Are you ready for more poets? Of course you are!
One off my favourite things about the Poetry&Words stage is the mix of artists. There are always a bunch of poets whose work I’ve known and loved for years but equally I will always find performers I’ve never seen before. Even in the years before my first time attending the festival in person I would scour the line up searching for new voices. It is a testament to the quality of everyone booked to perform that I’ve never been disappointed by what I found!
With that being said I figured I’d introduce you to two of my favourites, Joelle Taylor & Gecko, and two performers new to me that I’m incredibly excited to see, Drea Chuma & Lia Burge.
Joelle Taylor
www.joelletaylor.co.u
Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry and a novel. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize and was the subject of a Radio 4 arts documentary Butch. C+NTO was nominated for the Rathbone Folio Prize, longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and won 2022 the Polari Book Prize. It was named by The Telegraph, the New Statesman, The Guardian, The White Review & Times Literary Supplement as one of the best poetry books of the year, as well as DIVA magazine’s Book of the Month, and awarded 5 stars by the Morning Star. She has completed a book tour of Australia including Sydney Opera House (March 2022). C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. A former UK SLAM Champion she founded the national youth poetry slams SLAMbassadors through the Poetry Society in 2001, remaining its Artistic Director until 2018. She is a co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live, resident at the Southbank Centre, and an editor at Out-Spoken Press. She is also completing her memoirs for publication in 2024, and her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet will be published by Quercus in Spring of that year. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year.
Gecko
Gecko is a London based singer-storyteller, his playful lyrics cover the big things in life with wit and warmth. Think tooth fairy admin, ignored characters in Italian renaissance paintings, and pig outlaws. Gecko has toured the UK, Europe & New Zealand, appearing at Glastonbury, Latitude, BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music & the Edinburgh Fringe. He has shared stages with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Loyle Carner, Tim Minchin & Billy Bragg. In 2020 Gecko appeared on BAFTA winning Sky TV show ‘Life & Rhymes’ with Benjamin Zephaniah. His songs have received multiple millions of views on TikTok & both his albums ‘Volcano’ & ‘Climbing Frame’ have been made ‘Album of the year’ in the Morning Star newspaper.
Drea Chuma
Drea Chuma is a Botswana-born poet currently living in Amsterdam. In Botswana she became part of the acclaimed Exodus Live Poetry collective known for shaping Botswana’s performance poetry scene. In 2006 Drea was invited by Hammer & Tongue to represent Africa in the UK Four Continents Slam tour, where she won the Nottingham and Cambridge slams. She has performed in many stages, including Johannesburg Constitution Hill, Stockholm City Theatre, Berlin Kink Kong Club, Harare Shoko festival, Botswana Infinite Word Festival, Glastonbury festival. Drea lived in Belgium until 2020, where she collaborated with other artists and curators and shared her poetry in numerous stages including Zomerfabriek, Belgium’s Afrikan Film Festival, and at the inaugural People of African Descent Week at the European Parliament.
Her poems have appeared in publications including Prairie Schooner and Sixty Poems for Haiti (Cane Arrow Press). She has read her poems on many stages and festivals, including Johannesburg Constitution Hill, Stockholm City Theatre, Berlin Kink Kong Club, Harare Shoko festival, International Video Poetry Festival and Glastonbury festival. Her debut poetry album 1981 Was A Good Year can be found among the collection of music recordings from Botswana at the US National Library of Congress and National Library of Australia. In 2022 she released her sophomore poetry-album Homing under her moniker Supermoon Blues. Collaborative poetry films from her Homing project with a Welsh filmmaker and a Chilean filmmaker have been screened at various film festivals including 10th International Video Poetry Festival (Athens), ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival(Berlin), Cinema on the Washing Line(Lisbon), London International Animation Festival and Amsterdam Independent Film Festival. Her honours include Farrago Poetry award(UK), African Artist Award (Belgium) and Botswana Top 40 under 40 Catalyst award. She is currently working on a debut poetry collection.
Lia Burge – Crying Into Bins
Lia Burge is an OFFIE nominated actress and two-time Hammer & Tongue National Slam finalist bringing her show CRYING INTO BINS to the Poetry&Words stage.
From the food waste bin into which her friend had a nervous breakdown, Lia tries to make sense of the twenty years she spent serving food and drink. Crying into Bins chronicles tales collected over two decades and takes shape as a long-form spoken word poem. But expect a little more than one woman and a microphone. This is a fast-paced and funny poetical exploration of mental health, societal structures, terrible rage and bittersweet acceptance.
‘I have spent my adult life shovelling leftover potato fondants into my mouth in the vain hope that the sheer volume might make up for the lack of company, posh dress and dinner music they were designed for’
“As natural as having a conversation with a mate down the pub but with a glorious lyrical flair”
“Fresh and thrilling”
“Jaw-droppingly brilliant”
Praise for previous acting work:
★★★★★
‘A highly sophisticated performance and never one-note…a masterclass in acting’ – Spy in the Stalls
Make sure to stay tuned as we continue through our stacked 2023 Poetry&Words lineup!
Poetry&Words at Glastonbury Festival 