Inspiration

Tonight I went with a friend, by chance really, to 'Sam Brown's DJ night with Chanje Kunda at the Iguana Bar on Manchester Road in Chorlton as part of Chorlton Arts Festival.
The warmth (not from the heating) in the room grew and grew. Smiling faces, colourful dresses, rhymtic movements, words, words, words.
Poetry that wasn't about blah but that passionately spoke of the world, people, the world we live in, want to, have done, continue to do. About women not prepared to be used as bodies, that we have more to offer, that we want to use our thoughts and our minds and spirits.
About language and bankers about love and old style courting. And love. And politics. And love.

The movement of the lyrics and lines and verses flowed through the spoken words and moving bodies.
Songs exploring breath and sound and emotion. A harmonica and heartache. And joy throughout everything. A joy in the words and sharing. Everything flowed outwards nothing was taken back. Beautiful.

All the performers shared their words with facial expression, body ripples and lifts, eye contact, smiles, pauses, silence, sound and meticulous articulation. We heard the cleverness of the ideas and the rhymes, the passion of the emotion and the humour of the predicaments and the pain of the human condition.

And Chanje Kunda gave us her poetry and song and held the evening together, telling people they'd been on long enough, get off, calling people to the open mic and ending with a song. One Voice. She is on tour. Hip hop, reggae and rap. I've learnt a lot tonight.
Thank you to the Iguana Bar for hosting this event. Thank you to Sue for suggesting it. I feel inspired as a writer and a human being and a woman.