LUU Spoken Word Society’s Poetry Showcase

Coming off the back of two successful poetry slams last year, Leeds Uni’s Spoken Word Society held a poetry showcase on Friday 2^nd November.

The Friday night showcase was held as collaboration with the Leeds University Acapella Society and Leeds Young Authors, an organisation championing and developing local creativity from young artists.

After a brief but entertaining introduction from the LUU Acapella society, spoken word kicked off, with an entertaining and sharp vocal performance from DMack.

This was followed by an interesting act from The Northern School of Contemporary Dance’s Akim. His fusion of words with his own expertise of choreography helped to forge poetry, conjuring strong images of dance.  Next, Leeds University philosophy student Amir added a welcome Yorkshire accent to the mix, adding thoughtful but compelling rhymed poetry.

Representing Leeds Young Authors was Jamal Gerald, who has international poetry slam success under his belt. It wasn’t hard to see why he was selected for the UK, with his deeply personal poems and their powerful delivery being one of the highlights of the night. This was followed by a refreshing musical segment from Ingi Hughes, who portrayed impressive guitar ability and soothing vocals.

Also from Leeds Young Authors was Saju. The gripping part of the act was his capacity to comfortably portray the role of a comic outside of his performance, but that of a deeply serious poet within, covering topics such as freedom and the passing of friends.

The most powerful spoken word performance of the night came from Tru K, with what was remarkably his first ever stage recital. His poetry took the form of rap, delivering witty and fast-paced social commentary with great confidence.

Closing the showcase was an authoritative performance from Leeds-local Fatima Eljack. After accomplishing her own book of published poems at 11, Fatima (now 18) performed at the acclaimed Headingley Literature Festival earlier this year. Directly dealing with current political issues, Fatima was able to express a youthful reflection through her technically refined poetry.