Nick Toczek | Outstanding Contribution Award - Honorary Graduate

Since 1966 the University of Bradford has awarded Honorary Degrees and Outstanding Contribution Awards to:
• outstanding individuals in recognition of their academic work and endeavour,
• their contribution to their chosen profession or field of activity,
• their contribution to the University, City or wider region,
• their ability to act as a role model reflecting the University’s values.
As part of the Winter Graduations 2023, Nick Toczek has been awarded Outstanding Contribution Award.
Nick received an Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of his long standing and diverse career within Bradford’s arts and culture sector as a poet, musician, writer, performer and journalist.
Nick Toczek was born and raised in Shipley and has been a full-time professional writer and performer since graduating from The University of Birmingham in 1971 with a BSc in Industrial Metallurgy.
During the 1970s, he had eight books and pamphlets published. founded, edited, and published two poetry magazines, co-founded and ran Moseley Community Arts Festival, toured the UK with his Stereo Graffiti Show, co-edited and published Melanthika, Britain's first anthology of pan-Caribbean writing and, after moving back to Bradford, co-founded the punk band Ulterior Motives and the seminal fanzine The Wool City Rocker.
During the early 1980s, he ran hundreds of weekly punk and indie rock gigs. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he and Bradford rock legend, Wild Willi Beckett, co-ran hundreds of alternative cabaret gigs.
As a writer-in-school, he's worked with pupils from over 5,000 schools throughout Britain and in dozens of countries worldwide. He's now published more than sixty books and has released twenty albums of songs and/or performance poetry. He currently runs and hosts two monthly performance poetry events, one in Halifax, the other in Greater Manchester.
For 25 years, he presented his own weekly show on BCB Radio. He's long been a columnist, reviewer, and features writer for the UK music mag, RnR. Oh, and he's also a professional magician and puppeteer.
For more information, please visit www.bradford.ac.uk/news/archi...
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