NYLON Comes to Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival

Featuring Lemn Sissay and Salena Godden for the UK, and Kwame Dawes, Ugochi Nwaogwugwu and Jive Poetic from the USA, Apples and Snakes will explore identity, social justice and the complexities of human nature in an eclectic mix of performances at the Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival. The evening will be hosted by rap artist BREIS and the poets will be accompanied by a house band under the musical direction of musician, singer and songwriter Renato Paris, who is a key member of two-time MOBO award-winning Moses Boyd Exodus.  

British poet, performer and broadcaster Lemn Sissay OBE FRSL, and English poet, author, activist and broadcaster Salena Godden will join forces with a trio of US based poet activists in the finale of Apples and Snakes 40th Anniversary celebrations. Ugochi Nwaogwugwu is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary creative whose band, African Soul Ensemble, was named Best African Entertainer in 2005 and 2022 by Chicago Music Awards. Poet and DJ, Jive Poetic, has collected grand slam championship titles internationally and is the founder of Insurgent Poets Society, co-founder of Soundbites Poetry Festival, and hosts the open slam at Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Kwame Dawes is a poet and author of many books including Nebraska, Bivouac and City of Bones: A Testament.  

NYLON is part of Speak Up Newcomer, a youth outreach and public engagement programme which aims to harness the creative skills of gifted US poet activists to inspire and empower citizens from across the UK to realise the power of their own voice, to affect social change and explore the themes of social justice and racial equity. It is supported by a grant from the United States Department of State, the first time that Apples and Snakes has been funded in this way, and which will in turn hopefully enable the future development of relationship between US & UK poet activists. The programme will be delivered in partnership with Young Identity in Manchester. 

Lisa Mead, Artistic Director of Apples and Snakes said “There has always been a strong connection between the US & UK spoken word poetry scenes, so we are delighted that through the support of the US Embassy we are able to create this unique event to end our 40th year celebrations. The NYLON event will also launch the Speak Up Newcomer programme, which will enable us to work with more US poets over the coming months enabling younger poets to be inspired by our friends from across the pond!”  

Apples and Snakes is England’s leading spoken word poetry organisation and exists to support poets at all stages of their careers. An Arts Council funded National Portoflio Organisation based at the Albany Centre in Deptford, it has been a registered charity since 1986 after being started by a group of poets in 1982 in a room above a pub. Since then it has worked with Lemn Sissay, Polarbear, Kae Tempest, Benjamin Zephaniah, Michael Rosen, Jackie Kay, Caleb Femi and Hollie McNish, to name just a few. It is proud to have worked in partnership with a number of organisations, including BAC, the Southbank Centre, Rich Mix, Tate, Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Penguin Random House, Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Hull City of Culture, Roundhouse, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, RSC, Arc Stockton, The Royal Court, #Merkybooks, Sky Arts and the BBC.   

The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre occupying a prominent riverside location that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to six Resident Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Orchestra) 

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