PRESS NOTICE

 

29th Nov  ’04    Oxford              News   Arts      Community       Photo desk

 

Two Poets That Took On The World And Won

 

Event:  Hammer And Tongue with Buddy Wakefield, Steve Larkin + The Open Poetry Slam

Time:    Tuesday 7th December 7pm – 12

Venue: The Zodiac 192 Cowley Road, Oxford

 

The worlds top two slam poets (officially!) come head to head for the first time ever.

The venue: Oxford’s premier poetry arena Hammer And Tongue at The Zodiac.

The date: Tuesday Dec 7th 8pm.

 

There are only three International Slam Champion Titles up for grabs in the ever- widening world of Slam Poetry (competitive performance poetry) one in The USA, one in Europe and one in Canada.  Between the two guests at this month's Hammer And Tongue they hold all three.

 

Buddy Wakefield from Seattle USA, successfully defended his World Championship title at the 2004 International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and earlier in the year won the 2004 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion held in North Carolina.  Wakefield is also the 2003 Seattle Poetry Grand Slam Champion.  Buddy is known for delivering raw, rounded, high vibration performances of humour and heart while shifting social paradigms and assaulting cross-cultural barriers. (Check www.buddywakefield.com)

Local boy done good Steve Larkin is the co-founder of Hammer And Tongue.  Steve was invited to compete at The Canadian Spoken Word Olympics and returned with the title of International Slam Champion having beaten off stiff competition from the likes of US National Slam Champion Mike McGee.

Steve has been described as “Leeds’ hybrid answer to Spike Millighan and Eminem”, “Poetry at it’s glittering rawest” (vanguard-online) and “an activist who cares passionately about his community, and who uses street lyricism to jump across a range of contemporary issues” (Isis Magazine).  He has been a performance poet for ten years, the last two years being based in East Oxford.  (www.stevelarkin.com)

 

The event sees another open slam competition (a slam is a democratic live poetry competition where artists are given three minutes on a microphone, a lot of love from the audience and are then scored on an Olympic style scoring method by 5 randomly selected judges).  Previous Hammer And Tongue slam champions have gone on to perform at Festivals such as Womad and Glastonbury, the first eight people to sign up at the door get their chance.

 

From humble roots working from a basement of a bar on the Cowley Road, Hammer And Tongue has grown in size and significant so much so that it has become hundred’s of people’s monthly fix of inspiring and exciting words.  The poetry seen here has been an inspiring orgy of aural delights set to a hip-hop and world music sound scape.  It is a place where new and improving poetic performers cut their teeth in front of a large and loving Oxford crowd of poetry lovers.  With the introduction of an MC open mike led by Passion FM’s DJ kid Fury the event has opened its doors to its hip hop cousins of spoken word.

 

 

Promoter Jim Thomas said “I can’t wait for this gig.  I’ve travelled round the world looking for the best poets, Buddy Wakefield is just that and we are elated that we have him here.  He will entertain, he will educate and he will inspire any person that walks through that door on the 7th whether they thought they liked poetry or not, and this is a great occasion to see our own Steve Larkin perform for the first time since taking that trophy in Canada.  Steve is obviously just this guy to me and to see him progress over the last few years towards achieving his dream has been fantastic to watch.  This is without doubt an event not to be missed”

 

Hammer And Tongue is a community organisation as well as a club night.  Their aims are to take promising and keen amateurs and help them along their way to being great artists, running workshops like the one at Fusion Arts on the 6th of December (7:30 – 9:30) which is an introduction to writing and performing slam poetry, and taking their skills into schools and prisons, aiming to include as many members of the community as they can.  By doing this they are staging a mini revolution right here in Oxford.

 

Mark Gwynne Jones a prominent figure in the UK’s live poetry revival said “Hammer And Tongue must be the best community-orientated gigs in Britain, they have created a living breathing monster of poetry, where else can you stage dive at a poetry gig?

 

 ENDS

 

Note to editors

1.      Hammer And Tongue will take place on the first Tuesday of every month (except January) at The Zodiac, 192 Cowley Road, Oxford.  Doors open 7pm, showcase and slam 8 – 11, DJ’s and MC’s till 12am. £6 / £4 conc.

2.      Details of coming events and workshops can be found at web: www.hammerandtongue.org

3.      For photos of slam activity or the performers see http://poeticdream.com/photo.htm, visit www.buddywakefield.com, www.stevelarkin.com or contact Hammer And Tongue.

4.      Recent feature of Hammer And Tongue in Isis Magazine can be found at http://isis.ospl.org/?issue=MT-2004-1&article=11

5.      For more information call 01865 200550, email poetry@hammerandtongue.org,