Jason Allen-Paisant

In 2023, Manchester Literature Festival and Manchester Art Gallery co-commissioned Jason Allen-Paisant to create a trio of exquisite, sensual and playful poems inspired by paintings and garments in the gallery’s collection and recent Dandy Style exhibition.

Jason performed ‘Boasty’, ‘Dreaming of silk wescuts’ and ‘Sir Gregory Page-Turner’ for the first time at an intimate event at Manchester Art Gallery on 14 October 2023. He also discussed fashion and style, identity and fluidity, poetry and language, the Black male body and its presence in a compelling conversation with host Malika Booker.

Jason has published two collections of poetry with Carcanet, Thinking with Trees and Self-Portrait as Othello, winner of the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T.S. Eliot Prize. He is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Critical Theory and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester.