For the fourth edition of "Poems on the Underground", the Warsaw Spoke’n’Word festival is going to go beyond the capital of Poland. The event, which launched in Warsaw earlier in the summer, goes on to visit six European cities: London, Paris, Madrid, Kiev, Beijing and Tokyo
Each capital hosts a local version of the Spoke’n’Word festival, where renowned Polish spoken word performers are accompanied by local poetry stars who take part in a poetry slam. In Kiev it took place as part of the Polish Poetry on the Underground series.
Spoke’n’Word on tour also features performance poetry and slam poetry workshops conducted by Polish poets.
Workshop applications should be sent to: workshops@poetryfrompoland.com
Polish Poets Participating in Spoke'n'Word
Bohdan Piasecki
Bohdan is a performance poet and slam host born in Warsaw, Poland, currently based in the UK, where he has finished his PhD in poetry translation. Before moving to England, Bohdan started the first poetry slam series in his country, introducing Poles to spoken word and creating a platform for a whole new generation of performers. Bohdan has travelled around Europe (with some forays into North America) with his poetry; he represented Poland at the 2007 Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris (and was the only European poet to reach the finals), proudly wore the title of the 2008 Hammer & Tongue Oxford Season Slam Champion, and was an artist in residence at the European Poetry Slam Days in Berlin in 2009. He has finished touring with the international project – Smoke & Mirrors – that combines poetry and music.
wordra.in
Bohdan Piasecki YOUTUBE
Weronika Lewandowska
Slam artist, poet and performer, whose poems go beyond language barriers. In 2006, she proved that at the International Slam!Revue in Berlin, where she entertained and hypnotised an international audience for the first time. Since then, her melodious Slavic poems reonated in Warsaw, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Augsburg, Praga, Brno, Turin, Paris, London, Madrid and Amheim. She regularly collaborates with plan.kton, a Warsaw-based audiovisual project. In 2009, her performance with plan.kton opened the 1st European Slam Meeting in Berlin, hitherto the largest gathering of slammers in Europe. She is currently working on a multimedia poetry volume she plans to publish with plan.kton.
weronika-lewandowska.tumblr.com
Weronika Lewandowska YOUTUBE
Grzegorz Bruszewski
Bruszewski, aka Estragon, is a sociology graduate, journalist and slam artist born in 1981. He is curious of the world and open-minded, but also cynical. A performer since 2004, he became interested in slam poetry long before the genre reached Poland, mainly due to The Roots recordings with a Philadephia-based poet Ursula Rucker or films such as “Love Jones” and “Slam”. He organizes slam poetry workshops together with Wojciech Cichoń. In 2007, he was featured in the top 50 Warsaw activists published by Życie Warszawy newspaper. His international performances include the Berlin Slam!Revue, Coupe Du Monde in Bobigny near Paris, as well as Great Britain, the Czech Republic or Hungary.
www.myspace.com/estragonsimpson
Grzegorz "Estragon" Bruszewski YOUTUBE
Wojtek Cichoń
Slam artist, rapper, poet and performance poetry host, born in 1983 in Elbląg, Poland. He is currently based in Warsaw. He organises the Spoke’n’Word festival, a monthly poetry slam in Warsaw and spoken word workshops. Since 2003, he has been presenting his spoken word art both in Poland and abroad (in Germany, Czech Republic, Holland, Great Britain, and Hungary). He issued 8 records with skwer.org under the moniker Kidd, co-creating such musical projects as ddekombinacja, Międzymiastowa and Osete. With his music and spoken word performances, he opened shows for such artists as Dälek, Mouse on The Keys and Beans (Anti-Pop Consortium).
wojtekidd.org
Wojtek Cichoń YOUTUBE
For more information on Poems on the Underground, see: www.poetryfrompoland.com
Date: 9th of October, 2011
Venue: Babuin Café, Kiev
Organised by: Warsaw Destination Alliance
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute