About Bohdan

Bohdan Piasecki is a performance poet from Poland who currently lives in England. In 2003, he started the first poetry slam series in his country, introducing Poles to spoken word and creating a new platform for a whole generation of performers. Since then, Bohdan has travelled around the world with his poetry; he represented Poland at the 2007 Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris (and was the only European poet to reach the finals), proudly wore the title of the 2008 Hammer & Tongue Oxford Season Slam Champion, and was an artist in residence at the European Poetry Slam Days in Berlin in 2009. He has recently completed a European tour with “Smoke and Mirrors”, a multilingual circus show of poetry and music. Bohdan also has a keen interest in literary translation, and actively pursues collaborations with artists from fields as varied as photography, video, music, and dance.

Bohdan is also the West Midlands Programme Coordinator for Apples & Snakes. Find out more you can find out more about what he does there by following this link.

Bohdan derives a perverse pleasure from inflicting poems in Polish on unsuspecting international audiences. He has a tendency to speak too much, enjoys walking, but loathes chewing gum, and hopes against all odds to learn to play bass one day.

He also finds writing about himself in the third person has lost a lot of its lustre and novelty since the advent of social networking sites.

Press Clippings, Blurbs, etc.

“His intense delivery and ability to express what many people struggle to put into words won the audience over.” Julia Bell, Oxford Daily Info

“The excellent Polish, now UK-based poet Bohdan Piasecki runs a mean slam, I tell you.” Tony Walsh, UK Poet

“Ce n’est pas le vainqueur de la coupe du monde mais il est incroyable, j’ai découvert la langue polonaise et même sans ne rien comprendre, on ferme les yeux et ses mots nous transportent, on frissonne… (…) ” Imora, French Poet quoted in AFP dispatch (English translation: “He may not have won the World Cup, but he’s unbelievable, he made me discover the Polish language, even without understanding, you can close your eyes and be transported by his words, it sends shivers down your spine…”)

Downloads

Click here to download a .zip archive with some photos and a brief biog in English, Polish, and French.