Karen & Malika @ Poetry Library

On Monday I pootled-off to the South Bank Poetry Library to hear poet Malika Booker in conversation with poet Karen McCarthy. They are long-time writing buddies of each other.

It was such a special setting because the performance space (above) was part of an installation and the audience sat on cushions (IKEA, I have the same ones) and on the steps with the poets. So there was no divide between artist and audience. The lighting was dimmed (hence blurred photo) and the atmosphere intimate. Malika had handed out lines from her poems prior to the event and audience members spoke about what a particular line meant to them and then Malika would read the poem itself.

Karen’s questions were perfectly pitched and Malika interspersed reading her poems with stories about her early childhood in Guyana, her family,  coming to England when she was 11 and her writing and touring life. Malika grew up with women who told stories and now she’s a great storyteller herself. At the end Karen also read a few of her poems, beautifully.

It was a smashing event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both poets have recently published chapbooks. Karen’s is The Worshipful Company of Pomegranate Slicers, which was a New Statesman ‘Book of the Year’ Karen’s poetry can be quite wonderfuly zany, quirky and then she’s suddenly writing about Pinochet or Auschwitz. She’s also had a play Dido produced by BBC Radio 4 and edited two important black women’s writing anthologies: Bittersweet (Women’s Press) and Kin (Serpent’s Tail). Check her out on http://www.blaglady.com

Malika works as both a poet and storyteller and her collection is called Breadfruit (delicious breadfruit cakes were laid on for us that evening). Malika’s poetry is definitely in the storytelling tradition, very Caribbean-centred, and drawingon her childhood, Guyanese politics, family history, relationships. She’s had two plays produced, Catwalk, at the Tricycle and Unplanned — both of which toured the UK. She also tours internationally and had a fellowship in Delhi recently.

 

(Malika’s jewellery is amazing)