Hip hop and poetry: Inua Ellams discusses Knight Watch
in Actors and Performers, Black Voices, Playwrights, Spoken Word
24th July 2012
BLACK VOICES: INUA ELLAMS
The acclaimed writer and spoken-word performer tells Sophie Reynolds about Knight Watch, a outdoor performance piece that takes in music, poetry and storytelling, and that tackles issues about global warming, gang warfare, art and love. Knight Watch is currently touring in London, produced by Fuel. Recorded at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 20 July 2012.
For me poetry sits somewhere between lyrics and prose, so it has to sound delicious, it has to sound natural to the ear, it has to be, after a fashion, conversational. At the same time poetry for me is heightened speech, so there’s the best of conversations strung together with as few words in between as possible.
