Youth Word Up – free poetry event with Joelle Taylor
Past Events
As part of his guest curation for Off the Shelf 2012, Benjamin Zephaniah created The Youth Word Up – a project designed to give young people the opportunity to have their words heard alongside an established poet.
This fifth year of the project sees local young people (13-19 yrs) share the stage with former UK poetry slam champion, Joelle Taylor.
They will perform pieces they have written during workshops with Hive, telling it like it is, sharing their experiences, dreams and hopes.
A publication featuring a selection of the work produced will be available at the performance. Joelle Taylor is the founder of SLAMbassadors UK, the national youth slam poetry championship. She performs nationally and internationally and her work has been translated into 6 languages. She was recently awarded a Royal Society of the Arts Fellowship, and a Change Maker Award for changing the cultural face of Britain.
Her books are Ska Tissue and The Woman Who was Not There – named as one of the top ten poetry books of 2014 (Morning Star). Her new collection Songs My Enemy Taught Me is out next year. She has appeared on TV and radio, most recently on Educating the East End. ‘Fearless. We need poetry like this.’ Benjamin Zephaniah
Booking on: 0114 237 4400
