Hammer & Tongue Slam featuring Ben Mellor with support from Justina Kehinde

Order tickets via Eventbrite: http://htcmarch14.eventbrite.com/?aff=efbevent
Time for the next open round of the Cambridge Hammer & Tongue 2013-14 season… Spoken word artistry and competitive mayhem. What more could you want?

This is your chance to become part of the spoken word slam brilliance that has graced this here fair city since 2009, in the warm and wonderful surroundings of fabulous venue The Fountain. Sign up as one of the eight to compete for a place in the Regional Final next September, become a judge, or just dive in and soak up the atmosphere and talent on display. And some great beer.

Tickets are a silly £5 full price/ £3.50 concessions/ £2 for slammers early bird (from now until 3 days before the event unless the batch (approx. half the advance tickets available) sell out)/ £6/ £4.50/ £2.50 otherwise in advance and a still frankly ludicrous £7.50/ £6/ £3 on the door. Doors are at 7:30pm; kick-off at 8pm. There’s also a bar upstairs… 😀 (Please note that “The Loft” part of The Fountain is, unfortunately, not currently accessible to wheelchair users – please contact us for further details.)

Ben Mellor is an award-winning slam poet (BBC Radio 4 Slam Champion 2009, Dike Omeje Slam Poetry Award 2008), writer and actor who has performed his work at theatres, festivals, schools, colleges and prisons nationally and internationally.

He has co-created numerous solo and collaborative spoken word, music and theatre shows. The most recent of which, Anthropoetry, created with musician and sound designer Dan Steele under the imaginative moniker Mellor & Steele has been a big hit at Edinburgh, Adelaide and Perth fringe festivals and is touring the UK in 2014.

Ben has produced two poetry collections, Light Made Solid and Anthropoetry, both published by Flapjack Press. Each have accompanying spoken word albums with sound and music produced by Dan Steele and Adam Menczykowski. He has featured on BBC Radio 4, 4 Extra, the World Service and numerous poetry podcasts and has had poetry, fiction and articles published by Poetry Review, Route, Corporatewatch, Puppywolf, Tongue Fu and Inc Magazine.

He also performs spoken word, beatbox and vocals in the band/theatre company Geddes Loom with singer-songwriter and cellist, Léonie Higgins and Dan Steele. They are currently creating their first full length theatre piece together, Prelude to a Number, which has been commissioned by Routes North and will premiere in February 2014.

“A pure undiluted talent. Concentrated” – Lemn Sissay, MBE

“An award-winning poet of political perspicacity and no little wit” – Bookslam, London’s best literary nightclub

“Simply one of the UK’s most charismatic spoken word artists” – Phrased & Confused

To find out more, visit http://www.benmellor.net

And he’ll be supported by Justina Kehinde – a Cambridge University student with rare drive and vision. Second of twins, youngest of eight, passionate about justice and the world’s social state, Justina was the first runner-up in the Hammer & Tongue Cambridge Regional Final 2013. http://deathofthewriter.wordpress.com

Hosted by Fay Roberts, a Cambridge-based poet, musician, and unrepentant geek.

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Fancy Slamming?

The rules for H&T slams are as follows:

Slammers are chosen at random from the sign-up list to perform – spoken word only, no music, no props. Each competitor has 3 minutes from the time they start talking on the mic. After 30 seconds’ grace period, they start losing points (1 point for every 10 seconds!). At the end, they’re given points out of 10 by 5 judges chosen from the audience, while the top and bottom scores are removed to ensure fairness. The slammer gets a score out of 30, and the competition moves on.

The winner of that evening’s competition goes through to the Regional Final (the Cambridge one tends to be held in September), and the winner (and runner-up) of the Regional Final goes through to the National Final. The winner of the National Final gets crowned H&T National Slam Champion and can then go on to compete in things like the Radio 4 slam championships, the international slam championships, etc.

Aspirant competitors can sign up either by rocking up as doors open on the night (typically 7:30pm for an 8pm start) or by booking slam tickets in advance online. You can “express an interest” by emailing your name in advance, but that only gets you on the reserve list until you pay on the door.

There are no limitations on style of poetry – a typical slam will see sonnets, blank verse, hip-hop, rhyming iambic pentametric couplets and more all cross the stage – and we’ve seen winners who’ve read their poems out from the written version (paper, kindle, phone, beermat) so, while there are advantages to learning your pieces off by heart, it’s not a requirement!

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