How I Came To LOVE The Spoken Word

I literally have just come back from an inspirational day in London with the Nottingham Mouthy Poets sponsoring my travel and the workshop costs at the Roundhouse in Camden.

First of all, I was very excited when I found out that the workshop I was attending was at the Roundhouse in Camden as I had heard a lot of AMAZING things happening in the London poetry scene with poets who first attended a workshop there for a sturdy foundation to later form collectives such as the Roundhouse Poets http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/explore/portfolios/poetry-collective led by the highly regarded Polarbear, who runs poetry workshops for the youth. Friends have commended his talents of being able to draw out their best poetry by any means necessary.

There is another collective formed called 'Early Doors' due to the Roundhouse's unique ability to bring young, creative people together. It was this collective I first saw when I decided spoken word poetry was the path every part if me wanted to explore. It was my birthday and I had this burning desire to attend a poetry evening with beautiful poetry and red wine (my two favourite passions). So I started searching and found this one event that looked AMAZING! It was called "Come Rhyme with Me" at Cottons Restaurant/Bar in Angel and not only did it fulfil my current wish list, it also threw in tempting rum cocktails and a plate of Caribbean food to get the night swinging in the 'Rhum Jungle' Bar. I am Caribbean, so having rum and food in the mix made it an easy sale for me!

I attended with the event with my expectations high yet my experiences of spoken word low. I had been writing in fierce secrecy for years but I was insanely curious about spoken word. But, in all honesty attending "Come Rhyme with Me" made me break free from insecurities that were keeping my poetry in prison. Something was put in me that literally changed, possibly, the course of my life. I was in silence, shocked for the majority of the performances. When my friends asked how I was I enjoying it, I could only give a dumb, silent nod as the words were already taken and put beautifully into stanzas already.

Even how I came to Mouthy Poets stemmed from that night, as I met a spoken word artist from Roundhouse Poets there who kept in contact with me and encouraged me to share my work. He chatted to his friend who currently attends Mouthy Poets in Nottingham to get the details on my behalf and continued to encourage me to attend, even though I was terrified at the time, I did it. I am doing it. And I will do it. So, let's see what happens from here.