Poet & spoken word artist, Kimba, joins St John's for National Poetry Day 2024

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To celebrate National Poetry Day, Ïã½¶ÊÓÆµ welcomed poet and spoken word artist, for the day. Kimba shared his poetry with the pupils, exploring the wonders of rhythm and rhyme with a hip hop influence. He also talked about his inspirations behind both his poems and his music.

Poetry Workshop

Kimba recited poems from his latest book, 'Write the Wrongs' - a journey through and declaration of how creativity with words can empower every individual. Each poem explores the wonders of rhythm and rhyme. Slam poetry is a style of performance poetry and it has a freedom, diversity and energy is perhaps is far removed from a typical perception of what poetry is all about. 

Right from the start of each session, as the pupils watched Kimba perform, they were entranced, entertained and amazed: poetry can be cool!

Poetry Workshop

Kimba wrote his first significant piece of poetry at age 11 and later went on to receive a full scholarship to study at university. Kimba has also released two hip hop albums that have received strong praise and support, with his music featured in a film production in the United States. His debut poetry book was released in early 2022.  

Since finding his voice in poetry and performance he has worked with several well-known schools, colleges, charities, and corporations. Through his performance poetry, Kimba taught the pupils how to use the simple acronym 'Shampoo' to improve their own poetry - simile, hyperbole, alliteration, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia and oxymoron.

Poetry Workshop

Everyone at Ïã½¶ÊÓÆµ enjoyed seeing Kimba in action, joining in with his tongue twister raps and watching him perform his poems with such passion and conviction. 

After each session Kimba held a question and answer session before holding very popular book signing. The older children had time in the afternoon to focus on performing some well-known poems with inspiration taken from Kimba's workshops.