It’s strange to think that seven weeks ago I was sitting in the Royal Festival Hall with a group of young people I’d never met before, being recruited as a young curator. Now it’s been two days since the show which Jamal, Jayga, Rosie and I have been working towards for so long. From the feedback I’ve received I think it went incredibly well; the Front Room was packed and there was a great buzz that lasted long after the show had ended.
Whilst I’m normally quite composed, there were moments in the lead up to the show that brought on mild hyperventilation and verbal vomiting of ‘Ohmygodohmygod’. At one point Yemisi, Jamal and I were adding up the times of all the acts when we realised, despite numerous previous checks, that we were 20 minutes over. After brutally cutting the interval, shaving minutes off sets and making Yemisi swear the keep the hosting short we squeezed our busy busy show into the allocated time with no room for mistakes or overrunning. Another of my panics came on when with great excitement we received our 2000 flyers…with Woe, the house band, wrongly named ‘Woe Live’, so my sincere apologies to them.
All of the artists were absolutely amazing on the day and despite the headlining grime artist No.Lay never turning up, it felt (I hope!) like a complete experience from start to finish. Personal highlights for me were the collaboration between Woe and poet Kaiz La Kazie, the beautiful Jasmine Cooray’s vivid stories, finally seeing my co-curators Jamal and Rosie perform, Malik Marland’s amazing poetry, soul singer Aruba Red, the exciting art being created throughout the show by Rachel Sale and Sophie Gate …basically everyone! It was lovely to see so many familiar faces that I’ve met during my time at the Southbank Centre in the crowd such as Rachel Holmes, Paul Blezard and Rosie Goldsmith.
Jasmine Cooray
Rosie Knight and her lovely dress
Rachel Sale and Sophie Gate near the end of their painting
Rachel Holmes and Paul Blezard
Unfortunately the rest of my photos aren’t the best as I still haven’t quite mastered my camera settings, but do take a look here.
A huge pat on the back to Jamal, Jayga, Rosie, Yemisi, Zenith, all the artists and everyone who came. Thanks heaps!
Filed under: London Literature Festival 2009 | Tagged: Adele Morse, Aisling Fahey, Alex Rowse, Aruba Red, Jamal Msebele, Jasmine Cooray, jayga, Kaiz La Kazie, London Literature Festival, malik marland, Poetry, Polly Urquhart, Rachel Sale, Rosie Knight, Sifundo, Sophie Gate, Southbank Centre, spoken word, Where To, Woe, yemisi blake, young curators | Leave a Comment »
