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Launching at The Late Shows
Creative Central NCL is bringing Amy Langdown’s poem True North to The Late Shows this weekend (8 and 9 May 2026), inviting visitors to experience the city through words, windows and unexpected encounters.
Created as a public poetry trail, True North will appear as window vinyls across venues in Newcastle, with different sections of the poem installed in different locations. Visitors will be able to follow the poem as they move through the city during The Late Shows, discovering fragments of writing as part of their route.
Find True North in Newcastle
Fragments of the poem can be found in venues across the city from Friday 8 May including:
- Alphabetti Theatre
- Assembly House
- Dance City
- Tyneside Foyer
- Tyne Theatre & Opera House
- Vanguard Gallery
You’ll find the full poem popping up in Metro stations in May, and it also makes an appearance in the latest issue of The Crack magazine, available for free all over the city.
Watch the video animation of True North spoken by Amy below, or scroll past the video if you’d rather read it or use assistive technology.
Don’t miss Amy Langdown performing True North Live during The Late Shows
Saturday 9 May
7:15pm Grainger Unplugged (Arcade Stage) at Grainger Market
8:15pm Alphabetti Theatre
Listen to True North, by Amy Langdown
Read True North, by Amy Langdown
True North
A poem by Amy Langdown
A place curiosity is cultivated into tangible change
Where no idea is ‘too wild’ ‘too much’ or ‘too strange’
A place for passion to shine and to pass on that passion
When opportunity feels scarce, our own we fashion
A place for learning who we are and who we can be
Where possibilities are endless, further than we can see
A place for music to flow through sinew and hope to replete
When tranquility is fleeting, there is nothing so sweet
A place for dancing freely, fiercely even off-beat
To feel melodies in your being from your eyebrows to your feet
A place for becoming versed in the secrets of the earth
To pass down in homage is to continue rebirth
A place to mine for knowledge and innovation to thrive
Putting our humble city into forward drive
A place for smiling at ‘strangers’ for they are our friends
Where nobody is a stranger for our love knows no end
A place truly grounded but with magic handmade
Cultivated carefully as each cornerstone is laid
A place where culture means diversity in colourful bloom
For a plumage of individuality to be excitedly subsumed
A place where the fringe is true North and all else unfolds from there
Where, at our table, everybody has a chair
A place for people to find their true, unending heart-art
And to break down walls, brick by brick, so that others then can start
A place of many timelines, many cities we have been
Industry, culture, creativity bursting from our seams
A place where the artists’ spirit pumps through the streets
Where it is intrinsic, acting as the city’s glue
A place where the people make the heart, the spaces and the streets
Where change can happen when we move others
With our pens, our brushes and our feet
Creative Central NCL X The Late Shows
True North is part of Creative Central NCL’s activity for The Late Shows this year, supporting artists to create new work in public spaces and helping more people encounter creativity as part of everyday city life.
The Late Shows take place this weekend across Newcastle and Gateshead, find out more on their website.
Look out for True North in venue windows as you explore the programme.