The David Andrew Award was founded by the family of the late David Andrew, a poet and father of a former Eastside employee.
In honour of David Andrew’s memory and passion for poetry, the award was created with the purpose of supporting talented young poets participating in Eastside’s Spoken Word Power (SWP) Programme, offering mentorship and performance opportunities.
David Andrew supported his own children to deepen their creative studies and his son, Felix, was lucky enough to grow up in a house where music, books and language(s) were cherished and encouraged. David’s family hope that this award will not only honour his love of poetry, but also offer the belief, encouragement and financial support that they were fortunate enough to be offered, to allow them to explore creative careers, something that all too many young people lack.
The award will offer support and a bursary to develop promising young poets over the three years of the SWP programme. Each bursary of £1,000 will be used to offer mentorship, paid performance opportunities, travel to performance or training opportunities or support to publish their work, either in print or via professionally shot videos, created by the young diverse filmmakers of the Eastside Studios programme.
David was connected to Eastside’s Poetry Programmes and helped proofread Eastside’s first ever anthology of youth poetry, I know I wish I will – during which he would fondly leave comments on the manuscript about poets who he thought had talent and should be encouraged. It is within this vein that the David Andrew Legacy Award is born.
Read more about David Andrew’s love of poetry here.
Highlights from Spoken Word Power
Watch the 2023 Spoken Word Power performances
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