London Word Festival is a pioneering, annual celebration of words, text and language; daring in its approach to cross-artform programming, commissioning new work and exploring non-traditional spaces.
Established in 2007 and based in London’s vibrant East End, the Festival has featured a wide range of artists from the fields of music, literature, comedy, theatre and live art.
We’ve paired cult US slam poet Saul Williams with spoken word hip-hop duo dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip; we’ve transformed a medieval tower in Hackney into a ghostly sound field with leftfield author Iain Sinclair; we’ve premiered Edward Larrikin’s first play in a Victorian music hall, instigated collaborative ballad printing in Stoke Newington, and conducted stand-up experiments in live blogging. Our 2009 commission Inua Ellams’ The 14th Tale won an Edinburgh Fringe First and transferred to the National Theatre in February 2010.
The 2010 festival demonstrated our renewed focus on commissioning and producing unique events: we commissioned folktronica musician Leafcutter John to rewire Basil Bunting’s Modernist poem ‘Briggflatts’; developed a jazz-spoken-word-graphic-novel hybrid show, Avant! Noir; and produced the poetry-film-music ‘play of voices’ Shad Thames, Broken Wharf. With comedian Josie Long we produced One Hundred Days to Make Me a Better Person, an explosion of online public creativity from over 1000 self-betterers of all shapes and sizes spread out across the world.
Founded by Tom Chivers, Sam Hawkins and Marie McPartlin on a shoe-string budget but with a lot of good will, in 2009 the Festival received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Breakthrough Award. We are based in Toynbee Studios.
Contact us
Proposals, &c. should be emailed to info@londonwordfestival.com or sent to:
London Word Festival
22 Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial Street
London E1 6AB
Tel. 020 7375 0121
Press
Visit our press page, or for direct media enquiries email Sam Hawkins: sam@londonwordfestival.com
Opportunities
London Word Festival is currently recruiting. More information.
