Rhymes Won't Wait

Have you ever been excited by spoken word? Do you think you’d be enlightened by gritty lyrics that speak of the despair of the sex trade, or the harsh reality of the bombing of Omagh? Open Magazine was exclusively invited to the rehearsal of Rhymes Won’t Wait, a performance encompassing the works of award winning poets.

2009 UK Slam Champion Holly McNish and Dean Atta, who was recently commissioned to write for the Gay Icons dinner at the National Gallery, will be taking part alongside Deanna Rodger, Catherine Brogan and producer Sabrina Mahfouz. Together they will be mentoring over 10 emerging talents also taking part in the show.

A mixture of excitement and tension is in the air at Sound, as the artists rehearse their parts with a good dose of theatricality, adding an edge to the convention of stand up poetry. Mahfouz admits there is a difficulty in artists giving away their words to be read by others, how can a work be entirely personal to one artist be interpreted by another?

There are four separate performances, each composed of excerpts of different poems written by the artists, accompanied by music courtesy of Aruba Red and DJ Halo. The themes are all distinctly political and the wordplay is fierce – “Do you swallow? Doesn’t this make you feel hollow?”  Mahfouz rhymes on First Night a story about prostitution.

Mahfouz’s involvement with Time Won’t Wait - an organisation that produces festivals, exhibitions and theatre productions encouraging social inclusion and community participation – made the show possible. The organisation has previously produced workshops designed to help young people with communication and presentation skills, and introduce them to the arts.

All the pieces performed in Rhymes Won’t Wait will honour the charities involved – the best known of which are Love Music Hate Racism and Traid. Aside from these the ethos of Object, an organisation that challenges the sexual objectification of women in the media, humanitarian NGO MAG international, and PEN who defend freedom of expression, are all evident throughout the show.

Whilst the poets involved in Rhymes Won’t Wait have all taken very different paths towards poetry, tonight they display a passion and eagerness to get their message across. Despite the lack of time to rehearse together, upon asking Mahfouz, Mcnish and actress/writer Camila Fiori how they feel about Friday’s performance they exclaim almost in unison “excited!”


Rhymes Won’t Wait will take place at Sound, 1 Leicester Square, WC2H 7NA on Friday 20th November from 7pm – 10pm, £3 in advance from http://rhymeswontwait £5 on the door.

For more on info go to www.timewontwait.com