The Platform

The final selection for The Platform, an open call for creatives aged 21–28 to showcase new work at Hay Festival has been made.

The five successful artists whose work will be featured this year are:

• Alfiah Jade Brown – visual poet and producer (London)
• Alexis Maxwell – interdisciplinary storyteller (Lancashire)
• Grace O'Brien – writer, actor, producer (Rhymney, South Wales)
• Eden Peppercorn – writer, theatre maker and visual artist (Nottingham)
• Safiyah Zanabi – writer, performer (London)

Supported with funding from the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and Martin Smith Foundation, The Platform is a Hay Festival initiative to promote, support and develop young creative talent.

Platform participant performances and biographies

Alfiah Jade Brown - In Memory of Aunty Woody

In Memory of Aunty Woody is a 20-minute live poetry performance written by Alfiah Jade Brown. Blending four poems with archival footage and a Caribbean reggae-inspired soundscape, it weaves live verse, video, and music into an intimate reflection on loss, memory, and what we inherit.

After laying her grandmother to rest on British soil—next to her great-grandparents—Alfiah faced a quiet grief: she may never stand on the land that raised the woman who raised her. Now it’s her turn to carry the culture, the stories, the bits you don’t write down.

Part tribute, part reckoning, this piece holds the fear of forgetting—and asks, especially for Black Britons, how we carry forward the things that made us, when the people who made us are no longer here to remind us.

Alfiah Jade Brown is a visual poet, producer, and facilitator from South London, patterning poetry with visuals, rhythm, and sound to create experiences you don’t just read—you feel. Raised around her father’s sound system, she discovered early how words can move people, literally and emotionally. Embracing her dyslexia, Alfiah flips language on its head, turning everyday moments into immersive storytelling. Constantly scribbling, snapping, and filming, her work is a living collage of life. A passionate advocate for community arts, she’s led workshops with Poetic Unity, Apples and Snakes, and Bold Tendencies. Her debut poem, I, Luv Ya West, was recently commissioned by The Television Centre.

“It’s a pure joy to be part of the Hay Festival this year. Their focus on celebrating diverse voices and storytelling really hits home. I’m super charged to share my immersive style of visual poetry, bring it to life on stage, and connect with the audience”

Alexis Maxwell - The Space Between Us

The Space Between Us is a live spoken word performance with animated visuals, exploring what it means to be human through a speculative, sci-fi lens. Blending poetry and digital storytelling, it centres on non-human figures -Androids, Machines and Aliens- as metaphors for marginalised identities; weaving together personal reflections and cultural narratives to touch on the ways we navigate belonging, otherness and the shifting borders of identity.

Alexis Maxwell is an interdisciplinary storyteller, self-taught animator and long-time fan of all things spoken word. They adopt a socially involved approach to exploring their lived experiences; using a blend of sound, projection and poetry to merge the digital and physical realms. Loudly and proudly working class, they navigate the art sector with a tongue in cheek use of its overblown terminology and a healthy dose of imposter syndrome; not shying away from crudely drawn imagery, purposely distorted audio and cheap alternatives to the modern technology that is so necessary to contemporary art.

“I’m so excited to be part of The Platform; it’s an incredible opportunity to share space with other emerging voices and bring my work to such a celebrated festival. I’m really looking forward to connecting with people and holding space for new conversations.”

Eden Peppercorn - NED (Extracts from Vegemite Sandwich)

“A blistered film reel. A man made of steel. Twenty-seven paintings, enamel on hardboard. The foamed sweat on the neck of a stolen horse. Ned is a black box against a finely painted orange-blue sky.”

Australian-born, British-raised theatremaker Eden Peppercorn leads us through a vivid, visceral dream of a homeland with the ghost of Antipodean antihero Ned Kelly as our companion. NED is a series of extracts from their current work-in-progress Vegemite Sandwich, through which they try to navigate the landscape of their dual nationality and the colonial shadows that hang over modern stories of im/emigration down under.

Eden Peppercorn is a writer, theatremaker and visual artist born on the Central Coast of Australia, Darkinjung Country, raised in the West Midlands and currently based in Nottingham. They are a graduate of the University of Bristol and The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and their love of literature, visual art and performance permeates all elements of their artistic practice. They create interdisciplinary performance work rooted in notions of queerness, a love of mess and asking questions to which there aren’t always easy (or any) answers.

"I am so excited to be showcasing my work as part of The Platform at Hay Festival. Providing space to uplift emerging artists within such prestigious events as Hay Festival is the kind of support that keeps the arts alive, and I'm thrilled to make the most of this opportunity."

Grace O’Brien - Falling off Endz: A Lyrical Odyssey

Falling off Endz: A lyrical Odyssey is a fictional, underscored, spoken-word exploration following Ava from her council flat in South Wales to the Big Smoke; she falls into low-level coke dealing to escape credit card debt using her boyfriend's ice cream van and we witness her subsequent demise. It's semi-autobiographical in that it draws on personal experience as a Working-Class, Autistic ADHDer from The Valleys who spent time living in Northeast London.

Ava’s Disabilities contribute to her entrepreneurial flair & the text explores the challenges of late-diagnosed, high-masking Women/Girls and the link with executive function challenges, impulsive decision-making and substance abuse.

Grace O'Brien is a Welsh-Irish, Working-Class, Disabled/Neurodivergent multidisciplinary from Rhymney in South Wales; she's a Writer, Actor, Producer & Artistic Director of Purple String Productions. Grace's style is a fusion of spoken word, poetry, playwriting & Welsh language long-form fiction. Her writing project 'The Welsh Lxdies' was long-listed for the RSC's 37 Plays & recently undertook R & D supported by ACW for further development. Grace is an AuDHDer with OCD & participated in 'Reinventing The Protagonist', via Literature Wales & Disability Arts Cymru, which inspired the piece that she's performing at Hay. She's hoping to develop this further on Representing Wales 2025-2026.

“I'm thrilled to be platforming a Disabled/Neurodivergent voice, drawing inspiration from my own, experimenting with sound and exploring how the piece can be further developed. I can't wait to be immersed in an atmosphere full of rich literature and talent.”

Safiyah Zanabi -1001

‘Do you believe in God?’
‘What do you want me to say?'
‘Don’t be diplomatic.’

Tom and Leila have been together for 2 years, 8 months and 2 days… 1001 nights. In the early hours of the morning, before the funeral of their mutual friend, they begin to tell each other stories to get back to sleep. But the stories they tell betray unspoken truths; their relationship is put to the test. As the sun rises and the funeral creeps closer, Tom and Leila are forced to find ‘endings’ for the stories they have begun telling, and to confront what ‘endings’ really mean.

Safiyah Zanabi is an Algerian / British writer and actor based in London. Her writing has previously been performed at Theatre503, RADA studios, the Oxford Playhouse, Burton Taylor Studios, and the Edinburgh Fringe. She is currently developing her recent play as part of Soho Theatre’s Studio Writers Group. She recently graduated from an MA in Text & Performance at RADA and Birkbeck.

Before her MA, she read Philosophy and Theology at Oxford. Her Muslim background has added to her interest in writing about faith and exploring existential questions in her work.

“I am so delighted to bring my new play 1001 to Hay Festival this year as part of The Platform. 1001 is loosely inspired by the story of Scheherazade from The Thousand and One Nights; I am excited to share our play, that touches on an explores this classic story, with audiences at Hay Festival.