The 'Z' is not a typo. It is an attempt to touch cool, to nod at what it means to be 'down with it' or, dare i use the word, to be 'hip' but it is the project I'm working on. Lemme recap. Parliament, the massive building whence the country, is run are hosting an arts-in-parliament festival this year. There'll be dance, theatre, visual art, music and the bit where I come in: poetry/spoken word. Rather than just - 'here's a handful of coins, write us some poems about Parliament' - approach to to it, the government called in Apples and Snakes to devise a project were yes, a poem is written, but not by a single author, instead a lot of folks commenting, tweeting, submitting video responsese, texting, writing letters, postcards, blogging etc. The job of the poet on the project is to gather all the answers and stitch an epic poem together. That job is mine. So, essentially, I've been commissioned by Parliament to crowd-source a poem about Political Representation. It is also about voice, identity and democratic engagement. I have to ask a lot of questions about how well represented you feel you are by the government / if you think your voice is heard / who you think hears / what you want to be heard / why you should even be heard in the first place etc...
I will be asking lots of such questions and this is what I need help with: the answers. Essentially, I'd be grateful and honoured if you could ask the questions to your friends, family, neighbours, work colleagues, school mates, bus drivers, anyone, ANYONE and let me know what they say. You can give the answers back to me as videos loaded onto YouTube, as tweets, notes on Facebook, audio recordings on sound clouds, poems, drawings, postcards, comments on my website here... anything. For more info, see the page on the parliament website here: http://bit.ly/LmuSWY
The poem has to cover as much of the UK as possible so please ask folks of all ages and from all backgrounds. Finally, please ask a friend or two to follow me on twitter as it is my main point of engagement. As soon as the project is finished, encourage them to unfollow me - cause I chat a lot of breeze on that thing - but for this project, 'the more the merrier' is vital to its success.
Thanks for reading, please pass this along... Your friendly neighbourhood Nigerian, INUAMAN // twitter.com/inuaellams Thanks