PEACE, LOVE AND ANARCHY
A tribute concert to Benjamin Zephaniah
An evening of music and spoken word poetry celebrating the life and works of the late poet.
Featuring 67xNaked Jazz Band (from Finland and UK) and special guests.
Thursday April 25 at 7.30pm
Tickets £8 and £6 concessions.
67xNaked are one of Finland’s most exciting jazz bands combining skill and crafted musicianship with inspiring musical, verbal and theatrical improvisation.
The band features: Philip Holm, contra bass; Tomi Kettunen, guitar; Alm Er Gnista, percussion, spoken word poetry and improvised theatre; and Jimbino Vegan, clarinet, sax and vocals.
Philip Holm is the call-up bass player for the world renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and is a member of several cutting-edge folk and jazz bands in Finland and Scandinavia.
Tomi Kettunen is one of Finland’s top living jazz guitarists and the main organiser behind the Helsinki gypsy jazz scene.
Alm Er Gnista is a politician, activist and winner of the 2018 National Swedish poetry slam competition – he mixes improvised jazz with poetry and performance.
Jimbino Vegan is known in Harwich for helping set up the Wash Your Hands community band during the Covid lockdown. He currently lives and works as clarinetist with some of the worlds’ best jazz musicians in New Orleans.
With Special Guest
Kadija George Sesay is a Sierra Leonean/British scholar and literary activist. She is the Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, where she commissions anthologies, such as Glimpse, a Black British speculative fiction anthology. She is the editor of several other anthologies and the founder/publisher of SABLE LitMag. She has published poetry, short stories and essays, the latest is in New Daughters of Africa. Her poetry collection is Irki; her forthcoming collection, The Modern Pan-Africanist’s Journey. She is co-founder of Mboka Festival of Arts Culture and Sport in The Gambia and founder of the ‘AfriPoeTree’ app. She is on the board of African Studies Association (UK) and chair of Yaram Arts. She has judged several writing competitions and is the resident judge for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. She has received awards and fellowships for her work in the creative arts including an honorary doctorate from Goldsmiths University.
And Compere
Sarah Davies has lived in Essex all her life, moving to Harwich in 2013. She is a regular volunteer for the Electric Palace. She first met Benjamin Zephaniah through mutual friends in Forest Gate in 1998. She continued to meet Benjamin both socially and professionally through her work at Tower Hamlets Summer University, later Futureversity, a youth charity of which Benjamin was a Patron. The charity won many awards during Sarah’s tenure and Benjamin took part in a number of award ceremonies and donated hand written poetry for auction. Sarah is delighted to compere the event.
Sarah is good friends with Kadija George and Kadija was working on a book titled Black Radical: The Political Poetry of Black Britain, with Benjamin when he died in December.