We headed over to Brunel University London and got the slowdown from one of spoken word’s real movers and shakers…
We interviewed Lemn Sissay about his archival memories: how he got started, and what Apples & Snakes gigs were like in the old days. And then he got on to slam… Interview by bleue granada Film by Elysium Eight
Being an archivist is great. I like it when people ask ‘Yes, but what do you actually do?’ Well, right now I’m spending a lot of time linked up to a cassette-player and at least three pairs of headphones, digitising audio-recordings of Apples and Snakes’ shows from the 1980s and ‘90s. And when I’m ...
Birthday greetings card showing girl's face, a picturesque street and a message 'Best wishes for your birthday' - sample image only.
‘…one of the reasons it all turned a bit weird was one of those guys saying ‘I don’t ever want to read It’s such a vulgar thing to do.’ – Joolz Denby Despite what some people would have you believe, the history of poetry is an oral one, with a tradition going ...
If one of the main objectives of reading and writing poetry is to evoke emotion, then it’s no surprise that it would find a natural bedfellow in music. From bards of old to today’s most popular rappers, the intersections between music and poetry can be seen throughout history. For performance poetry, ...
How do you encapsulate the many-headed hydra of spoken word in one three-minute soundbite? Bring in the talented folk at Creative Connection and get Charlie Dark on voiceover duty is our advice. Hold on to your hats…
To begin at the beginning. Apples and Snakes was born from the activities of Worthless Words, a writers’ collective that had enjoyed a peripatetic existence in South London since the late ’70s. Worthless Words’ best known alumnus is the left-wing comedian Mark Steel, although he’d jumped ship by the time ...
