Lit Up Associate Artists

As part of the Lit Up Showcase & Conference Series, the Live Literature Consortium invited applications from spoken word artists to become Associates of the Consortium and work more closely with one of the member venues in the development of their work.

The eight Associates Artists were selected and appointed In January 2008:

Steven Camden aka Polarbear (The Albany)
Justin Coe (Gulbenkian)
Kate Fox (ARC)
Maxwell Golden (The Albany & Merlin Theatre)
Charlie Jordan (mac)
Kirstie Pelling, Beth Broomby & Zosia Wand (Brewery Arts Centre)
Steve Tasane (Norden Farm)
Yusra Warsama (Contact)

Lit Up 2009-10 Associate Artists

Polar Bear
has performed spoken word sets from Bookslam to the British Library, Ronnie Scotts to the Jazz Cafe, Contact and the Albany. His word has been showcased on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb and Bespoken Word on BBC Radio 4. His show “If I cover my nose you can’t see me” was co-commissioned by Arts Council England and Birmingham REP. He will work with The Albany to produce a poetic screenplay for one voice.

Justin Coe
is an accomplished performance poet with appeal for both children and adults and is the founder of live literature organisation Don’t Feed The Poets Productions. He is currently working on a National Tour of The Jumble Book, a show about a dyslexic boy’s struggle at school. He will work with the Gulbenkian on a show which will play with personal reflections on, and celebrations of, fatherhood.

Kate Fox
has a slot as Poet in Residence on Radio 4’s Saturday Live writing satirical and topical poems. She has contributed to BBC2’s Daily Politics show and is a regular columnist for Radio 4’s “You and Yours”. She runs her own series of live shows, Hyperlexic. Kate will work with ARC to produce a spoken word exploration of the word “Engagement” from a variety of personal perspectives. The show will mix spoken word with stand up.

Maxwell Golden
is a writer and performer who has supported some of the biggest names in Hip Hop and Drum & Bass on UK tours. His work has aired on Radio 1 and 1Xtra and he has won awards for his Slam poetry. He is an Emerging Artist in Residence at the Royal Festival Hall. Maxwell will work with both the Albany and Merlin to create a comedic piece that follows one man’s journey from Cornwall to London via the Hip Hop & Grime music scene.

Charlie Jordan
is an emerging spoken word artist from the West Midlands. As a broadcaster she has presented on stations including Radio 1, Capital Fm, LBC, Radio 2 and Smooth Radio and is now using her passion for words in poetry. A former Birmingham Poet Laureate, she is an artist in residence at WBA FC for the Apples & Snakes 'My Place or Yours' project. This led to a performance in her football shirt at The Big Chill, instead of the usual festival fairy wings!

For Lit Up, Charlie has been writing her first show, Buddhism and Ben & Jerrys exploring how to recover from heartbreak without resorting to hitting the bottle and hitting on anybody standing near the bar... For more information, visit www.charliejordan.co.uk

Kirstie Pelling, Zosia Wand and Beth Broomby
Kirstie Pelling lives and writes in Cumbria. She has 20 years of writing for publication and broadcast and has had two plays broadcast on BBC Radio as a member of Red Sky Writers group. She won BBC Radio’s The Crack short play competition. In partnership with the Brewery, Kirstie will work with Beth Broomby and Zosia Wand, three established women writers, on a piece which will explore the gap that exists between expectation and reality.

Zosia Wand took an MA in Creative Writing in 1999. Since then she has adopted two daughters and had five radio plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has also written poems, is working on a novel and a stage play, runs workshops, mentors new writers and runs literature events in her home town of Ulverston.

Beth Broomby is a writer and press officer with a background in newspaper journalism. She is a freelance screenwriter and mentor with Signal Films, Barrow-in-Furness and has contributed to radio plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Cumbria and BBC Radio Lancashire. A member of Cumbria-based writing group Red Sky, she lives in Kendal and is working on her first novel.

Steve Tasane
is a well established voice on the spoken word scene and was recently Poet-in-Residence at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill for Grayson Perry’s Unpopular Culture Exhibition. In 2009 Steve presented a national screening/performance tour of ‘Talkies!’, a pop poetry video album, a sample of which can be viewed through this link: Click here to watch the video. Steve has toured his show KLEPTO, has published a collection of poetry, Bleeding Heart (Gecko) and was a founder member of the performance poetry group, Atomic Lip. Steve will work in partnership with Norden Farm to develop a show including multi-voiced poems, influenced by the sounds and spirit of punk, funk, reggae, hip hop and soul. For more info, visit: www.stevetasane.com

Yusra Warsama
is a 25 year old emerging spoken word artist from Manchester. She has previously worked on Contact’s spoken word and theatre projects with young people. Yusra will be working with Contact on a spoken word performance which explores her background as a young Somali woman with a refusal to be categorized.