Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette

We’re continuing to highlight events and celebrations which don’t always get national media coverage but are still important to thousands of people in our community and beyond.

Children’s Mental Health Week took place at the start of February. Local poet Annie Rockson appeared on our Saturday Brunch show with Nadia Harding to talk about her latest spoken word poem ‘Express Yourself’ which was released for that week. Annie, who has performed at venues such as The House of Commons, Love Box festival and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, spoke about how poetry has helped her tackle social anxiety and how it can act as a form of self-care.

February is also LGBT+ History Month and Rob West and Claire Gevaux looked at some of the key contributions of LGBT artists over history on their Sunday afternoon Arts Programme. They were joined on the phone by Essex poet, writer and performance artist Alice D’Lumiere.

Both interviews can be heard again at phoenixfm.com where you can find links to Annie and Alice’s websites.