Hear the stories of patients and staff at a typical London hospital, told through the written portraits of Di Sherlock
She shrugs off the memory
like a scratchy sweater
or an old skin,
says cancer is one more curve ball
Life’s thrown her way.
Written Portraits is a collection of poems by Di Sherlock drawn from conversations with patients and staff she met during a residency at Charing Cross Hospital and Maggie’s Centre West.
The poems are part of the ‘People Like You’ project which sees Di’s collaborators at Imperial College and Goldsmiths University of London investigating perceptions around personalised medicine. The series of 21 portraits explore the ways that preference, need, desire, pleasure and recognition serve as grounds for judging people to be alike.
At this World Poetry Day lunchtime event, the Great Exhibition Road Festival brings Di together with anthropologist Sophie Day to discuss the project and the impact this way of getting to know and profile individuals might inform future approaches to a more personalised approach to healthcare. The event will also feature readings of some of the poems.
This is event is hosted online and is free to attend. Sign up via the Eventbrite page.