Got a puncture on way to the South Bank at 12.30pm which is a slight pain. Fixed it at the shop in Holborn then arrived at 2pm. Shlo’ is kicking back in the artist in residence office. By 7pm the event has started, Brian Patten Ursula Rucker, Shlomo, Stacey Makishi, Patience Agbabi, and Louis Antwi. The live artists musicians and poets delivered the goods in their own inimitable way: Shlomo blew the roof off, Brian Patten made it levitate, Luis Antwi sat on it, Stacey Makishi spun the roof on her finger and Patience Agbabi blew a few holes in it.
Did a two minute piece with Shlomo beat boxing which I totally enjoyed. There is something extreme and dynamic about working with Shlomo. Without sitting on the beat there is sound reaction. I absolutely love the interaction, the silences between the words and rhythms, the breath, noises of life and power of the two as they catapult each other into a presence of pure percussive poetic fire. All from the mouth indeed. The audience marvelled. I want to explore this more. There is so much potential to move beyond the four four rhythm and into sound. The audience loved it and gave some great feedback.
Everyone was at the gig about five hundred in total. Met Jonzi D outside and Sasha Dee, Charlie Dark Diane Evans Sarah Wajid, fim makers, singers dancers producers novelists and poets…. the great thing about liming is that the audience is as hot as the performers. Midnight comes easily and I bike home. There’s an email reminding me waiting to remind me of the power of a poem. I paraphrase “we have been searching and searching for a poem to read at our wedding” It read “to no avail. Yesterday we were strolling along the south bank and we heard your voice bouncing from the walls. We followed the sound and just as we arrived at the Hayward you were beginning the poem Invisible Kisses. It was as if it were delivered to us. It is now our mission to find the poem and to thank you. We shall read it on our wedding day”. There are a million ways to evaluate an events aren't there.