The Pause – Field Lab
Early this year I was invited by Team London Bridge, in partnership Apples and Snakes, to put together a day of interactive exercises that would inspire a different spin on talking about the climate and ecological crisis as part of the epic In A Field by A Bridge Festival. Since 2018, I’ve had many conversations in climate and environmental…
The Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan – Part 2
In the second part of this blog, Artistic Director of Apples and Snakes, Lisa Mead, and Consulting Artistic Associate, Zena Edwards, delve a little deeper with our friends Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan from The Last Poets. They discuss how poetry has shaped them, what they think it means to be a poet, and…
The Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan – Part 1
Artistic Director of Apples and Snakes, Lisa Mead, interviewed our friends Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan from The Last Poets to discuss poetry as their chosen form of expression, the longevity of their careers and how it all began. In the first part of this blog, Abiodun and Umar share what kept them going…
The Woman With The Wasted Face: Poets, Tread Carefully This Halloween
Please don’t call the police, but I was thirteen when I first watched the fifteen-rated, 2002 version of The Ring. I was at a sleepover with a girl who had once announced: ‘If you’re not wearing a bra by year nine, there’s something wrong with you’, and I was as desperate for her friendship as…
Beth Calverley: In Defence of Daydreams
Beth Calverley, founder of The Poetry Machine, has seen the positive effects of poetry through her work within health and wellbeing contexts, both before and during the pandemic. Yet she has found her own inspiration levels rising and falling unpredictably during the past five months. In this blog, Beth explores why poetry can be helpful…
Spoken word is dead: long live poetry?
Could it be that there is too much poetry in spoken word? There can be no props, costumes and stage personas if we absorb the assumption that poetry is not a performing art.
The Rise of Nature Poems: Joseph Coelho
Poetry and nature writing have often gone hand in hand. African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote beautiful poems in the late 1800’s inspired by nature like Spring Song celebrating that longed for season… ‘And ever in our hearts doth ring This song of Spring, Spring!’ and Seedling… ‘As a quiet little seedling Lay within its…
Burning Eye Books: Q&A
We asked Clive Birnie from independent publisher Burning Eye Books a few questions about the world of publishing and the dos and don’ts of submitting your work. When setting up Burning Eye Books, why did you choose to focus on platforming spoken word artists in particular? I didn’t. It is not a term that I…
Slam Poetry: how do you maintain truth and authenticity in the face of success and demand?
Owen Craven-Griffiths Apples and Snakes’ Producer for the Midlands When it comes to spoken word it can sometimes be hard to define success. For many poets one indicator can be winning a major slam title. This was the case for me. In 2007 I won the UK Slam Championships at Stratford Theatre Royal under my…
Joelle Taylor: Poetry and Protest
How were we to know/ that when we were cleansing/ we were erasing our whole existence – CUNTO, Joelle Taylor My whole life has been a protest, and my body a political placard. My body has also been a battleground and a bar room, a tourist spot and a cemetery, a haunted house and a roadside…
Accessibility and Awareness: Pete Hunter
Pete Hunter, Apples and Snakes’ South East Producer, shares advice to help ensure your spoken word night is inclusive and accessible. Spoken word is, or should be, for everyone. Whether an organiser or a performer, you have the responsibility of taking appropriate steps to make sure that the event is as accessible to as many…
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