BRADFORD poet Sharena Lee Satti is putting the spotlight on the plight of the homeless in her home city.

Working alongside charities such as Horton Housing, Sharena has developed a collection of images which she will showcase alongside her prose at The Artists Takeover Scratch Night at Bradford arts venue, Kala Sangam on September 15.

Sharena's love of writing began in childhood: "I started writing when I was about six or seven, in my childhood."

She explains how writing provided her with an outlet. "More actively I have been writing in the last two years. It stemmed from my childhood but I had a pause, life changes and adulthood, and I started writing again in the last two years."

Sharing her poetry online introduced Sharena to a wider audience. She has since participated in poetry events working with organisations such as Bradford Library.

More recently she has been passing her skill on to the younger generation through volunteering in local schools.

"I am quite active on social media and Twitter and I noticed the submissions online," says Sharena, referring to her introduction to the Artist Takeover event at Kala Sangam.

"I thought I would give it a go."

But Sharena admits she was 'shocked' to be selected but 'proud to be taking part.

"It makes you feel proud because Bradford is something naturally special to me. I am a Bradford girl."

Now she is looking forward to the performance which she says will highlight homelessness - an issue she feels so passionately about.

Sharena says her poetry is inspired by the amount of homelessness she sees on city streets and also the plight of those people who are begging.

Her aim is to paint a positive image of those people - focusing on the reasons why they have become homeless rather than the negative image often portrayed of people begging on the streets.

"You see people begging for money and it does get a negative light whereas you are not seeing what is happening, the cause," explains Sharena.

"Anybody can end up homeless and in this kind of environment."

"I just wanted to highlight their issues rather than just people sat begging for money. There are issues you don't really get to hear about."

As well as working with Horton Housing, Sharena was also keen to include the views of local MP Naz Shah into her work.

Sharena is among other successful artists, including Parbati Chaudhury, Rachel Clarke and Hiten Mistry who were selected from an open call out to appear in the company's 2018 Artists Takeover.

London-based Kathak dancer Parbati is developing a dance piece that looks at why some women in the South Asian community find it difficult to bring up romantic relationships with their parents/guardians.

Hiten Mistry, a Bharatanatyam dancer from Leicester is creating a piece exploring the subject of male depression through dance and contemporary dance choreographer Rachel Clarke - a hearing person raised in a two parent deaf family, explores communication barriers and BSL/deaf/hard of hearing culture through her work.

Each artist receives a package of support including free rehearsal space, funding and development support as they use Kala Sangam to create new work this summer.

Alex Croft, Kala Sangam’s Creative Producer, said: “Originally we were only planning on funding three artists but we were blown away by the number and quality of applications we received – almost three times as many as last year – so we felt we had to support four! Each of the successful artists are creating projects which, as well as being high-quality entertainment, tell stories about what it means to live in Britain today. I can’t wait to share them with audiences in September.”

Performance starts at 7.15pm For tickets, or for more information, visit kalasangam.org/artists-takeover.