• BrightSparks
  Coordinator
• [email protected]
• 07766 205 689
• Lydia has worked and volunteered in arts and mental health for over 15 years. In addition to her work with Brightsparks, she organises WORD! - the longest running poetry night in the Midlands, previously nominated for a national Saboteur Award and dedicated to making the mainstream inclusive.
  
  She was the creative director of The Lyric Lounge - a touring festival of poetry managed by Writing East Midlands and now in it’s tenth year, and the former director and current committee member/programmer for Everybody’s Reading - Leicester’s festival of books and reading.
  
  Lydia was initially responsible for designing and securing significant funding to pilot the role of LPT Arts in Mental Health Coordinator; she has now been in this post on a part-time basis for the last ten years, directing and co-producing with Brightsparks and others a range of award winning projects, including - Showcase Smoothie and LookALady-Ukulele.
  
  Former projects include designing and gaining funding for a number of individual artists with experience of mental health problems, including - ‘Teabags, Soap, Be Normal’ a music and literature based exploring head injury and depression by David Parkin and ‘Moving Inwards’, a project focused around singer/songwriter, Peter Hirst, involving Mark Morriss (former lead singer of the Bluetones).
  
  She is also the Chair of the Yellow Book poetry judging panel. In addition to her work as LPT’s Arts Coordinator, Lydia is a poet and performer with an MA in poetry. As an artist she’s been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize; performed at venues including London’s 100 Club and Roundhouse; successfully delivered several national tours of her work & been commissioned by The Royal Albert Hall, Apples & Snakes, The Guardian, Decibel & more.
  
  She is widely anthologised & published by Burning Eye Books (The Venus Papers, 2015) with her second book, ‘The English Disease’ due for publication in 2019.