devastating and bleakly beautiful as ever (we first saw it at County Hall in 2003). Something very strange and uncanny and disturbing happens to light itself, around this installation...😞
January 1, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Richard Wilson's '20:50' installation of recycled engine oil is showing at the Saatchi gallery, as devastating and bleakly beautiful as ever (we first saw it at County Hall in 2003). Something very strange and uncanny and disturbing happens to light itself, around this installation...😞
Reposted by John Adlam 🌈🌍
Happy New Year to all our friends & followers! Coming up, our first gig of 2026 at The Harrison. Featured poet is "rude, smutty and comical" Heather Mary Sullivan, guest musician Walthamstow's finest Emma Scarr. MC Carl Chamberlain. Poets & musicians from the floor warmly welcome! Love & solidarity🎆
December 31, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Happy New Year to all our friends & followers! Coming up, our first gig of 2026 at The Harrison. Featured poet is "rude, smutty and comical" Heather Mary Sullivan, guest musician Walthamstow's finest Emma Scarr. MC Carl Chamberlain. Poets & musicians from the floor warmly welcome! Love & solidarity🎆