Dean Atta

Listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the United Kingdom by The Independent newspaper, Dean Atta is a poet from London, UK. He believes in the power of poetry in the digital age and his poem, I Am Nobody's Nigger, took the internet by storm. The poem, which began with an update on Facebook and a post on Twitter, in five days received an excess of 15,000 hits and gained him an extra 1,000 followers on Twitter. Dealing with his sexuality has been the premise of much of Atta's work and the 27-year-old Londoner has been writing and performing for more than 10 years. His work has appeared on BBC One, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and Channel 4, often dealing with themes of gender, identity, race and growing up.

He has performed across the UK and internationally at the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (Italy), CrossKultur (Germany), Ordspark (Sweden) PuSh Festival (Canada) and Word N Sound (South Africa). He has been commissioned to write poems for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Dazed & Confused, Keats House Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He is currently working on his second collection The Black Flamingo.

Content Highlights: Dean Atta, MBIFL 2020