Charlie Jordan
Radio presenter, poet, event host and workshop facilitator
© 2012 Charlie Jordan
Charlie's voice is familiar from Radio 1, Radio 2, LBC, BBC London, BFBS, Capital FM, BBC WM, BRMB, Heart FM and Smooth Radio. Her natural warmth and uplifting style has seen her 20 year career include speech and music, local and national stations, and continuing connections with listeners.
With a dynamic stage presence, Charlie hosts award ceremonies such as The BritWriters at London's O2 the National CIPR awards at the Birmingham Town Hall, and the Princes Trust ‘Celebrate Success Awards’ at Aston Villa. She's presented at 'Style Birmingham' and at the ‘Muslim Writers Awards’ with Jermaine Jackson. At the NEC, she’s a regular at the Experts stages at the ‘Good Food Show’ with chefs like James Martin and at ‘The Clothes Show’, where Gok Wan ‘rearranged her bangers’…not forgetting the Christmas Lights switch on with Jason Donovan at Merry Hill.
As a former Birmingham Poet Laureate, Charlie was 'Artist in Residence' at WBA Football Club. This was part of a national Apples and Snakes project, including a live show at the Big Chill festival. Charlie even appeared on BBC1 in her WBA shirt delivering freshly scribed football chants alongside a Wolves fan, who joined in. Such is the power of poetry:)
Charlie’s first solo poetry show 'Buddhism and Ben & Jerrys' was showcased at the Bristol Old Vic and has been performed at The Birmingham Rep and The Custard Factory. This was for the Lit-Up Festival, where Charlie represented the West Midlands as the Associate Artist, working with MAC. The show is currently being extended, which involves arduous research into several new ice cream flavours. She has recently devised the Decadent Divas project, previewing their new show at MAC for Artsfest, and seen at other venues across the West Midlands - heading to Worcester in Jan 2012.
In education, Charlie runs workshops that lift poems off the page and engage pupils with live performance poetry. She works with all ages, including those with Autism, Looked After children, young carers, 'gifted and talented' young writers and students in Pupil Referral Units. Sessions often involve young people writing and performing their own work in ‘Poetry Slams’, where non-traditional learners become more confident with words and literacy. Slams are the rhyming equivalent of X Factor!
Charlie is also passionate about working with adults, encouraging them to find their voices and improve communication skills. This has included corporate sessions, and work within the community in prisons and residential care homes....no-one is too old to gain the self confidence for self expression, as a 93 yr old recently proved;) A founding member of the Not for profit writers collective 'Write Down Speak Up', Charlie is currently taking the Big Brum Poem project quite literally to the streets with the Community Arts Bus tour. This is working towards a giant collective piece of community art for 2012.
When not writing or performing, Charlie likes to eat cake and watch TV in her pyjamas...which she claims is vital to the creative process....