the poet Aniseed

Hello!
The poet Aniseed is also known as the writer, tutor and workshop facilitator Anne Cooper. She is the author of 'Touched,' a chapbook published by Survivors Press, London, 2006. In this first lil collection; in it's way daring, playful, irreverent and satirical, the words slide into, spin around and wrestle with the theme of desire and prompted Alabama 3 frontman, Robert "Larry" Love to declare her as his “fave livin' poet” ...r u sure, we all know he love all the poets down Coldharbour Lane.
Right here Right now
Presently Anne is shadowing the awesome Malika Booker at Lilian Baylis School in South London, part of the London Teenage Poetry Slam organised by the inspirational Jacob Sam La Rose, she lends a hand from time to time for Brixton Shed, an inclusive Theatre Company for children and young people led by the efferversent Fran Woodcock and is a registered artist with Eastside Educational Trust in Shoreditch and meanwhile is attempting to get off the ground and into the covers a book & book launch for an anthology of prose and poetry from writers associated with The Way of Words...
The Back Story
Since an unexpected initiation on stage, not quite kicking and screaming, at the Shoot the Women First film show in 1994, Anne has appeared across London at libraries, pubs, clubs, art centres, art galleries and a swimming pool, alongside the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Ana de Silva, Jeremy Hardy and many others. Since taking up the mike, Anne has performed with the group Poets Know It as Anita Divine, including a residency at the Fridge Bar and was an mc at the poetry club Trulips. Anne worked as a regular contributor to the arts newspaper Create 24/7 where she learnt how to meet a deadline and has had poetry broadcast on Resonance fm and Yvonne Ridleys 'The Agenda' on the Islam Channel. This show was tragicaly suspended in February this year by the broadcaster -contact Mohamed Ali, CEO of the Islam Channel on 020 7374 4511 or Ofcom 020 7981 3040 if u wanna get it back...
A Home Coming
The Poets Know It connection led to a collaboration with Alabama 3 and the compilation POWER with backing from the band. Anne says of this time, “Discovering Poet’s Know It and Alabama 3 was like finding my poetic home, finding kindred spirits. Lorca once said of Neruda that he was ‘closer to blood than ink, closer to death than philosophy, who carried in his blood that grain of madness without which it’s not worth living.’ I don’t think it immodest to say the same of us.” From this unkempt brooding glittersplashed vulgarelegant twisted mix came work asking us to redefine and re-evaluate what we take for granted regarding gender, sexuality, romance, passion and ...love, not to mention insanity, prison and habitation investations.
The ideas thing or maybe it's methodology
Flirting with references to “high” art and popular culture, gave the live poetic narrative "24 hours: intersection" created for Subterfuge Cabaret and the presentation "Desire and it’s Discontents" revealed at The Creative Swing. While drawing on science, dreams and philosophy led to the showcase "Metaphysics," performed with video artist, funkcutter, at the Deptford festival. Another focus combines an ardent compassion and passionate commitment to peace, justice and equality expressed vividly in the antiwar poem "Mitigating Circumstances or 21st Century Guernica," described by former MP and veteran peace campaigner, Tony Benn as “powerful and intensely moving.” In this vein Anne co- promoted "another poem not another war" with Mama Purple Rainbows at Christchurch, Stockwell and has promoted and hosted music and spoken word events including "War, lies and stereotypes" held at Jamm, Brixton for the Stop the War Coalition and "A Force Fusion" for the London Socialist Alliance at Imperial Gardens, Camberwell.
and finally...
Anne is the founder of The Way of Words, taking participants from page to stage with creative writing workshops and live literature events such as Speaking in Tongues at the Stockwell Park Community Centre where members of the workshop and community centre featured with novelist Alex Wheatle and former police commander Brian Paddick, in an event fusing art and politics, performance and debate. She has facilitated other workshops, here and there, including Lambeth Mind, The Vauxhall Festival, a community centre in Brixton, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Kennington Library, a housing estate in Camberwell and the garden of Bonnington Square, when it got too hot in the Red Room, which is actually green, at the community centre of this little oasis in the heart of South London.