Michael Horovitz
Annie Whitehead and Michael Horovitz
A triple celebration of poetry and music comes to Kensington Town Hall this October 17th, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the First International Poetry Incarnation that filled Albert Hall (filmed as Wholly Communion); 35 years of Michael Horovitz’s ever-innovative and eclectic Poetry Olympics festivals; and the 80th birthday of British beat troubadour Horovitz himself.
Ayanna Witter-Johnson
The P.O.E! (Poetry Olympics Enlightenment) Festival 2015 will suffuse Kensington Town Hall with wide-ranging poetry, music and wordsounds from famed pop-lyricist Pete Brown to the ebullient Afro-vernacular of Kayo Chingonyi, and the wondrously original multi-instrumental improviser and singer Ayanna Witter-Johnson to Roundhouse poet in residence and rising star of the UK spoken word scene, Cecilia Knapp. The celebration will also be graced by the passionate and fiery Anglo-Ethiopian bard Lemn Sissay, inventive poet and performer Adam Horovitz; and fellow poet, artist and musician Vanessa Vie.
Vanessa Vie
Lemn Sissay
http://www.lemnsissay.com/projects/?p=214
“I have been putting these multi-medic shows together since my last year as an Oxford undergraduate,” says Michael Horovitz, “and this one may be my swan-song as a producer, to focus more closely on publishing ever newer departures in print, film and recordings. It will be a special pleasure to feature sax maestro Knoel Scott of the Sun Ra Arkestra among the jazz alumni, alongside Alec Dankworth and Clark Tracey in the New Departures All Stars, and also Annie Whitehead, Jennifer Maidman and Peter Lemer with the William Blake Klezmatrix band, as part of an extraordinary assemblage of top-flight experimental performers coming together to uncork the party spirit in poetry, music and song.”
P.O.E! 2015 takes place on
Saturday, October 17th, from 7:30 pm till 10:45pm.
Tickets are £10 in advance from http://www.wegottickets.com/poetryolympics
– or £12:50 on the door, if any are left on the night (doors open at 7:15pm)