The Poetry 4 Grenfell project manifested as an immediate response to help artistically deal with the emotional aftermath of the terrifying Grenfell fire of June 2017 in the North Kensington community. Led by a Ladbroke Grove-raised professional music and dance-theatre artist and arts facilitator, it combines rap-poetry, dance and film in workshops and performances, with the aim of alleviating the pain and giving a platform to the suppressed voices in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) community since the Grenfell fire.
On Saturday 14 July at Bush Theatre, voices from the heart of the community will be reciting, singing and rapping from the Poetry 4 Grenfell - Voices from da Grove and Latimer book and film.
Kamitan Arts (a Ladbroke Grove based Non-Profit Artistic Community Company) has been volunteering since immediately after the fire offering rap-poetry workshops to those directly and indirectly affected, to help them express themselves, address their emotions and pains as well as begin to heal, as writing is indeed therapeutic.
These initial voluntary community poetry workshops are what inspired the Poetry 4 Grenfell bi-lingual book call-out a year ago. Kamitan Arts were inspired to document some of the local oral testimonies from the diverse community, with a young person filming them; this resulted in a Golden Heart Trellick Award-winning guerrilla short, ‘Poetry 4 Grenfell’ (winner of ‘Best Art Film’ at Portobello Film Festival 2017), Directed by Emmanuelle Marcel 'Ja'bbour, which will be screened at this One-Year-On show. The company had no funding for equipment, those all involved in creating the short film were mostly children, young people and elders from the Ladbroke Grove and Latimer Rd. community and those that have been affected by the tragic Grenfell fire.
Kamitan Arts are crowdfunding money to help them publish their book in time for the 14 July show and to give free copies to Grenfell survivors and families: https://www.spacehive.com/poetry-4-grenfell---voices-from-da-grove
Guest artists at the event on 14 July include: Charlotte Kelly from Soul II Soul, Alexander D Great, Pan Diva, Mama Sol, EmpresS *1, Aaron 'G' Brown, Krome, Peaky, Jaqi Loye-Browne, Danjuma and Aamasade, as well as many more contributions and collaborators from: Kids on the Green, EPIC, Touch Love Worldwide, Justice4Grenfell, Green For Grenfell, 24Hearts, Colourtrail, Portobello Novela, MTInk, GTCMP (Grenfell Tower Community Monitoring Project)
Let's immortalise our memories through the written and oral testimonies, for indeed these dear Souls will Never be Forgotten...
www.fb.com/Poetry4Grenfell
www.KamitanArts.com
@Poetry4Grenfell @KamitanArts #GrenfellOneYearOn #Poetry4Grenfell #Dance4Grenfell #KamitanArts
Ticket prices £6 (under 4’s free if sitting on partron’s lap)
Booking:
Phone 020 8743 5050
In person Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ
Online bushtheatre.co.uk
