FEELINGS: BIRTHDAY EDITION

Feelings is a night of poetry, film and sad disco. Down in the depths of Vogue Fabrics’ kitsch boutique bunker, four tortured souls poured out their hearts, and their words were greeted at the end by DJ Dr Jonathan Kemp’s disco tunes with a melancholic tinge.

We didn’t catch any film but with Vogues’ resident drag queen Sharon Husbands behind the bar (as a boy, this time), you had all the wit you needed to keep the pre-drinking fun and titillating before the performances began…

First up to tread VF’s basement boards was Juha Virtanen who delivered a Joycean mantra of frenetic lines, an energetically earnest performance which worked well to engage for the first five minutes. However, being honest, this type of experimentation with both spoken and page-written linguistics, whilst brave, possibly did not quite stretch to hold the audience’s attention for the fifteen minutes he had the stage for.

This was more than made up for though by the marvellous second poet to utter us his words, Mr Jack Underwood, who, despite his seemingly nervous disposition and deliverance, captured the audience’s minds quickly with his deft and finely wrought talent. Dark poems that explored the underside of life drew us into their world, ranging from ‘dead fireworks in the garden’ describing the sister he never knew to injecting blood into a banana, to a poem asking a question of a lemon that could go on forever.

After a brief break and sneakpeak of Dr Kemp’s delicious disco downers – The Eels hit a great spot – Holly Pester and Martin Corless-Smith took over the suave second half. Holly merged her sound poems with performative text to interesting poetic effect, whilst Mr Corless-Smith spoke quietly, even a murmur, but his evocation of the sea and its gentle waves matched the imagery he painted in his content.

We finished as an audience well-treated by different perspectives and ideas of the world, as those evocative peals of sad disco returned so we could dance the night away. What an enjoyable way to spend a balmy midsummer’s evening.

 

• Vogue Fabrics will be launching an open-mic poetry and performance night, Spoken Word London, on the 24th July at 8pm. Free entry, all welcome. 

• Vogue Fabrics, 66 Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, N16 7XB. Thurs 11th July. £3. 

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