Poetry and Spoken Word for Community and Unity
One of the many connections we made at this year’s Art in the Park festival, held as part of Refugee Week celebrations in Milton Keynes, was with local poet and artist – Abbi Jinks. As part of the festival programme, Abbi shared her creative work and reflections, using poetry to explore themes of belonging, connection, identity and our shared humanity.
Abbi has been writing poems since her teenage years but forgot all about it for a big period of her life. 4 years ago she came back to it after a spontaneous sharing of one of her poems, at a festival with a live band! Since then she’s been performing her poems and delivering workshops across the community.
One of her passions is helping people to find their voices, and to share their own stories. Abbi sees that writing and sharing, can be a very healing experience with self-expression being a powerful tool.
Abbi also does ‘Live Event Poetry’ where she attends conferences, festivals and events and sums up the day’s activities and content in a ‘Spoken Word Wrap-up’. Pulling out the humour, the tears, the breakthroughs and highlights from the day, she delivers it live as a reflective and emotional piece – a real snapshot of the magical moments of the event.
Twice slam winner at Leicester’s ‘Some-Antics’ spoken word night, Abbi loves to get playful and creative with her writing and performance. She also offers creative workshops to community groups, corporates and businesses – great for building connection in teams and also inspiring more creative thinking.
Abbi is working on her 2nd poetry book and also has a poetry journal out, ‘Truth and Rhymes’.
Find out more about Abbi’s work and connect with her on:
- Website: https://www.abbijinks.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbi-jinks/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbijinkspoet/
Abbi kindly shared one of her poems with us and its message feels so relevant not only to the Refugee Week theme of Courage, but also to Community Action: MK’s wider work supporting local communities, community groups and our Raising Our Voices blog series, which seeks to amplify diverse experiences, perspectives and stories from across Milton Keynes – and all for unity.
Her poem reminds us that, despite our different backgrounds, cultures and experiences, we all share a desire to connect, belong and support one another. We are delighted to share ‘Community Brings Unity ‘below, a thoughtful reflection on the power of community, hope and human connection.
You can watch a video of Abbi performing Community Brings Unity at a recent Some-Antics spoken word event in Leicester, where the poem was shared with a live audience.
Thank you, Abbi, for sharing her story and her poetry with us during the Refugee Week 2026!
Photo credits: Abbi Jinks