June at the UWC Club, London — When Poetry Leaves the Page

On 11 June 2026, Life in 3 Lines entered a different kind of space.

At the UWC Club in London, an evening devoted to poetry became an opportunity to explore what can happen when a book is no longer experienced only through reading. Conversation, visual art and moving image gradually opened the work into other forms.

The evening began around Life in 3 Lines / La Vie en 3 Lignes, a bilingual collection rooted in haiku and in the observation of fleeting moments. In conversation with Annabelle, Fern Jean-Joseph spoke about the origins of the collection, the particular discipline of writing in three lines, and the way haiku has progressively become the starting point for a broader creative practice.

Around the room, the book was placed in dialogue with Japanese-inspired visual elements and artwork, creating a setting in which poetry could be approached not only as text, but as atmosphere.

From the page to the screen

The second part of the evening introduced guests to Under the Same Sky, Fern Jean-Joseph’s first extended poetic film.

Created from haiku originally written in response to the war in Ukraine and published in Life in 3 Lines, the film does not attempt to document conflict. Instead, it turns towards what remains around it: waiting, separation, memory, vulnerability and resilience.

The screening marked an important shift in the evolution of the work. Earlier presentations of Fern’s haiku had combined poetry with still photography; over time, those experiments moved towards short sequences of moving image and music. Under the Same Sky brought those elements together on a larger scale, allowing the poems to unfold through rhythm, image and sound.

For the UWC evening, the film was shown in smaller groups, creating a more intimate viewing experience and allowing the screening to become part of the conversation rather than a separate presentation.

A different way of encountering poetry

What emerged over the course of the evening was not a new explanation of the poems, but a different way of meeting them.

A haiku on a page leaves space around itself. It suggests rather than describes. That same principle can continue through other media: an image can extend a silence, music can alter the emotional weight of a line, and movement can create a sense of duration that the written poem only implies.

The UWC event became an early exploration of that possibility — a small-scale encounter between book, image and film, and a first step towards a more immersive approach to poetry.

Rather than replacing the written word, these forms return to it from another direction.

The book remains the point of origin. But the experience can continue beyond its pages.