Spoken word
The latest news and comment on the spoken word
George the Poet: ‘Poetry is the artistic wing of politics’
He performed at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding and was offered an MBE before he turned 30 – but the writer is ready to head in a more radical direction
‘Art is a form of protest that leaves no blood’: Zambian poet puts African voices on the spoken-word stage
Prompted by the struggles of motherhood, Vanessa Chisakula uses her art to address women’s rights, African identity and mental health – and gives others a platform to do the same
Why rap and drill are the folk music of today
Letters: Readers respond to an editorial about the continuing use of rap and drill lyrics in courtrooms as evidence of guilt
Infinity review – strangely insubstantial family drama from Philip Glass
Singer and actor Tara Hugo delivers a series of spoken word reminiscences backed by an underwhelming score in a piece that verges on the self-indulgent and downright sentimental
Speakers Corner Quartet: Further Out Than the Edge review – flawless hymn to fusion
Australia's best new music
Kylie, Genesis Owusu and David Bridie: Australia’s best new music for June
One to watch
One to watch: Emmeline The young Yorkshire slam poet – daughter of Simon Armitage – has teamed up with ace producer Fraser T Smith on her beguiling first EP
Jews. In Their Own Words review – appalling revelations in a gallop through centuries of bigotry
Jonathan Freedland has turned 180,000 words drawn from interviews into a potent verbatim play about antisemitism and the blindspots of liberal institutions. The results feel urgent – but is its remit simply too large?
Luke Jerram: Crossings; David Batchelor: Colour Is – review
Today I Killed My Very First Bird review – a gangster’s life laid bare
Nick Cave: Seven Psalms review – yearning for mercy and grace
Cave’s grief continues in spoken-word form, with lovesick prayers – and glimmers of respite
Alexis Petridis's album of the week
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis: Seven Psalms review – intimate prayers of extreme powerA moment that changed me
A moment that changed me: I watched my mother dance in nipple tassels on TV – and my heart swelled with prideSinead O’Brien: Time Bend and Break the Bower review – a lack of imaginative verve
John Waters: False Negative review – no sacred cow is safe from the ‘sultan of sleaze’
‘It’s just love in there, it’s nuts’: freedom and verse at the Bankstown poetry slam
Australia’s biggest event of its kind returned in a raucous testament to how people can come together
Blackhaine: the bleak, brilliant Lancashire rapper-dancer hired by Kanye West
With references ranging from drug users to the Japanese avant garde, Tom Heyes has transcended a dull life in the north-west through explosive choreography and streams of consciousness
Artist and stutterer JJJJJerome Ellis: ‘So much pain comes from not feeling fully human’
George the Poet: ‘It’s easier to change the lives of offenders in prison than it is outside’
Guardian Australia's book club
Yassmin Abdel-Magied performs a new poem ahead of Guardian Australia's Book Club – videoAustralian Poetry Month: watch Yassmin Abdel-Magied perform There’s So Much I Could Write Poetry About
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