Two leading poets with close connections to Brixton and South London have a new show – Mixtape – that combines images, music and poetry to explore their own lives and inspire audiences to compile a track list of their own experiences.
Nick Makoha and Roger Robinson will perform the first full version of Mixtape to be seen in London at the Albany Theatre in Deptford on Saturday (23 June) and a week later at the Roundhouse in Camden.
Both are established performers on the UK poetry scene and have often performed internationally, including two Breaking Ground tours to the USA.
Their show brings together their poetry, their personal stories of migration (Roger was born in Trinidad, Nick in Uganda), politics, tragedy and triumph, with the music that has soundtracked their journeys and lives.
They have selected their strongest poems, chosen the music that has had the biggest influence of their lives and worked them into a narrative that also tells a wider tale of migration, world politics and individual identity.
The poems come from Makoha’s debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity, that was shortlisted for the 2017 Forward Prize, and Robinson’s forthcoming book, Portable Paradise, bringing together his best work from the past 10 years.
Roger Robinson is a writer, poet and musician and an unrelenting and constant observer of life in Brixton and of post-riot/pre-Brexit Britain. An internationally respected dub poet, his work is a powerful mix of poetry rhythm and socially conscious themes. He has released two albums and is a founding member of King Midas Sound. His 2015 album, Dis Side Ah Town, is about the Brixton uprising.
He has performed worldwide and is also a lecturer on poetry. He was chosen by the Decibel project of Arts Council England as one of 50 writers who have influenced the Black British writing canon. He was shortlisted for The Bocas Lit Fest Prize for Caribbean literature and highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize.
Nick Makoha was fled Uganda with his mother during the Idi Amin dictatorship of the 1970s. His pamphlet, The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man, was published in 2005. His one-man show My Father and Other Superheroes toured extensively in the UK and abroad. He is one of ten on The Complete Works, a programme for advanced Black and Asian poets. He was published in the Ten anthology and launched A Kingdom of Gravity at the Africa Writes festival, which was then shortlisted for the Forward Best First Collection.
He is an original Speaking Volumes Breaking Ground artist who was part of the 2015-16 USA tour and runs the Youth Poetry Network.
The Mixtape Tour is produced by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions and supported by Arts Council England.
Mixtape at The Last Word Festival
Saturday 23 June, 7.30 to 8.30pm
The Albany, Douglas Way, London SE8 4AG
Box office: 020 8692 4446
