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Level Up, Season Four, Episode One
Birmingham Rep Door
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SOME eight
years ago I stumbled into the Old Crown at Digbeth on a January evening
to take part in a poetry slam.
The usual suspects were there, the usual topics
were there. From amidst the fourteen or so performers, towards the end,
a slight young female student, hesitantly took her turn – and triumphed.
One of the great things about poetry events is
their sociability. Everyone talks freely to everyone else, it is an
inclusive community. We started chatting. She was a Brummie girl, a
student. She was nervous and self- effacing. She also came alive on
stage.
Her poetry was personal, she told of
relationships, home and heart break. The things of which many young
women might write, but she was different. She had this ability to draw
you in, to connect. The girls “got” her, the boys fancied her, and the
mums and dads wanted to be her mum or dad. She had an Everyman appeal.
Her name was Jodi Ann Bickley.
In the intervening years I have seen her perform
several times, each time, impossibly, improving on the last. I
originally described her thus: “Her writing is fey, kitchen sink,
heartfelt and vulnerable, capturing the angst of young adulthood. She
transcends her immediate peers, and reaches out to those who were young
once also.” And she has lived a lot of life in those years since I first
met her.
In 2011 she contracted
encephalitis, and further complications, from a tick bite that left her
unable to walk, write or talk. In 2014 she was in the Sunday Times
bestseller lists, and on national television radio and newspapers as the
author of the hugely successful One
Million Lovely Letters- having regained
her speech and mobility. Her poetry had also seen her hanging out with
Ed Sheeran and collaborating with dubstep heavy weight
Skream. Oh, and she is now soon to be a mother. What an excellent choice
to open season four of Level Up.
Level Up prides itself on promoting the best of
young British talent, a vehicle supported by national poetry organisers
Apples and Snakes and local hipsters Beatfreeks. The past three seasons
have seen the likes of Matt Windle, Dreadlock Alien and Hollie McNish in
the spotlight, this season’s roster looks no less impressive.
Headliner: Jodi Ann Bickley
Season 3 was hosted by the assured and urban(e)
Laura Deadicoat, lean, and with a sharp stage presence, she is a tough
act to follow. But followed she must be, and she generously handed over
to her successor for Level Up Season 4 to 17 years old acting student,
Lauren Williams.
Lauren was 9th Young Birmingham Poet Laureate,
2013-2014. Bubbly, giggling and with an impish, waspish sense of fun,
she has taken a pivotal role in the booking of artists She works
alongside Prime Poetry, comprising Callum and Melissa Bates, siblings
who will be facilitating a series of free workshops throughout
Birmingham to accompany the main shows.
Supporting artist was
Caleb Femi, a Nigerian born Londoner, a teacher and poet, whose poem and
film Children of the Narm
draws on the experiences of the underclass in the capital’s suburb
Peckham, the Peckham of Damiola Taylor, not
Only Fools and Horses
,whose recurring theme is consanguinity.
By chance we found ourselves seated next to each
other. His life story is inspiring enough, emerging from the feral
poverty of an urban sink council estate to go on to win a place at Queen
Mary University and teach English at a secondary school.
However as he started
to perform his further qualities as a communicator and wordsmith
emerged. There was no hectoring defiant angry diatribe, instead gently
cushioned observations with ten ton weights, epitomised by the popularly
titled Children of the Narm
(he doesn’t give titles to his own writing).
I was deeply frustrated by the brief time he was
allowed on stage, but however long he had been given would not have been
enough for me. I found consanguinity in his work- and I suspect that
would have been enough for him. Watch out for this man.
Headliner Jodi Ann
ambled on stage from her place in the audience oblivious to the stardust
on her shoulders. She touched on a Radio 1 commission, and was
ridiculously modest about the success of
One Million Lovely Letters
which currently boasts a team of twenty four, dealing with a backlog of
13,000 letter requests. Hold Tight
was as good as ever, (Bob) Marley and
Me as heart-warming. Her line “tears
are scars that remind us we fought hard” an aural by-line for her
performance which ended with an improbable exhortation for everyone to
“get pregnant!” Only British decency prevented an orgy.
The open mic slots were
as eclectic as ever. Oakley Flanagan evoked the spirit of ancient Greece
to declare You are the Gods tonight,
Flora started off with cruelty to cats and hamsters but ended bemoaning
an “unprotected heart”, Lorna Meehan added class and style with her
“dancing”.
Beatfreeks have done a
fantastic job in creating, and then sustaining, this event series.
Birmingham Rep are to be commended for affording them the space to give
credibility and gravitas to a form too often relegated to backstreet
pubs and cafes. Level Up runs monthly, starting at 7pm, dates and
headliners to be found on the beatfreeks website:
http://www.beatfreeks.com/#beatfreeks
Gary Longden
24-09-15
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