The Moon Is A Meme is a brand new visual poem written by former Channel 4 Playwright in Residence and Roundhouse Poetry Slam champion Zia Ahmed.

Exploring feelings of invasion and invisibility in an era of surveillance, social media and censorship, Ahmed’s poem uses the backdrop of one of London’s multicultural high streets to express this experience; an experience of both feeling like part of the city but also what it means to be othered by it.

The piece was commissioned by Free Word as part of their This Is Private program, a series of events and commissions to bring together powerful writers, artists and activists to explore issues from the invasion of physical space through the Stop and Search policy,  the censorship of women’s bodies, the histories that nations keep secret, to how closely dystopian fantasies reflect present reality. The This Is Private series is the first of Free Word’s Seasons which explore urgent contemporary issues and centres voices that are often underrepresented in mainstream discussions. The Moon Is A Meme was produced by Film Pill, the production company behind Lowkey’s Ghosts of Grenfell, and directed by Free Word’s Season Producer Zain Dada.   Free Word is an arts organisation focused on the power and politics of words. This is Private runs from 15 Oct–6 Dec 2018 at Free Word and online.