Poetry Extra: A Portrait of... Imtiaz Dharker

Poetry Extra: A Portrait Of...

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Poetry Extra

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A Portrait of... Imtiaz Dharker

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, A Portrait of... Imtiaz Dharker

Daljit Nagra selects the best poetry programmes from the BBC's archive.

Daljit Nagra selects A Portrait Of...Imtiaz Dharker - as artist Fiona Graham-Mackay paints the poet and film-maker. From 2016.

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects A Portrait Of...Imtiaz Dharker.

Follow artist Fiona Graham-Mackay as she paints a portrait of the poet, artist and documentary film-maker. 

Born in Pakistan and raised in Glasgow, Imtiaz was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014. She writes about freedom, cultural intolerance, gender politics, love and loss. Fellow poet Carol Ann Duffy has said, "If there were to be a World Laureate, then for me the role could only be filled by Imtiaz Dharker."  

Fiona Graham-Mackay has painted hundreds of portraits, including Seamus Heaney and Sir Andrew Motion. Drawing is, she says, “the flow of life, the soul of life,” and “you have to fall a little in love with your subject”.

It’s a revealing, intimate experience, peeling away the layers to capture the essence of the sitter as seen through the artist’s eye. And in this, conversations meander in unexpected places. 

Features readings of 'The Conversation' and 'Invisible' from Over the Moon; 'This room' from I Speak For the Devil, both published by Bloodaxe Books. 

Producer: Eve Streeter

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2016.

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