Dr Panya Banjoko is a socially engaged creative, traversing the academic and creative industries, a poet, filmmaker, patron for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature and founding director of Nottingham Black Archive. Dr Banjoko is a multi-award-winning poet and essayist. Her debut poetry collection, Some Things (2018) and pamphlet (Re)Framing the Archive (2022) were released by Burning Eye Books and explore identity, belonging and representation.

Dr Banjoko’s practice-led doctoral research, ‘The Politics of Poetry in Nottingham: Nottingham Black Archive and African-Caribbean Writers and Networks (1950s and 1980s) include a new collection of poetry based on the archive with some of the poems placed on permanent display at Newstead Abbey. She has written articles for the Conversation, BBC Bitesize online magazine, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour sharing her story of being a working-class academic.