SAF Hook Up

SAF Hook Up is a networking event that aims to build bridges and make connections between creatives from varying disciplines. Come to the sessions with cards in hand, ready to promote your work, find future creative partners and network within the artist community.

SAF Hook Up will be showcasing work from all disciplines at these sessions. In our second Hook Up we have talks from Natacha Bryan, writer, poet, story teller and Mentor Chico, artists.

Natacha Bryan
Natacha Bryan is writer, poet, storyteller and workshop facilitator living and working in London.
She was born in south London and raised by her Jamaican grandparents. Growing up with them has had a strong influence on her writing.
Other influences are neo-surrealism, jazz, blues, hip-hop, African-Caribbean cultural practices and life experiences.
Her recently completed project - a pamphlet collection of poems, ‘If I talked everything my eyes saw’, is an idiosyncratic medley of verse stories giving a nod to her ancestry. The pamphlet collection won the 2014 Poetry School and Pighog Press pamphlet competition and will be published next year. Some of her poems can be found in Ambit, Iota, Urthona and Butcher’s Dog.
She is currently working on a live literature piece inspired by nine-nights: an African-Carribean ritual which mourns and celebrates the loss of a loved one. She is also developing sound poems and exploring the use of improvisation to create live literature.

Mentor Chico

I am Mentor Chico, I was born in Ecuador 1963, studied Fine Arts at the Central University of Quito and graduated in 1993 with a degree in arts, engraving and sculpture.

In Ecuador I have won many awards as a painter which motivated me to continue working hard, I decided to travel to London in 1997. From the first year here I have had many solo exhibitions.

In the year 2000 I received a special mention at the biennale de Malta, in 2006 the Museum of London bought one of my works and in 2014 I was commissioned to paint the Tower Bridge in celebration of its 120 years.

These are my 3 greatest achievements as a painter and am grateful to the SAF for supporting me throughout.