3 Things You Need To Know If You're Into Spoken Word (See Saul Williams, Kate Tempest, John Osborne plus more)

In December 2011, Christopher Logue passed away, a shamefully under-known poet. A man who helped reawake the world to the fact that the writing and performance of poetry are two parts of the same process.

Fortunately, a number of an excellent poets will be gathering at The Wreck, near his old home of Camberwell, to celebrate the man, his poetry and his legacy. These include:

John Hegley
Kate Tempest
Angry Sam
Raymond Antrobus
Curious

There will be personal reminiscences from Logue's widow, the literary and cultural historian, Rosemary Hill, and from Rick Stroud, writer and TV director;

There will be a raffle, where members of the audience can read random pages from Prince Charming, Logue's autobiography;

And there will be sick tunes from Bobby Gandolf and Xahdrez.

BOOK TICKETS - http://sohotheatre.com/whats-on/so-chilled-2012/

Chill Pill is back at Soho Theatre on June 25th!

as well as the Chill Pill poets (Mista Gee, Deanna Rodger, Raymond Antrobus, Simon Mole) we'll be hearing from BBC Radio regular, poet 'John Osborne' and BBC 3 Slam Champion Kat Francois.  

John Osborne

Kat Francois

 Myself and poet Dzifa Benson have been coaching eight young poets to become Slam Champions for this Cultural Olympia project 'Shake The Dust'. This Saturday is the regional final at The Albany. Below is more Shake The Dust events you MUST SEE! 

Kate Tempest

National Shake the Dust Weekend 

Thursday 5 – Saturday 7 July | Southbank Centre

Three unmissable days of spoken word, featuring some of the most celebrated spoken word artists performing today, including Saul Williams, Kate Tempest, Lemn Sissay, Dizraeli and the Small Gods and many more. Plus films, music, FREE events and the UK ‘s biggest ever youth poetry slam! The Shake the Dust Champions, young poets from across the UK, will join forces with Southbank’s London Literature Festival to share a stage with top spoken word artists. 


shakethedust.co.uk / southbankcentre.co.uk

Saul Williams

Film Recommendations & A Week In Pictures.

Dizraeli's mind-blowing set at Chill Pill.

      A woman shows me her favourite poems at The Stratford Unitarian Church.

  We showed up & rocked Royal Holloway Uni until I collapsed with Flu Symptoms. 

                                                          Poeticat also rocked Chill Pill. 

I can now brag about my ability to cook a traditional Jamaican dish of Ackee & Salt Fish.

Apparently you should know this.

                             

Lastly you should check out these films.

Has Mike Skinner been reading this blog?

Mike Skinner from The Streets has just released a free mixtape and on that he has included a spoken word accapella track. Could this be an indication that Mike is finally standing up as a poet in his own right?

not that he's never been one... I just remember when I fell in love with The Streets all those years ago and I'd hear people say "he's only chatting... pay me to talk over bloody beats, I sound better than that!"

A lot of people didn't get it but I really connected with it... well, a lot of people did.. he's a top selling artist.

I saw The Streets live and to the crowd Mike said rather apologetically "I'm not the best Rapper in the world but I love what I do!"

which kind of disheartened me because it was almost like he was apologising for being an artist who puts substance over style.

Here you can download The Streets Mixtape and I've included other Spoken Word artists who you need on your radar.

http://www.factmag.com/2011/01/28/you-can-now-hear-that-new-streets-mixtape/

Dizraeli is a favorite of mine, he incorporates Spoken Word ingeniously into his raps. Check out his 2009 release 'Scrabblebag'


http://music.dizraeli.com/album/scrabblebag

Possibly the most popular Spoken Word artist in the UK 'Polarbear'



https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=sHuC_ODglMVgsbZ9IkEeTS3E8_YDQFJlCasWutW7FUTmY9bBdfYmBjxJQzS&dispatch=50a222a57771920b6a3d7b606239e4d529b525e0b7e69bf0224adecfb0124e9b61f737ba21b08198d70e9d8c4be72a2b45eb322c89203d65

The amazingly talented Indigo Williams has a new Spoken Word release out!



http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/growing-pains/id415324414

New release from Hollie Mcnish - Touch



http://holliemcnish.bandcamp.com/album/touch-a-collection-of-poetry-spoken-word-and-music-available-to-download-audio-only-or-order-with-full-illustrated-16-page-poetry-booklet

Mike McGee is one of the best loved Spoken Word artists in North America... I see why.



http://listen.mikemcgee.net/album/mike-mcgee-is-beautiful

Carlos Andreas Gomez is incredible - he truly packs style and substance in his work- a true Spoken Word Artist.



http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/carlosandresgomez

also check out one of my favorite bands headed by a poet - Benin City. They'll be doing big things this year. Also, check out an album that should go down in Spoken Word history - The Short Story Long by Shane Koyczan.

Fianlly, Kate Tempest has a new album coming out and this video by the brilliant poet 'John Berkavitch' is testimony of things to come.