Adam Lowe (writer)

Adam Lowe (born 1985) is a British writer, performer and publisher from Leeds who currently lives in Manchester. He is the UK's LGBT+ History Month Poet Laureate and was Yorkshire's Poet for 2012 (the county's selected poet for the 2012 Olympics). He writes poetry, plays and fiction, and he occasionally performs as Beyonce Holes.

Biography

Adam Lowe is of Afro-Caribbean (St. Kitts), British and Irish descent. He is the child of local politician Alison Lowe, and like her graduated with both a BA and MA from the University of Leeds. He is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Manchester. His family was the subject of the 1999 ITV docu-soap ''Family Life'' (Lion TV). He describes himself as genderfluid but primarily uses he/his pronouns, except when in drag.

Writing, publishing and performance

Adam Lowe writes about disability, LGBT+ experiences, the lives of mixed race/Black British communities and the intersections between them.

Lowe is the UK's first LGBT+ History Month Poet Laureate. With afshan d'souza-lodhi, he co-founded and runs Young Enigma, a writer development project for young writers. He is Editor-in-Chief of ''Vada Magazine'' and Dog Horn Publishing, and works in the publicity department of Peepal Tree Press.

Lowe has performed around the world, at a variety of venues, festivals and conferences, including the Commonword Black and Asian Writers Conference, and is chair of the charity Black Gold Arts. He is an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and sits on the management committee for Schools OUT UK, the charity that founded LGBT+ History Month in the UK.

He was formerly Features Editor for '' Bent Magazine'' and Editor of a speculative fiction magazine called ''Polluto''.

In 2010, he was writer-in-residence at I Love West Leeds Arts Festival in Armley, the area where he was raised as the son of a local councillor. He studied under Madani Younis at Freedom Studios in Bradford. He was also announced as a finalist for the 22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards with his novella ''Troglodyte Rose'' (later, a selection from the book would be a Wattpad featured story getting over 190,000 reads).

In 2011, Lowe was writer on attachment at West Yorkshire Playhouse, and partnered with composer Nikki Franklin for Leeds Lieder+ at Leeds College of Music, before the two collaborated on a new work, "Mary", for the BBC Singers.

In 2012, his pamphlet ''Precocious'' (Fruit Bruise Press) was a reader nomination for the ''Guardian'' First Book Prize, which the publication described as "A vivid picture of emotions, deeply felt, but with a clear-eyed view of the ways we humans live, love and sometimes betray". He also had a residency at Zion Arts Centre.

That year he was Yorkshire's poet for the 12 Poets of 2012 scheme, celebrating the 2012 Olympics and the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, where he visited boxer Anthony Ogogo on a training session to inspire the writing of an Olympic-themed poem for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The final poem was performed by the National Lottery Draw Show's Voice of the Balls Alan Dedicoat at the National Lottery Plot in the Olympic Park on 3 September 2012. Lowe rounded the year off with inclusion in MTV Books' ''Chorus: A Literary Mixtape'', edited by Saul Williams and Dufflyn Lammers.

In 2013, he was announced as one of 10 Black and Asian "advanced poets" for The Complete Works II (founded by Bernardine Evaristo) with Mona Arshi, Jay Bernard, Kayo Chingonyi, Rishi Dastidar, Edward Doegar, Inua Ellams, Sarah Howe, Eileen Pun and Warsan Shire, which resulted in the anthology ''Ten: The New Wave'', edited by Karen McCarthy Woolf. He was mentored on the programme by Patience Agbabi. He also made the list of "20 under 40" writers in Leeds for the LS13 Awards, where Lowe was given as an example of "the non-conformist and boundary-breaking approach to writing in Leeds".

In 2014, he toured his solo show, ''Ecstasies'', which began at Contact Theatre's Queer Contact. He performed a poem about cruising for 4thought.tv on Channel 4.

In 2015, his Polari poem "Vada That" was selected as ''The Guardian'' Poem of the Week. His play ''Friend Roulette'' ran for a week at the Amersham Arms in London. The play received a four-star review in ''Theatre Bubble'', describing the play as "a comment on the real life app, Grindr, where users meet for sex and chance encounters. The intensity of the meetings that can only be virtual and therefore 'not real'". ''The Guardian'' referred to the short play, in published form, as "a fine playlet".

In 2017, he performed with composer Nikki Franklin in the Speaker's Chambers at the House of Commons for LGBT History Month. In 2018–9, he featured in the British Library's Windrush Stories exhibition, performing a poem based on the Lord's Prayer. In 2019, his poem 'Bone Railroad', about slavery and the Middle Passage was selected as Poem of the Week by The Yorkshire Times. He also joined drag performers, including Cheddar Gorgeous and Anna Phylactic, in a protest against the state visit of Donald Trump in London.

In 2021, he contributed a poem called "Writing Myself in History" and performed a lip sync of Regina Spektor's "Us" for Manchester Museum, as part of Pride Month. The poem and performance explore ideas of queering the archive and contested ownership. As Beyonce Holes, he also performed at the Manchester Pride at Home event with Cheddar Gorgeous, doing a number inspired by #BlackLivesMatter to Nina Simone's " Sinnerman".

In June 2022, Lowe performed at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery in Exeter with Mona Arshi, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Fred D'Aguiar, Jennifer Lee Tsai, Shivanee Ramlochan, Jacob Sam-La Rose, John Siddique, Yomi Sode and Yusra Warsama as part of the ''My Words'' collaboration with the Museum of Colour, curated by Melanie Abrahams. The poets were accompanied by live music and vocals from Randolph Matthews. As part of the ''My Words'' programme, Lowe also contributed a poem called "Seasoning" to the Museum of Colour, inspired by a set of chains used in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. In October 2022, he edited the anthology ''The World Reimagined'', featuring 30 poets, including Anthony Joseph, Benjamin Zephaniah, Dorothea Smartt, John Agard, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Kadija Sesay, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Malika Booker, Marvin Thompson, Otis Mensah, Raymond Antrobus

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