Kat

I have been performing for over 5 years now, started off hitting open mic events, in London such as Urban Griots a weekly open mic event that was the place to be back in the day, I also joined a performance poetry group called Brother Man and took part in monthy shows.This was a great practice and training for me.I had been writing for years but never thought of performing until I turned up at singers and poets night in the Bug Bar in Brixton and heard poets spitting for the first time since then I've been hooked on words.I run a twice monthly events at the bar of the theatre Royal, Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, E15 1BN. Word4word is every first Sunday and is a wonderful combination of music an poetry, and Word-up slam takes place every 3rd Sunday and is a slam a competition whereby poets compete against each other fo £50 prize money.In 2004 I won the BBC3 slam poets show and in June 2005 I became the World slam champion I have just debuted my one woman show, completed my first poetry CD and taken part in Spoke-fest a two week spoken word festival at the theatre Royal, where I organised and hosted the U.K slam championships to find a poet to take part in the world slam championships in June 2006.This is a video of me performing on the BBC3 slam, 2004 this was the start of a new phase of my life, left work on the Tuesday to concentrate on my performance and writing and I won this slam on the Thursday, it bought me a lot of exposure and life has not really been the same sense, I guess it made me realise that leaving was a good idea after all.I have the priviledge of travelling far and wide through my performances and this year alone I have been to Galway in Ireland, Munich and Ausburg in Germany, Sweeden, Rotterdam and Olso I am due back in Oslo in September at the Freedom of Speech festival to perform my one woman show. I am also due to go back at the end of Septemeber to host the Miss and Mr Africa show. South Africa is on the books for November if it all comes off, that's the one I am most looking forward to as I have never been to the motherland before and my return is long over,over,over due.I have been blessed, last year I travelled almost every month, and for someone who is petrified of flying that truly is a feat (no one can convince me that we as humans are meant to fly!) The most interesting and challenging place I went to, was an Aboriginal reservation in the Northern Territory of Australia to teach dance and poetry and contribute to a cd to raise money for the community, now that was an adventure, eye opening, tough but touching, never even dreamed that poetry would take me so far! I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.1