The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of UK Poetry

It is easy to believe whilst developing this new era of spoken word, you are embarking on new terrain. However in arranging an interview with Word Temple director Amani Naphtali I was initially under the notion I was meeting someone utilising the current popularity of the word. However, after my first question, I soon realised there was much to learn and I listened to a man who transcends the whole spectrum of the arts. And much like Obi Wan from the Star Wars series, he was apart of spoken word in the UK when it was at its zenith, when it fell and is currently apart of its re-birth. He said “what is happening now is the rebuilding of all that was taken away.” Much like Star Wars and the destruction of the Jedi council, poetry had it’s hey day, and in the original 1970’s Star Wars series, we witness its re-birth. Just as today we are now seeing the rise of a new era of spoken word. And Amani Nepathali, (much like Obi Wan in A New Hope) has been watching its growth, and now believes the time is ripe for poetry to take its rightful place in the arts renaissance.

HISTORY
Back in the 80’s Amani founded Double Edge Sword Theatre Company, which pioneered the introduction of spoken word into the theatre. This was at a time when Benjamin Zepphaniah was common on the circuit, and Jonzi D was seen as the new cat.
“We bridged the word into the theatre scene,” Amani begins “in those days the theatre was far different from the cultural arts scene. No one really moved freely between the two bodies.” He said passing me brochures and leaflets from this era, I got to see some of the old guard, and ambitious events that were organised starring the performers of their day such as Clare Perkins who starred as the mother of Asher D in Bullet Boy. 

Point is they were the original trendsetters, and Amani galvanised different segments of the arts industry to stage multi-faceted shows under an organised body. There may not have been the volume of artists that are on the scene today, but they had the organised structure needed to step up their art. “Double Edge Sword was a pioneering company, The Vibes from the Scribes, was the original production… We were like a pan African team, with an all Black cast, and we made no bones about that. We did a theatre production called The Vibes from the Scribes and when it dropped it didn’t just go over people’s heads, it went under their heads, under their arm pits, through their eyes, over their ears. We had a jazz band on stage, we had performers, poets, artists, actors, dancers and we were dealing with it like it was a performance of futuristic poetry.” 

On one side of the table was his 80’s and 90’s brochures, on the other side was flyers of the Best Kept Secret, consisting of Amen Noir, shortMAN, OneNess, ShakaRa and myself. A mirror image of two different era’s of artists. He talked with enthusiasm and excitement about the height and impact they had as black cultural artist with the will to represent the best of their culture.
Such creativeness lead to the first run of Raggamuffin, it was a period in time that Black British arts, in all fields were coming to the fore. 

You had UK soul on the rise with pioneering artists such as Omar and Soul II Soul, (Amani directed videos form both artists) Reggae was the main youth expression and Hip-Hop was only beginning to penetrate the youth culture of the time. Raggamuffin combined the spoken word, and reggae influence, telling the story of young urban rebellion against elder society and the establishment, while interweaving the history of the Haitian Revolution. One wonders how such a powerful collective would have grown if left to flourish.

DEATH & RESSURECTION
However, this Black arts scene didn’t get the chance to blossom and infect this generation. For Margaret Thatcher’s 80’s regime cut back funding to the arts, and the Black arts were on the front line. 
“They just wiped out the Black arts industry,” Amani said still bitter, but wiser for the experience. “They nearly completely destroyed it, companies went to the wall.” And Double Edge was one that crumbled. No more poignant Black theatre productions, no artistic development or refuge for Black artists to harness their talent in a culturally embracing atmosphere. For all intents and purposes the era was over, and it began Amani’s period of exile where he embarked on different freelancing ventures, releasing some films and went back to university where he completed his MA. 

In 2001 he felt the time was right to return. “I came back into theatre when the theatre industry was at its knees and said to the arts council ‘this is your last time, you messed up big time, you nearly destroyed the industry, funded those who shouldn’t have been funded and cut those who should’ve been funded. So let’s try to build something that was the most vibrant arts scene at the time.’ He instantly recognised the lack of cultural representation in the theatre “I know there are certain genre’s my people have to have and I told them we’re not starting again.” So instead of starting afresh, he resurrected Raggamuffin, and provided for a new generation a glimpse into what was happening almost a decade prior. To many it would’ve seemed like a brand new concept, and if you didn’t have any elders to hand it would’ve been. It was a success then, and it was a success second time round starring Benji Reid. This time it reflected a more Hip Hop influenced youth culture and in turn introducing many to Black theatrical arts.

WHICH WAY NOW?
During his time away and more so since stepping back into arts he kept an eye on the development of the poetry scene and the new names popping up with little knowledge of past achievements. Though some of the old guard had gone on to become national figures such as Benjamin Zepphaniah, Martin Glynn and Lemn Sissay. But in the main a new generation, void of arts council support had been spawned thinking they had to start from scratch, putting on shows to embrace their untapped talent. In university you had students who wanted to represent the wealth of talent on campuses and beyond, consequently shows like Back Pepper and Soul Food came into existence. You had many other shows popping up, some lasting the test of time, others drifting into obscurity. Consequently, Amani has been covertly watching these artists creating names for themselves, but he is also constructively critical about flaws in the poetry game.
“The poets are striving for something, but they don’t know how to get there.” What he sees are exceptional talents stuck in the realms of poetry. He feels poets need to be more than just wordsmiths but artists, because the industry is crying for their creativity. “You know a song is a poem can be a monologue depending on how you see it, and a poet is a griot is a scribe is an actor is a dancer depending on how they perceive it. I tell the actors you’re dry, I tell the theatre industry you are void of culture the most exciting thing happening now is happening in our music industry and in our poetic industry, so I don’t know what you lot are doing. So let’s go back to the start, let the poets take back their silence, cause art and theatre came from poets. Where are poets in this theatre industry? They ain’t writing nothing about my people and we need to articulate now. Let the poets take back control of this but they don’t know how… 

‘They do these little café’s, they sometimes take it to theatre, bad lighting, bad everything, no technical experts, just on their back doing their best, but the audience can relate to it, it just needs an aesthetic… I know what’s going on, I can see the poets doing stuff, I know my Beyonder’s, my OneNess’s and I’m laughing and joking with them too, but… you’re going to be void unless you walk this way… cause that’s the only way to go which is on stage.” 

