Tuesday 25 February 2014

ChillPill Speak Poems at TedxEastEnd (Society Beyond Borders)

In January, three of the Chill Pill poets (myself, Adam Kammerling and Deanna Rodger) were invited to speak poems at TedxEastEnd. The theme was "Society Beyond Borders", here's what went down...

Monday 17 February 2014

Open Ode To Climate Change Sceptic, MP Owen Peterson

Green budget halved

in the grip of a man
who shakes more hands
than he holds.

who knows the slash
better than the marks 
they leave on the ground. 

O, Owen,
tell the men with castles
that they need canoes.

Lie to their tears
when it’s too late to stop
the flood.

There is violence in truth -
when it hits –
it winds and fires
the stomach

we’re sucking
too much turbulence
from our whirling failure.

Who isn’t frightened
of what rips doors
and uproots houses?
____________________________________________________________________________

Q1. Can writing poems about climate change change anything?

A.     The first draft of this poem was called “Ode To Owen Peterson”, (I believe his name is Owen Paterson) so yes, ignorant poets writing about political issues need to research and channel their education through poetry.


Q2. What will you do with your educated opinion now you have written a political poem?

A.     The evening I wrote this poem, I fell asleep in the kitchen of my shared flat, leaving the heat and all the lights in the house blaring. When my flat mate came home to ask what I was doing, I said writing a poem about climate change. My educated opinion has intensified my guilt about this incident.

Q3. Really though, what are you going to do?

A.     I have signed anti-climate change cuts on SumOfUs.org, 38 Degrees and Change.org. I will participate in protests and not shy from confrontation with Climate Change sceptics. It’s about the facts.

Speaking of facts, by 2016, Climate Change will be removed from the UK National Curriculum, when I told my mother this she said “isn’t the National Curriculum the most dangerous form of censorship?”

Fact; if more people thought like my mother there would be no Peterson’s.

Actually 98% of people probably do. 

Online Love Based Spoken Word Poetry Film Festival. Day 2.

Saturday 15 February 2014

Online Spoken Word Film Festival Curated by Corrina Antrobus & Raymond Antrobus For #IdeasTap

I heart Poetry at Rich Mix w/ Inua Ellams, Raymond Antrobus, Anthony Anaxagorou, Karim Kamar, Eliza Shaddad, Sabrina Mahfouz 

On February 14th I gave a trial run of one of my dream projects to curate a Spoken Word Film Festival. Me and Film-Journalist and former Virgin-Media shorts judge Corrina Antrobus, sat through hours of terrible/terrific/traumatising love based poetry films. We were looking to challenge the idea of poetry films as a genre. How do the aesthetics of two different art-forms collaborate to compliment the meaning of the performance of words and visuals? These are the final eight films we selected for the IdeaTap's Take Over 2. We split it in two sections for the first and second half of the night. I'll post two videos that were selected on this blog for the next week on LOVE and HEARTBREAK.



Tuesday 4 February 2014

TedTalk poet Indigo Williams & UK Hip-Hop Trio 'Strangelove' at Chill Pill, Febuary 20th (DO NOT MISS)

Indigo Williams is a leading name in the UK Spoken Word scene and recently gave a moving TedTalk at Brixton TedX. She curates 'I Shape Beauty' which campeigns to champion women's equality by challenging stereotypes and gender issues. She has performed across the UK and Europe at various places and events such as: 2012 Olympics, The Big Chill festival, iTunes Festival, Camp Bestival, The RoundHouse, BBC Radio 4’s ‘Bespoken word’, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Albany, The Royal festival hall and we're thrilled to welcome her to the Chill Pill stage.


BOOK NOW 
February 20th 2014 

Stangelove is a UK Hip-Hop trio of alter-egos in a mix mezze platter of sharp, abstracted word-jazz and moody melodies. Check their latest EP below. Chill Pill can't wait to feel these lyrical break beat funk machines! 




http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1103/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill

ADVANCE TICKETS £5 / £7 (LINK BELOW)

http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1103/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill