Something truly remarkable happened at Finchley Youth Theatre on Thursday the 16th of December. FYT hosted the youth poet collective ‘Words Apart’ for their first official gig. Every Monday night, a group of young poets would meet at the Canada Villa Youth Centre for poetry jam’s to share their own poetry and structure group pieces. Thus, Thursday’s gig was a culmination of weeks of hard work.

The event started with established poets acting as a warm up act for the young poets. With our host Argi who started of the night with his own poem. Then came New York based underground rapper ‘Hypothesis’ with his two poems, blowing away the audience with his gracious flow. Followed by poet ‘Captain of the Rant’ before Yemisi Blake performed three fantastic poems based on the youth, rites of passage and trainers!

The youth collective ‘Words Apart’ made up of young poets from the ages of 15-20 were next. Firstly the group piece which was based on Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘Dis Poetry.’ It became clear with the opening piece that the ‘Words Apart’ collective were a group of conscious young individuals.

Then each young poet shared the individual pieces one by one, Alisha Shah sharing her piece on what ‘identity’ means to her. Noran Hassan and Zeinab Mohamed’s join poem called ‘Rebellion I am’ was incredibly powerful. The talented playwright Comfort Nwabia’s poem ‘Nostalgia’ was next and it left the audience in awe.

Hip Hop artist and member of ‘Words Apart’ Seri Skay performed his track ‘Hung like a Parliament’ with acoustic. The piece was tremendously soulful and it was reminiscent of the kind of music Mos Def, the Hip Hop Legend would make. Abiha Bhatti’s poem ‘ice cube’ was a poetic puzzle with the features of an ice cube and human emotions being compared.

Tajhame ‘TJ’ Jackson’s piece called ‘my country’ was superb to say the least. TJ used his experiences of growing up in Kingston, Jamaica until the age of 9 (before moving to North London) to write this poem. I can even remember the stanza spoken in Jamaican dialect which was particularly poignant:

“U see dem yout mi a talk bout Mi av’ nuf respect fi dem cause fe dem role in a de liberation of a country that belongs to me”

Noah Mohammed and Methab Dar’s double act proved to be an ingenious concept. With two very talented young poets using complex rhyming verbatim in tandem! Adil Hossenally’s energy on stage was prevalent with his fantastic poem discussing the issues of who he is as a person.

Every single poet part of the ‘Words Apart’ collective brought their talent, energy and soul when performing each poem and this was evident through the overall success of the night. Every poet should be proud of their achievements however this is just the beginning. The poetic revolution is truly well on its way!

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