Annnddd… We’re back! This is the latest edition of 05Fest, my mini festival of five events at a singe venue.
1 / D+P/W - Digital Poetry Workshop
This hasn’t happened in a while, so I’m really excited.
D+P/W offers mass-participation creative writing exercises that happen in real time, via social media. In one hour, clear and precise writing prompts will be shared, that together culminate in a finished poem!
These poems will be collated and digitally published, that participants might read and enjoy their structurally similar, yet vastly different work.
It is FREE to take part, all you need is access to internet and tools to write with. In a school setting, the social media account can be projected for the students to follow in real time.
This workshop will be devised by Wayne Holloway-Smith, editor in chief of The Poetry Review, a mastermind and a masterful poet. I hope you join in!
Date / 08 June 2024 / Time / 2pm to 3pm /
Tix / Free / Venue / Online / Threads
Add / threads.net/05events
2 / Anonyms
The last one of these happened in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. It brought me so much joy to listen and understanding how meaning, history, faith and culture plays into naming-tradition in the Middle East.
This time round, Anonyms, the chatty event about names, is happening much closer to home, at London’s Roundhouse, with a ridiculous lineup of poets, novelists, podcast hosts, composers, producers and more, featuring: Krishna Istha, Ruth Hawkins, Anu Henriques, Anthony Joseph, Chimene Suleyman, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Tolly T, Tatenda Shamiso, Tawiah all hosted by moi.
You, the audience, are invited to take part. If you have a story about your name, I hope you will come and share it with us?
Date / 8 June 2024 / Time / 3.00pm /
Tix £8 / Book Here / Venue / Roundhouse
Add / Chalk Farm Road, Chalk Farm, London, NW1 8EH
3 / Redacted
Blackout poetry is created when text is taken from a book, newspaper, or magazine and by redacting words and entire sentences, hidden poetry is revealed. The possibilities and room for individuality are endless! Redacted presents wildly different writers and their redacted revelations, before a live audience, with each writer debuting the newly created piece of work.
As always, you, the audience members are invited to participate; each given the same text to redact, and a few invited to share their poems. Our line up features: Crispin Best, Eska, Jessica Fatoye, Honey Birch, Kate Ireland, Noah Jacob, Seun Olayiwola, Tife Kusoro, Talia Randall all hosted by moi. The book we will be redacting from is…. (drum roll…)
…George Orwell’s legendary 1984! It was published on June 8, 1949, 75 years to the day, so this event also serves as a commemoration and appreciation of all it says about who we are, and what else we might yet become…
Date / 8 June 2024 /Time / 7.30pm
Tix £8 / Book Here / Venue / Roundhouse
Add / Chalk Farm Road, Chalk Farm, London, NW1 8EH
4 / Search Party
The chaos is back! My audience-led interactive show returns to Roundhouse, I think I held the first ever one there. It has a very simple, playful, premise...
Pick a word, any word. Prompted by your suggestions, I will Search (get it) through my archive of work and perform a reactive and spontaneous selection. Each show is unique and special, and this is the 25th show!
In one performance, some dude in the front row, yelled the first word “clitoris” and I think his wife lost one of her nine lives as she died of embarrassment beside him. All good fun, and yes, I had a poem!
Date / 9 June 2024 / Time / 5.00pm
Tix £8 / Book Here / Venue / Roundhouse
Add / Chalk Farm Road, Chalk Farm, London, NW1 8EH
5 / R.A.P Party
So, I cheated a bit, I’m giving 5 news items, not 4. Have you clocked that all the events above happen in the same venue, on the same weekend? That’s because this is the latest edition of 05Fest, my mini festival of five events at a singe venue.
Wrapping up this festival is The RAP Party, a no-clutter, no-fuss, night of live literature and moving music. The format is super simple, 10 writer share work, and after each, the Dj will play two songs of their choosing linked to the text. This, our 70th event! features a stunning, STUNNING, line of Roundhouse veterans: Ruth Awolola, Zakariye Abdillahi, Maria Ferguson, Toby Campion, Katie Greenall, Kareem Parkins-Brown, Chifaa Khelfaoui, Elliot Waloschek, and Priyanka Moorjani all hosted by moi, with Tone on decks.
I really hope you’ll come dance with us!
Date / 9 June 2024 / Time / 8.00pm
Tix £8 / Book Here / Venue / Roundhouse
Add / Chalk Farm Road, Chalk Farm, London, NW1 8EH
Thanks for reading. See you soon.
As always, any questions, holleratchaboy.
Best, Inua x