Books & Spoken Word
Hammer & Tongue ft. Desree
Monthly open poetry slam night hosted by Hammer & Tongue. This month’s headline act is Desree who will be supported by Callum Wensley and Josie Alford.
Desree is a spoken word poet and writer based in London. She is an advocate for community arts, theatre, and youth projects, and founded a night called #OMN where she performed spoken word on stage for the first time.
Also, a spoken word educator, Desree uses writing spoken word and poetry to engage disaffected young people in spaces such as classrooms, libraries and even the occasional Nandos.
As well as coming second in Hammer & Tongue Slam 2018, Desree has featured at events such as Empoword, Word Up, Extra Second London, HeadSpin, SpeakEasy, Word On The Street, Heaux Noire; the Open Mic night for WoC by WoC, Mind Over Matter, and Greenbelt Festival in Kettering alongside World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker, Young People’s Laureate for London Caleb Femi, award winning British poet and playwright Toby Campion and habitual slam winner Vanessa Kissuule to name a few. As well as headlining events up and down the UK, Desree delivered a TEDx talk at Bath University titled Poetry and Self-Esteem; Finding Truth with Words.
Desree’s self-published book is I Find My Strength In Simple Things.
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 10 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 Bristol one is in June), 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.
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