Shake the Dust

NATIONAL SHAKE THE DUST WEEKEND
Thursday 5 - Saturday 7 July @ Southbank Centre
Address: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk / 020 7960 4200
Info: shakethedust.co.uk

The biggest youth poetry slam the UK has ever seen comes to Southbank. Young people have come together across the country, and now the highest scoring teams from each region will join forces at London Literature Festival, for an unmissable weekend of live performance poetry, films and other interactive events featuring some of the most celebrated spoken word artists writing and performing today.

We Are Poets
Thursday 5 July
Tickets: FREE
Address & Time: Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 6.15pm
Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk

To kick off this fantastic weekend of spoken word, join us in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer for a screening of WE ARE POETS, a film which intimately follows six young poets over the course of one very special year, as they are chosen to represent the UK at Brave New Voices, the most prestigious poetry slam competition in the USA. WE ARE POETS celebrates the power of creativity, community and the dynamism of young people.

Shake the Dust with Saul Williams, featuring Kate Tempest
Thursday 5 July
Tickets: £10/£12
Address & Time: Queen Elizabeth Hall, 8.00pm
Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk

Saul Williams is one of the most important and influential voices on the international spoken word scene. He has pinball bounced from Morehouse philosophy scholar to cerebral street sermonizer to breakout indie actor, from hallucinatory hip-hop alchemist to dreadlocked mohawk rockstar, vibing Nine Inch Nails, scurrying across tones, modes and media to defy categorization. He has read published poetry volumes to opera house audiences with full orchestral backing. His 2011 release Volcanic Sunlight, has been described as a TV On The Radio twist on his regular Rage Against The Machine, inspired by a life lived for love – by parents, parenthood and by time spent in Brazil as a teenager in a mansion with speakers that carried the songs of live exotic birds in the hallways, to all the rooms of the house.

Saul will be supported by the UK’s own Kate Tempest: literary, rap-battling hip-hop MC, hailing from South East London. One of the most respected performers on the spoken word scene, Kate has performed across the country with her band Sound of Rum, featuring at Glastonbury, Leeds Weekender and Latitude. She has performed her poetry on Scroobius Pip’s Spoken Word Surgery on Radio One and her Sound Of Rum songs have been featured on Radio One by Rob Da Bank. Her work is influenced equally by a love of hip hop and a love of great literature; her heroes include William Blake and Gza from the Wu-Tang Clan.

Hosted by poet-DJ Charlie Dark and poetry powerhouse Deborah Stevenson. A group of young, talented poets will join this celebrated line-up to open the Shake the Dust weekend in style.

100% PROOF
Friday 6 July
Tickets: £8
Address & Time: The Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 6.00pm
Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk

Poet, playwright and Southbank Centre Associate Artist, Lemn Sissay, the first poet commissioned to write for the 2012 Olympics, welcomes some of the UK’s top spoken word artists. Across the country, young Shake the Dust poets have been learning from the professionals. Tonight, it’s the poet coaches’ turn to show they can talk the talk. Nine exemplary artists will take the stage, blurring the line between page and performance in a medley of styles, poetics and regional accents. Joining them, all the way from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is a delegation from First Wave, the US’s first spoken word and hip-hop university programme, to show us how it’s done across the pond.

Friday Phonic
Friday 6 July
Tickets: FREE
Address & Time: Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.45pm
Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk

Continuing the spoken word celebrations, Southbank Centre’s Young Producers bring together some of the most exciting up and coming voices on the UK spoken word scene alongside a set from Dizraeli and the Small Gods, a 7-piece band playing their folked, melodic, unashamedly heartfelt reinvention of hiphop.

The National Shake the Dust Slam Final
Saturday 7 July
Tickets: £5
Address & Time: Queen Elizabeth Hall, 2pm
Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk

The moment we’ve all been waiting for. Nine teams of young poets from across the country take the stage in an unparalleled celebration of young people’s voices and the power of spoken word. Forget Britain’s Got Talent; prepare to be blown off your seat by the energy, originality, honesty and sheer virtuosity of this new generation of writers and performers. The judges, veterans of UK youth slam Charlie Dark, Khadijah Ibrahiim and Simon Murray, have the near-impossible task of crowning a highest scoring team. But true to the spirit of youth slam, ‘the point is the poetry’. Hosted by Shake the Dust Artistic Director, Jacob Sam-La Rose.