02/06/2026
Ernesto Sarezale performed at the International Poetry Festival in Brighton Festival organized by the Institute for Experimental Arts.
Ernesto Sarezale is the pen name of a Basque cognitive scientist, award-winning poet, performer and filmmaker based in London. Active in the spoken word scene since the early 2000s, his work orbits the q***r body exploring the paradoxes of sexual intimacy, urban desire, and the role language and technology play in how we perceive ourselves and each other.
His poetry moves fluidly between lyric and visual forms, erotic sonnets and litanies, flash fiction and multimedia performance. Published in Magma, Chroma, Lunar Poetry and beyond, his chapbook In the Name of the Flesh — also performed as a solo Edinburgh Fringe show — remains a landmark of q***r spoken word on the British poetry scene.
As a curator and event-maker, he founded Velvet Tongue, London’s celebrated erotic literary soirée, and has hosted q***r poetry nights including Homophone and Glam Slam UK. His documentary Q***r Tongues maps today’s LGBTQ+ spoken word landscape, premiering at Brighton & Hove Pride’s official film festival in 2021.
He has performed from the Southbank Centre to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, from San Francisco’s Perverts Put Out to the Bowery Poetry Club in New York — and at the International Poetry Festival in Athens.
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