Spoken Word Education Mentioned In The Guardian, Warsan Shire plus other news

The Spoken Word Education MA got a nice mention in The Guardian last week with a feature on Jacob Sam La Rose.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/oct/03/spoken-word-educators-poetry-schools

London now has a young poet Laurette who is indeed one of the best poets in the city, congratulations Warsan Shire.

We invited Warsan to read at Keats House Poets Forum last year, check out a part of her reading below.



Chill Pill Meets London Liming at Rich Mix on Thursday 10th October - Featuring John Agard

http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/london-liming-meets-chill-pill/

In other news I've been invited to run workshops and perform poems in Brussels from 16th - 18th October.

I'm back in time to host the Human Rights Slam for the Bloomsbury Festival if you want to come see the Slam it takes place in an actual courtroom.

http://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/ai1ec_event/human-rights-poetry-slam/?instance_id=

Q&A w/ Kenyan Born Somali Poet Warsan Shire

“I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes; on my face they are still together” - Warsan Shire  

Warsan is a Kenyan born Somali poet based in London. She’s also one of my favourite poets alive and she’s only 23. ‘Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth’ is the name of her first collection of poems.

Q1. Warsan, what’s more beautiful, midnight or midday?

midnight because it is quiet and all black is beautiful.

 Q2. The poet is often perceived as a tormented character, a lot of your poetry explores trauma. When you write are you in a certain mood?

probably crying, but not because i'm tormented or traumatised, but because something finally fell into place. 

Q3. You’ve started working with script writing, how does a poet work on scripts?

I thought film was poetry?

Q4. True, ok, if a love poet, a political poet and a preacher sat in a room together what would they talk about?

loss (my first answer was brittany murphys death, i don't know about everyone else, but personally i still have so many questions.) 

Q5. You’re reading a set of poems at Keats House on Sunday November 18th. What do you think makes a good poetry reading?

Intimacy, safety, relief between poems in the form of inappropriate humour. 

Q6.  So there’s this genre of poetry called ‘Spoken Word Poetry’ which has become quite popular… What’s your take on ‘Spoken Word’ as a form of poetry?

when it's done well, it's so good, so beautiful, that i die a little bit.  when it's bad, i just want to die. but that is true of most things, a bad cup of tea is tragic. a good cup of tea is a small heaven. 

Q7. I was teaching a year 10 class at school last week and I asked the class what they know about poets and a girl blurted the word “poverty!” across the room. What can up and coming poets aspire to apart from poverty?

Well, she had a point, you do aspire to be poor, but also, to be so deeply fulfilled that sometimes, you just sit with your face in your hands, in awe of it all. 

Q8. Finally Warsan, did you tell your mother she has a beautiful daughter?

She said you should come over for Somali tea, Ray.

Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth

DON'T MISS Warsan giving a reading of her poems at the Keats House Open Mic event on Sunday November 18th, 2pm - 4pm. (FREE)

Keats Grove, 

Hampstead, 

London, Greater London 

NW3

Follow Warsan Shire on Twitter - @warsan_shire

Keep updated on her blog 

http://warsanshire.tumblr.com/

November Shows Include Chill Pill at One Taste, Autistic Pieces at Bang Said The Gun, Warsan Shire at Keats House & more...

Paper Tiger Poetry at Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall Walk. November 9th 2012.

Chill Pill Poets (Raymond Antrobus, Mista Gee, Deanna Rodger, Simon Mole & Adam Kammerling) - Are doing a show at the One Taste Festival. Come See Us In Full Force! 11th November 2012.

http://onetaste.co.uk/events/2012/onetaste-festival-2012/

Autistic Pieces (Raymond Antrobus / Alex Patten) at Bang Said The Gun. The Roebuck, London Bridge. 15th November 2012.

Open Mic event, Keats House Poets Forum is back this month with special guest poet; 

Warsan Shire. 18th November 2012

Warsan Shire

Chill Pill is back at The Albany with multi-slam champion Harry Baker 

& amazing musician, poetess - Lyric L as well as a special performance from Albany Young Poets (Runner's Up of London's Olympic 'Shake The Dust' Slam) 29th November 2012.

(Includes Open Mic)

BOOK NOW TO SECURE TICKETS - http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/846/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill

Warsan Shire - For Women Who Are DIfficult To Love

Warsan Shire is one of my favorite poets around, her pamphlet 'Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth' received rave reviews, she definitely deserves awards... did I mention she's 23 years old?

Watch a video of one of her poems below.  


http://warsanshire.blogspot.co.uk/