He speaks to the heart and mind of every poet, for he is the mind of a poet who has travelled the road longer than most. And many times different collectives of poets and writers have discussed how to take poetry to the next level, with the right idea, but little direction of how to make the necessary impact. Poets are continually asking, how can we secure funding? How can fellow poets support one another? Who can we trust? The reason Amani is so important is he knows all sides of the coin, from the audience to the performer, the heart of the poet, the black community, the funders and wider society. 

“My conversation with the arts council was about showing them how to engage with the poets” he continues “these poets are sometimes starving, who do one little gig, and sometimes do very well, but not very much longevity no shows that last for more than one or two days so that can’t work, so funders don’t know how to engage them…its about how different artists can combine together and do this…Its about helping another generation to keep it moving, keep in touch with the play writers… but poets are the play writers, who are the authors, the film makers of the future. When we were at our highest we all worked together as family. I’m the last tribe of that... the last man standing. And the future is about the painters working with the poets, working with the Hip Hop groups working with that eclectic people and of course its gonna kick ass. That’s what the temple is about, it’s just a gift to my hombres who I know are coming along.”

POLITICS VS ARTISTICS
Though in this current climate, considering how the government wiped out the Black arts before hand, does he feel the Black arts should trade politics for the safer creative arts option? For many artists believe it is of no interest to the current generation to hub on the Black power tip. He smiles reminiscing on the earlier generation of artists. “We never bowed to nobody, we always gave people the best we could give them, delivered the best politics, typified by productions like Raggamuffin, you can hate the politics, but you had to love the show, started loving the show, you took the politics, and that’s how we gave our people what we gave them. We’re not boring. You can’t bore our people to death, they don’t wanna come to the boring stuff, they wanna come and see stuff that moves them that invigorates them, and you gotta keep yourself relevant to your people. We gave them aesthetic and styles that matched our people and our people are the best performers on earth, you need to give them aesthetic, and once you give them that, you talk about their lives and they will love you… Other people can go where they wanna go, but I gotta live with my ancestry, I gotta live with my people and they require certain things. If you’re gonna come and see a show by Amani Naphtali, one thing they’re gonna know is there’s gonna be fun, you’re gonna laugh, you’re gonna cry but you’re always gonna get culture. You will always get the culture, cause that’s the nature of art, but I don’t wanna become void with my people, that’s not the legacy that I’m handing to them…”

NEW LEGACIES
Though in his absence there have been shows that have represented particularly for the poets. One of the longest standing productions is Soul Food, who have grown from strength to strength since starting in a small Stratford bar to ending up in Bloomsbury Theatre. 

“For organisations like Soul Food ‘upgrade the aesthetic now, lets get our dexterity right so we can do larger stuff, we’ve done our little grade school, now lets move to the higher level, the level of performing theatre arts.’ Looking me dead in the eye he continues, issuing instructions like a general. “I said to the arts council, I ain’t joking, this is the decade of the poet, take control of your asylum, cause the actors and stuff aren’t doing it, they need you, the poet! This is the new wave man, the future’s bright if we just work together they’ll be a whole wave of us, they would’ve seen nothing like it.” 

Although he is optimistic, he also expresses the need to be wise in engaging with funding, very much conscious on how the Black arts scene was hit as a consequence to their over reliance on funding. “I say dig deep. Make your baby wide, make your foundations deep. So after this little phase of funding goes and they’ve got tired of Africans arts and start reaching into eastern Europeans we have something in place and the poetry circuit has to be in place. I send out the call to the poets where is your union? If you haven’t got an association of leading poets, you need one. It must be organised and controlled by poets, who are pioneers, people with knowledge, so you can get stuff like minimum wage so you can’t charge a poet like ten pounds and have him perform all night.” 

He has a lot of faith in this current crop of wordsmiths, not only being able to establish themselves in Britain, but the international poetry community, especially America who he believes are crying out for something fresh. But he believes there is still work to be done here before the foundations are strong enough for the artists to conquer different parts of the world. “I’ve been watching you guys covertly under the scenes and you (poets) need the conference whereby the poetic artists start to dictate. I know man like Nii whose been out there and done this, and I’m sure you all wanna see poetic plays at the Lyric Theatre. ”

LAST WORDS
He’s a man with so much achievement and experience; he should be a household name in both the Black community and wider British society. And hopefully his poetry resurrection will be able to utilise the talent of the current crop of poets, and the performers we see week in and week won’t drift into anonymity. 

“I’ve been one of the leading directors in this country; have been for years, the people know that, the arts know that, the industry knows that, the funders know that. But I’ve always been loved by my people. Not hailed by the arts council, but they don’t mess with me cause I always deliver can deliver. And at times its like a wine, first of all it’s raw, and then it matures, you appreciate the flavour then ‘IT’s A CLASSIC!’ So those times are happening now, buts it time to open up the doors that were closed.”