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Summer School Mini-Interview Chain: Richard Scott interviews Rishi Dastidar

In this second instalment of our Summer School mini-series, Richard Scott’s questions are answered by Rishi Dastidar, tutor of our upcoming course ‘The Minimum Viable Poem‘.

Richard: Tell me about a piece of visual art which you love and that might inspire or has inspired a poem . . . 

Rishi: Mondrian’s ‘Victory Boogie Woogie’, for its rhythm, it’s sizzle, the fact that I can see the life of a city in it, from above, and all energy and hustle… and its colours take me back to playing with Lego when I was younger. My ‘Arguing with Mondrian about space’ came from it.

Richard: The last great poem which you read was . . .

Rishi: Can I have two please? ‘Aubade with Court Ruling’ by Cynthia Miller in Primers 2, and ‘The Nod’ by Kayo Chingonyi, from his fantastic Kumukanda.

Richard: An essential piece of advice that someone once gave you and you have never forgotten . . .

Rishi: Not gave, but that I stole from the film critic David Thomson: “…in the great and continuing crisis of life, try to behave with wit and style.”

This interview is also published by our partners Obby.

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Image Credits:

Image: Paper Cranes by Michael Coghlan