UN climate artist to crowdsource Hay Festival poem

Visitors to the Hay Literature Festival will inspire a world renowned spoken word artist to craft a new poem about climate change.

Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who became known worldwide following her inspirational performance at the UN climate summit in 2014, will use messages from festival-goers about what they could lose to climate change as the basis for her poem.

Festival sponsor Good Energy, the 100% renewable electricity and green gas supplier, has reached out to Kathy to write the new piece as part of its work to show how the arts can tackle climate change.

Discussing the poem, Kathy said: “I live on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. Our homes are under threat from climate change. My poetry is the most powerful thing I have to tell communities about the world and I can’t wait for the people of Hay to help inspire my next piece.”

Juliet Davenport OBE, founder and chief executive of Good Energy said: “I’ve invited Kathy to create this new poem because her work is so moving. Working with Kathy and Hay on this project will create some awesome content.

“The combination of thoughts, ideas and minds at the festival make it a perfect platform for inspiration and creativity. It allows us to think of new ways to persuade people that we can do something about climate change.

“Kathy’s work is profound and I can’t wait to hear the final piece.”

Director of Hay Festival Peter Florence, said: “Hay Festival is delighted to be partnering with Good Energy again and we look forward to this year’s events where we will be exploring the practical solutions to climate change and the cultural responses to the impacts”.

Social media users are invited to share their own suggestions using the hashtag #HayGoodEnergy

The final poem will be revealed later in 2016.