Image: Barbican Centre, London
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye will give an illustrated poetry reading at London’s Barbican Centre on 5 September 2026, combining material from her personal archive with her art and poetry. The event is presented as part of the Barbican’s ‘Project a Black Planet’ season and is listed in the institution’s Talks programme.
Titled ‘A Poetry Reading by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’, the event will bring together the artist’s visual and literary practices. The Barbican describes it as a reading “weaving her personal archive with her art and poetry,” indicating a format that will place archival material alongside spoken poetry and images rather than treating the reading as a separate literary appearance.
Yiadom-Boakye is widely known through her painting, but the Barbican’s announcement presents poetry as an integral part of her practice. Her appearance also extends the programming associated with ‘Project a Black Planet’, a season connected in the institution’s materials with the exhibition ‘Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica’. An installation credit published by the Barbican gives that exhibition’s dates as 11 June to 6 September 2026.
The reading is scheduled for the final day of the event period supplied for ‘A Poetry Reading by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’. It will take place at the Barbican Centre in London, although the available announcement does not specify a start time, duration, ticket price or the precise room within the complex.
The Barbican’s programme description characterises the event as an opportunity to encounter the artist’s archive, artwork and poetry in a single presentation. No further details are provided about the texts to be read, the images to be shown or whether the artist will be joined by additional speakers or performers.
‘A Poetry Reading by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’ is scheduled for Saturday, 5 September 2026, at the Barbican Centre, London, as part of the ‘Project a Black Planet’ season.
