Avaes Mohammad

Avaes Mohammad works across poetry, theatre and performance. With a background in the chemical sciences, artist-alchemist Avaes Mohammad’s influences stretch from the Sufi-Saints of South Asia to the Dub-Poets of Jamaica and he has performed his poetry on stages across the UK, Europe, India, Pakistan and South Africa. His poem Bhopal, as commissioned by BBC Radio 4 won an Amnesty International Media Award. As a playwright Avaes has been commissioned by BBC Radio and several theatre companies across the country with his plays Bhopal (2003), In God We Trust (2005), The Student (2007), Shadow Companion (2008), Crystal Kisses (2010/2011), Fields of Grey (2012) and Of Another World (2014), consistently achieving high reviews. He was recently commissioned to write a double-bill for the Park Theatre, London. Avaes has also conducted playwriting and poetry workshops worldwide with organizations that include The Royal Court (London), English PEN, British Council and the Alternative Living Theatre (India). In 2012 he co-founded The Lahore Agitprop Theatre Company in Pakistan. Constantly excited by how his work as an artist can support society, Avaes Mohammad is currently Associate Artist with Red Ladder Theatre Company, Fellow of the Muslim Institute and Trustee of the Bhopal Medical Appeal. After forty years of teaching, Hubert Moore was for nine years a writing mentor at the Medical Foundation for the Care of victims of Torture, now Freedom from Torture. At the same time he was a regular visitor of detainees at Dover Detention Centre. His eighth collection of poems, The Bright Gaze of the Disoriented, was recently published by Shoestring Press. His poem ‘Hosing Down‘ was Highly Commended in last year’s Forward Prize list.