RISE SLAM: team
The RISE SLAM team consists of four London-based spoken-word professionals:
Crisis
Crisis has come to prominence over the last few years, travelling to New York for the British Council as part of the UK in NY festival at the world-renowned Nuyorican Poets' Cafe. He has performed on the growing underground black comedy circuit, on radio, at a political conference and at numerous performance venues, such as the South Bank Centre and the Union Chapel, as well as Express Excess, Red at Pure Poetry, with the Kindred Spirit collective at WKD, for Jamaican Liberation Day celebrations in Manchester and Poetry for Palestine, to name just a few.
Dorothea Smartt
Dorothea Smartt, born & raised in London, is of Barbadian heritage. She was Brixton Market's first Poet-in-Residence, and is a former Attached Live Artist at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. Her poetry appears in several journals and ground-breaking anthologies, including Bittersweet (Women's Press, 1998), The Fire People (Payback Press, 1998), Mythic Women/Real Women (Faber, 2000), and IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000). She lectures part-time at Birkbeck College, London, is poetry editor for Sable, and her debut collection Connecting Medium (Peepal Tree Press) was published in 2001. Her solo work, medusa, is considered an Outstanding Black Example. Other collaborative performances include: from you to me to you (an ICA Live Arts commission); fo(u)r women; and home is where the heart kicks (a Black Arts Alliance commission).
Steve Tasane
Steve Tasane is critically acclaimed for his writing and performing. He successfully adapted his first novel Bird of Prey (Clubman Books) into a play, and has also published a collection of poetry, Bleeding Heart (Gecko). As a performance poet, he has worked with Apples & Snakes and was a founder member of the performance poetry group, Atomic Lip. He organised the Lit Pop three day spoken word festival at the 100 Club, and is one of London's foremost poetry promoters. In 1997 he premiered his post-modern performance novel (SIC) at the Edinburgh Festival and has since toured nationally. He has also appeared on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please. Currently, he is co-host and promoter of a new poetry club, Pure Poetry (perpetual literature festival) at the Soho Theatre along with ex-Atomic Lip member, The Speech Painter.
Joelle Taylor
Joelle Taylor has worked extensively as a performance poet and spoken word artist since 1986, and has led numerous writing and performance workshops in schools, theatres and art centres. She has toured nationally both as a solo artist and as a member of Atomic Lip, a polyphonic performance poetry group. Once described as 'Poetry you can dance to' by The Independent, Atomic Lip produced two pop-poetry videos funded by the National Lottery. She is also the Artistic Director of Transgressive Art Physical Poetry Company, and has performed her poetry, stories and plays at venues as diverse as the ICA, Dingwalls, Ronnie Scott's, the Oval House and Drill Hall Theatre. She has had four full length scripts produced for theatre. She was the Hot of the Press UK Performance Poetry Slam Champion 2000 and currently hosts Mother Foucault spoken word cabaret club. Her writing has been published by Scarlet Press and Routledge, and her scripts have featured in several texts about women's theatre. She is the co-ordinator of the respect slam.
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