I’ve Only got a few more shows left this year then I’m pretty much on lockdown until Verve Festival in February. Other than my monthly Word Wise commitments (which features a rather awesome line-up in January that I’ll announce at a later date) I’ll be taking a break from performing and will be taking an even longer break after that to get a new set of material together and focus on other projects and commitments. So far this year I’ve done 64 gigs; by the end of the year I’ll have done over 70. This doesn’t include all of my educational performances, workshops in schools, prisons, referral units, colleges, universities community projects.
I’d like to think I’m seeing the year out on a high though. In a few hours a have the pleasure of hosting Tony Walsh a.k.a. Longfella Poet at the opening event of the first ever Derby Poetry Festival. I’ll also be hosting one of my biggest influences in terms of my poetry in the Master Dub Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.
I feel grateful for the progress I’ve made over the last year but I’m always striving to move forward and develop as an artist, that’s why I’ll be going out on a high this year!
One of my poems ‘ANYWHERE STREET DE1’ was put with some music by a great producer based in Belfast called Bloque Capitals. It got played on BBC Introducing Ulster, a few weeks back; the link can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09d3hjz
Ayup fellas ‘n’ fellettes, hope you’re all well? I’m currently feeling the stress big time! There’s been so much happening here @Thrasivoulou HQ since September that I’m struggling to keep up with it! November sees Derby’s first ever poetry festival hit the streets, which is curated by Myself and Trevor Wright! We have some amazing events lined-up so head over to the live section for more details or visit our Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/DerbyPoetryFestival/
Gig-wise I’m doing a feature slot this Thursday (26th October) for Gong Fu Poets first ever show up in Durham! Really looking forward to this one! I’m also the headline poet for November’s Poetry Is Dead Good in Nottingham. Word Wise events are also listed in my live section as well as subVERSE the Hip-hop/spoken word mash-up event I co-produce!
Don’t forget you can still buy my book The Best Of A Bad Situation here:
It’s all been a bit hectic here (in a good way). Had a brilliant night performing for the first time at ‘Unity Words’ in Wakefield. Was great to see Maria Ferguson for the first time, she’s an ace poet, so if you haven’t checked her out yet then do it!! Also enjoyed plenty of other great shows throughout June including my hometown launch of my book which I’m pleased to say was a rowdy and rammed event!!
In terms of the education stuff I’ve just started doing the summer course along with my good buddy Rhythmical Mike for Derby County Community Trust and NCS. I also held some brilliant workshops with the year 9’s from Noel Baker Academy as well as doing a motivational Speech for ex-offenders with the fantastic High-5 Recruitment. Plenty more work lined-up and some exciting times ahead. Get in touch if you need any creative workshops running.
I have some great gigs coming up this month including a headline slot @Word Life in Sheffield, Check the live section for more information. The awesome Raymond Antrobus also visits Word Wise in Derby this month along with Antony R. Owen and many other great poets.
Finally there’s a couple of nice new reviews of my collection ‘The Best Of A Bad Situation’ from the lovely people at ‘The Morning Star’ and ‘The Triumph of Now’ Head over to the reviews section to see more!
I also got commissioned to write a piece for the heritage Lottery funded THI (Townscape heritage initiative) in the Green Lane area of Derby. You can view the video here:
I’ll be doing plenty of live performances throughout June to celebrate the release including Spoken Weird in Halifax on June 1st, The Belper Goes Green Festival on June 4th, A Silhouette Press special with fellow Press mates Andrea Mbarushimana & Jonathan Pinnock @Hausman’s Radical Book Shop, Kings Cross, London on June 6th, My hometown Book Launch Party @ The Maypole Inn, Derby on June 16th & Speech Therapy in Nottingham on June 22nd & A Feature Slot @ Unity Words, Wakefield On June 28th. I’ll also be taking part in a Heritage Lottery funded show @ St.Peters Church in Derby on Friday June 23rd as part of The Green Lane Regeneration Project as well as June’s instalment of Word Wise (Which has now received an offer for Arts Council Funding) featuring the excellent Genevieve L. Walsh & Matt Mcateer. So Yes indeed it’s going to be a busy fun-packed month!
There’s also more dates planned for July onwards. I’ve also had a poem from my second collection (Currently being completed) in the latest edition of Glove: https://twitter.com/glovelitzine?lang=en There’s been some great reviews of “The Best Of A Bad Situation” Including this beauty right here by Storge: (there’s also more in the Press section of this site)
Ayup folks. Loads more dates added in to the Live section.
My debut collection “The Best of A Bad Situation” will be released in May 2017 through the magnificent “Silhouette Press” who have been a joy to work with. This is an exciting moment for me and the result of a lot of hard graft. My book launch at Fire & Dust, Coventry will take place on this date alongside the awesome Steve Pottinger The Facebook event for this gig is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1573038666070312/
I’m also rather proud to announce that I got commissioned to write a piece for the award winning social photographer Jim Mortram’s rather amazing “Small Town Inertia” project through the excellent”bluecoat Press” so march really was some month for me! If you want to know more about this project hit the link below, Until next time folks take it easy and all that jazz…I’ll update with links to buy my collection when details are ready…All the best. J
March has been very kind to yours truly. I did a feature slot at the awesome ‘Howl’ in Moseley, Birmingham & also did a feature set at The Hand-Job-Zine Anthology launch. There’s a review of the event below by the one & only Leftlion of Nottingham which is rather complimentary yours truly, give it a gander:
It’s been a busy few weeks. I’ve another live video of my poem “ANYWHERE STREET DE1” which can be found below. I’ve also done interviews for both “Storge Music” and “Louder Than War” Which can be found in the Press section. There’s also a teaser poem from my forthcoming collection called “The Old Enemy” which was published on the “Hand Job Zine” Website, head over to the published section to take a look. I’ve loads of gigs booked in for the forthcoming months including a feature slot at “Howl” in Birmingham on March 8th. Head over to the Live section for more information.
Hi folks, Not long now until the first Word Wise! We have an excellent line-up for the first event featuring the excellent Andrew Mulletproof Graves, Joolz Denby, Matt Clegg, Sophie Sparham, Benjamin night plus many more! I’ll be hosting the night and there’ll be limited open-mic slots available on the door (First come, First served basis) for more info check out the Facebook event:
