Julie-Yara Atz is a cultural anomaly – between a Syrian mother and a Swiss father, they don’t know themselves where they stand. 

Her practice is multidisciplinary and exploratory: filmmaking, acting, writing, and whatever else the moment calls for. If you introduce them to a new medium, chances are they’ll add it to the mix!

As an actor, you can see her in Shetland (Season 6, BBC/ITV) and in the documentary Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia (ITV/Hardcash Productions). As a filmmaker, their earlier film Leaving Syria: Long Live the Youth premiered at Telluride in 2017, and their two latest short films have just begun their festival journey. Which is as exciting as it is daunting.

Julie-Yara collaborates with Traumascapes as an artist and facilitator, and was part of the team designing the Lancet Psychiatry covers for 2024. In their spare time, they practice partner acrobatics, a fleeting but satisfying rebellion against gravity.

Julie-Yara holds a not-so-secret passion for cats. And freedom. She also holds a more secret MA degree in Cultural Studies, with a focus on subversive storytelling in diasporic Syrian cinema.

Ruth is a Hawthornden Fellow, an international competition adjudicator, interviewer, reviewer, editor, workshop leader – both in the U.K and abroad – and mentor, has compered and read at poetry festivals in the U.K. and abroad. She has been translated into six languages and invited to read extensively in Asia, Europe and the USA.

On her first trip to America she read to audiences of nearly a thousand where she was the only poet and the following day read on a buffalo farm where the buffalo outnumbered the audience. (One has to be flexible to be a poet.) Her second trip involve both readings and an hour long TV interview.

Ruth has collaborated with other disciplines and nationalities including working in Mongolia with women poets (sponsored by Arts Council) which produced a book and CD. She has been awarded many residencies both in the UK and abroad and at the XXX World Congress of Poets 2010 in Taiwan was awarded a gold medal. She has fifteen full collections  (Salmon, Shoestring and Two Rivers Press) and her book of interviews with internationally eminent women poets has been said to be “a very important  contribution to world literary history.” (Professor Clare Brant, King’s College, University of London.)

Her two poetry venues, whose ethos is to promote poetry’s social dimension, enables both famous and unknown to read together with proceeds contributing monies necessary to support two Cold Weather Shelters for the Homeless – the latter are also encouraged to participate. She endeavours to bring fresh audiences to poetry – especially those who are disadvantage in some way. 

“With an amalgamation of classical and contemporary influences his body of work is a catalogue of the early page poetry and the more contemporary styles of spoken word. A repertoire that showcases elements he now uses to make both these styles crossover and appeal to all audiences. He has designs to bring something different to the poetry scene and to those outside of poetry.”

Instagram & Youtube: @themetaphorest

Andrew Horner is a poet, writer, actor and voice over artist living in Hove with his wife and cats. He’s played characters on TV and voiced many characters in award winning video games such as Divinity Original Sin 2 & Augmented Empire. He’s released a Spoken Word Album called ‘Strong Enough to Break’ collaborating with Tomás Almeida from Eleven tales music creating eight interconnecting immersive spoken word tracks with cinematic scores under ‘Creative Tales’ available on Spotify, Apple Music & band Camp. His debut book ‘My Life in Pieces’ is available worldwide in paperback, digital or Audible. He aims to break the stigmas on Mental Health with his work and books and tackling uncomfortable topics and bringing light to sensitive subjects through his poetic storytelling. ‘Drunk on Lies Sober on Truth’ is Andrews’ second poetry collection.

For more of his work, you can find him on Instagram @talesofthenook.

Evgeniya Strygina (b. 1989) is a lens-based visual artist exploring urbanisation, contemporary landscape, and immigration. She honed her skills at the Fine Art Photography School, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and PhMuseum. Since relocating to the UK in 2022, her work has been exhibited at Photo|Frome Festival, London Lighthouse Gallery, Cicek Gallery, and LoosenArt Gallery, with publications in Fisheye Magazine, Truth in Photography, Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine, and Artdoc Photography Magazine. Notable awards include the Top 150 MIRA Mobile Prize, MonoVisions Awards, and Photometria Awards judged by Martin Parr. In 2023, she held a solo exhibition after an art residency in Czechia. Her first photobook, Home from Home, is scheduled for release in 2025 with the publisher Ephemere

I am Hanaa, also known as La Plante Carnivore. By day, I am a full-time Architecture and Environmental Design student, and by night, I channel my creativity as an illustrator. Originally from tropical Mauritius, I have made my home thousands of miles away in London in 2016. In May 2022, I started La Plante Carnivore while I was finishing my masters degree in Architecture, and have since continued growing the business with new product launches and illustrations. 

‘La Plante Carnivore’, the carnivorous plant in French, is a nod to my Mauritian heritage and to my appreciation of carnivorous plants. My art is a celebration of playfulness, humour and colour, brought to life through stationery and art prints. Each piece is designed with care and joy, aiming to inspire smiles.

All my products are thoughtfully designed and made in the UK. I ensure that the paper products are recyclable, FSC-certified, chlorine-free, and wood-free. They are then packaged in plant-based compostable packaging, when necessary, to minimise plastic waste. I use the services of small businesses across the UK for the manufacture of my products. They are made in small batches to minimise waste and for promoting uniqueness.

Instagram: @_laplantecarnivore

Daniela Cezara Nikola

Daniela Cezara Nikola is a London based artist and educator whose practice fuses classical oil painting techniques with a deeply intuitive, contemporary voice. For Daniela, painting is a visceral experience each pigment becomes an extension of her being, each brushstroke a vessel for memory, emotion, and energetic resonance.

Her work weaves together painting and poetry, creating emotional landscapes where silence carries weight and colour pulses with meaning. Rooted in attentive presence, Daniela’s art explores the often unseen corners of the human experience the moments we rush past, the emotions we avoid, the quiet shifts of feeling that shape us. From grief to joy, discomfort to hope, her pieces hold space for what is raw, real, and universally felt.

She will be continuing her collaborative live painting project with Munchie Lunchie Productions (FNL), inviting everyone to leave their mark. Grab a brush, add a stroke, and become part of a living, evolving work of art during the event.

Instagram: @dcnstudio

Daniela Cezara Nikola is a London-based artist and educator whose work bridges classical oil painting techniques with a contemporary, intuitive expression. Becoming one with the paintbrush, she feels each pigment as part of her being.  Each stroke, a thread of memory, emotion, energy. Bridging painting and poetry as parallel forms, she creates emotional landscapes where silence speaks and colour vibrates with meaning.

At the heart of her practice is a deep attention to the things we often overlook or run from, the uncomfortable emotions, the taboo moments, the pauses in the mundane, the subtle shifts of feeling, the power of a single hue. Her work invites reflection and intimacy, offering a space where grief, love, longing, and hope emerge as shared human experiences : timeless, tender, and true.

Insta: @DCNSTUDIO

The Living Room Collective W12, offspring of local jazz-hed and multi-instrumentalist Steve Maud with bassist Stephan Chandler, is a driving blend of deep beats, dub bass ukulele, nujazz funk, and improvised electronica. Resident band at Hawksnest W12, they’ve collaborated with top artists like Transglobal Underground and rising R&B stars. Think Herbie Hancock meets Jon Hopkins meets Erykah Badu—groove, adapt, and take you on a journey. #LiveMusic #NuJazz #DubFunk

@livingroomcollective_w12