[This blog post was archived in November. Some of the following images are blurry but still cute. Multiple photographers. Click on the images to enlarge.]
There is a monthly poetry night at The Dalston Lounge (Dalston Kingland, London) called Free Mind and this is the second time that I've come down. When I performed a few months ago I had a great time and met interesting people with some very interesting occupations, which is one of the many things I love about mingling and networking. Such as when you meet people from various walks of life who can teach you something, I love that.
Last time I recall debuting a new poem at the time but unsure of which one, along with performing readings of two of my old personal favourite throwback poems for the sake of nostalgia. Those poems being My Testimony and Memorise My Lines. Felt good to revive those and to express certain sentiments that some audience members could relate to.
This time being Black History Month (BHM), I really wanted to debut another topical poem however, the poem is so damn long and unedited (as is much of my new writing in recent years), that I simply could not be asked to cram it into my 5-10mins set that would have felt rushed. I expressed this with the audience about being saddened to not have what I was originally going to perform, be ready or polished enough to share. More so that my energy wasn't there to at least give an extract of it despite their encouragement- much to their disappointment (their disappointment from initial excitement of potentially hearing my new material, which felt sweet in its own way).
As I don't like to disappoint and want to always be able to leave my audience with something to enjoy, I still dropped a few gems for them to hear, think and talk about. Thus similarly to last time, I performed another throwback (Innocence), plus a crowd favourite that was on my mind due to recent experiences (Make Delicious) and a Black empowerment poem of mine titled Passionate Beings. All went down well, and made up for the absence of my new sh*t. The original BHM one was too precious to have been half-arsed, so I'm glad that I decisively didn't cheapen it or disrespect the knowledge and honour of it with a rushed performance, just for the sake of sharing.
My specially selected substitute poems left the audience with the right amount of joy, food for thought, silence and audience interaction that was intended. Luckily for me, a few people recorded parts of my performance and generously shared their recordings with me which can later be seen on my Instagram.
There were much more people at this event than the previous one and it was noticeably more international than before, since a Poet from Los Angeles (another Lauren aka Coldest Wyntor) came with her group and they were lovely. A foreign accent is nothing new on any day around here but theirs added some extra flavour.
A sweet audience member approached me to tell me how much my poems inspired her as a new Poet and how much she enjoyed my performance, despite not being able to hear the BHM one that she was looking forward to. I met some friends of a 'new to the mic' Poet, whom some of which was coming to a poetry event for the first time and were thoroughly enjoying themselves which is always nice to see. I also bumped into another fellow Poet who I recently connected with from her show last month (Teju Chosen).
Everyone was just beautifully social. There was a perfect mix of shared interests, smiles, hugs, vocal talent, listening ears and respect.
Teju, Wyntor and I ended up hanging out at the bar afterwards having a fun engagement of creative minds and opinions. It's always a pleasure to connect with like-minded positive souls. The Owner, Joshua who is the best and sweetest Host, kept the vibes going with his great DJ'ing (like he was reading our minds with his music).
I think that one of the American ladies was celebrating their birthday (or birthday week). It was just fun, great vibes all round with the perfect temperature of London's delayed heatwave that many of us are grateful for in this autumn season. There was some food eaten, drinks flowing, drinks offered, laughs had, ideas exchanged, pictures taken, memories and contacts made. Nice one!
I sported one of my proudest haircuts as my own barber, which was well complimented. For a change it was photographed by someone other than myself (or at least with my permission lol) to capture it well from a better angle, so here you go. I often forget about my hair patterns until someone points it out to me in curiosity, shock or admiration, thus it was nice for it to be artistically noticed. I'll give you (whoever is reading this blog) a free poetry book if you can guess or near enough guess, what my unique whimsical design is in the comment section!
More pics can be seen on my Instagram page.
Love Lauren
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