James King grew up in Larne, Co. Antrim and has lived in Derry for forty years. Since retiring from his post as Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Ulster in 2004 King has developed his career as performance artist and sound poet; and until the onset of the Covid pandemic maintained his practice of working creatively with vulnerable groups in the community. He has been practising performance in various forms and genres for over forty- five years and lectured in Community Drama for thirty of these. During the past fifteen years King has been expanding his performance art practice; ranging from short, open mic word-play entertainments to substantial durational events. More recently he has been incorporating sound poetry and vocal improvisation in his performances. Much of King’s work is organic, spontaneous and site specific. In his performance work King interrogates and expresses how he is in the world. His respect for intuitive spontaneity is an invitation to others to question, challenge and be liberated.