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Power Lines

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Series about the world of spoken word poetry and how it is gaining popularity in the UK.

Poets and performers explore the escalating popularity of spoken word poetry and see how it has become the breeding ground for a whole new generation of writers.

Power Lines: Series 1

Power Lines: Series 1: Politics

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Politics

06/11/2017

Series 1

BBC Radio 4 - Power Lines, Series 1, Politics

The dynamic and burgeoning world of UK spoken word poetry.

Sabrina Mahfouz and Inua Ellams explore the escalating popularity of spoken word and how it has become the breeding ground for a whole new generation of writers.

A series about how the dynamic world of spoken word poetry is thriving in communities across the whole of the UK.

In three programmes, Power Lines explores the escalating popularity of spoken word among audiences who have traditionally avoided poetry altogether. Through politics, identity and place, presenters Sabrina Mahfouz and Inua Ellams look at how spoken word has become the breeding ground for a whole new generation of writers who are changing poetry in the UK. They cross the country talking to poets from Manchester, Huddersfield, Bury, Edinburgh, Bristol and Wrexham, on boats, in forests, theatres, parks and pubs, challenging the assertion that spoken word is, as poet Joelle Taylor puts it, "the dumb cousin of 'real' poetry". 

Programme One: Politics 
Poet and playwright Inua Ellams talks to spoken word poet Zia Ahmed who deals with his frustration with racism by 'speaking it out'. Peter Bearder explains how some protest poets are being drawn into mainstream politics through the Labour Party. And he finds 23 year old Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan whose slam competition winning poem has been viewed by over two million people online. 

The poems featured in the programme are:

JJ Bola "I Found Hip Hop"
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan " This Is Not A Humanising Poem"
Zia Ahmed "Home"
Joelle Taylor "Everything You Have Ever Lost" and "The Correct Spelling of My Name"
Pete (the Temp) Bearder "Manifesto for a Revolutionary Poetic" 

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