Writers Lounge

“Is it Liverpool Street station or Bank?” I asked my friend on the phone, “because TFL said Bank was the closest station.” “Google maps says Liverpool Street” she replied. I did remember the Facebook message saying Liverpool Street too and when has London transport ever been reliable. I take my chances and head to Liverpool street station to meet my friend.

We walk down Middlesex Street to the Pipeline bar. We are pretty sure we’re in the wrong place. It’s a quiet, almost empty bar, that doesn’t look at all prepared for a showcase of any sort. Just as we are about to leave, we notice a group of trendy, ‘urban’ Londoners lined up by a door in the corner of the bar. We knew we were at the right place. By this time it was 6.50pm and we queued for a couple of minutes. Then we were allowed in. We paid £6 because we arrived before 7pm. The entry fee was £8 after that.

We entered a dark candle lit basement, which had an intimate, romantic feel to it. We had a choice to sit at the tables at the back of the venue or the rows of seats that were closer to the stage. We wanted our money’s worth and this wasn’t a comedy club so I knew we’d be fine. Closer to the stage it was. We were surrounded by sociable, fashion conscious, young Londoners, who I assumed were mostly Christian. The event started virtually on time or actually on time depending on your watch.

Our host was M.y.M. A funny, bubbly and charismatic host. She owned the stage. She did the usual ritual; making a new couple feel awkward, embarrassing a young man sat alone and the expected enquiring of the demographic “anybody from North…South…East”.

The first act was a young man from The Roundhouse Poetry Collective called Toby. He did a very short poem/spoken word piece just to confirm we were actually in a writer’s lounge it seems.

Next, were the talented trio Lovelive6958. Whose talent as well as spoken word included beat boxing, singing, and playing the guitar. The passion and commitment they gave to their performance made it an enjoyable one and took us on a journey. It was one of my favourites of the night. Their set, which was about 20 minutes, was about the process of incarceration and was based on one of the members true experience.

Then Devoet was invited to the stage. The crowd went wild. He was a short dark-skinned black guy whose outfit included a bowler hat, blazer, t-shirt and trousers. He was definitely trendy. He did poetry with no music. The band joined with him on his second poem. He was a Christian poet and now the screaming made sense.

There was a ten minute interval and when we went to get a drink, we lost our seats. By this time the venue was packed, I imagine there were about 200 people in the venue. There was nowhere to sit and hardly any place to stand so you could see the stage. After, walking around for a bit and bumping into some old friends, we finally found a spot.

The first act after the interval was Deola and Lanre. They gave an amazing spoken word piece. Still not sure what it was about but I know it was good and the crowd loved it. They finished with the line ‘listen when a man speaks’, go figure.

Second was a young man, Parabello, who M.y.M introduced as her ex boyfriend. A slightly nervous poet (maybe because of M.y.M‘s introduction) his first attempt fell short. His second was better. His last poem was titled ‘Player’, the crowd loved it and it was his best.

Other acts included Samantha Chioma, who read a 10 step guide to get a Christian girl to like you, which I recognised as one of her blog posts.

Toby and Nicole from The Roundhouse Poetry Collective performed a duet- I can safely say this my type of poetry. It was ambiguous, open and inspiring. Charlie, who is a rapper, also made his way to the stage, with a spoken word piece. He was then joined by singer Nina and together they performed a song called ‘A thing call love’.

We had the open mic section, which is always interesting. My favourite performer was a poet called Obie. The crowd loved his confidence and flow and his honesty about Christian relationships was definitely a crowd pleaser.

The headliner was the (jet-lagged) American poet Joshua Bennet. Now studying in Oxford Joshua has performed in front of President Obama and starred in a TV series on the HBO channel in the US. He performed three amazing pieces, his classic ’10 Things I Want To Say To A Black Woman’ as ever made the ladies swoon.

The highlights of the evening for me were Lovelive 6938,Deola and Lanre, Obie from the open mic section and the host MyM. She finished the evening by plugging her one woman show at “the Cochrane Theatre on the 23rd April”.

“What did you think of it?” my friend asked as we made our way back to Liverpool Street station. “Yeah, I thought it was good. M.y.M was really funny.” “She was. I want to go to her show on the 23rd”. “Really”? “Yeah, we should go.” “OK, let’s go.”
See you then!