In this exciting poetry project, Sissay invites schoolchildren in Years 5, 6 and 7 to create their own visual poems, drawing inspiration from the history of the Southbank Centre, and the 1951 Festival of Britain – a national exhibition and fair that celebrated innovation across arts, sciences and design in post-war Britain.

Each participating school will meet a poet who will run a workshop exploring visual poetry and support the children to write a collaborative poem. And a line of poetry from each participating class will be realised here at the Southbank Centre in a large-scale installation. 

Each class will also have their visual poem printed in an anthology as part of our 75th anniversary celebrations. And Imagine the Future will end with all participating schools coming to celebrate their children’s work at the Southbank Centre as part of 2026’s Poetry International. Poets include Grace Atkinson, Astra Papachristodoulou, James Wilkes and of course, Arji.