The RAP Party @The London Library: Queering the Narrative (In person)
Poet and playwright Inua Ellams curates another evening of exhilarating live literature at The London Library with the RAP Party, a nostalgic, no-clutter, no-fuss, evening of music and words. On World Storytelling Day, Inua will hand over the RAP Party reins to queer multi-disciplinary artist Femi Tiwo, who will compere a stellar line up of queer, non-binary, gender fluid and trans artists, each telling their stories, performing their writing and choosing their favourite tunes to get you on your feet. Our line-up includes: Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard, Sabah Choudrey, Chloe Filani, Oakley Flanagan, CN Lester, Mendez, Tatenda Shamiso, plus music from RAP Party regular, DJ Tone.
Ten writers + a DJ = the best night out you’ll ever have in a library – or anywhere, for that matter.
'A truly fluid literary event not just mingling poetry and music together seamlessly, but also bringing different tribes of poets: ages, races, gender, styles together. You will be moved in your heart and in your head.’— Roger Robinson
Travis Alabanza is an award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker. Their writing has appeared in the BBC, Guardian, Vice and Gal-Dem and in numerous anthologies including Black and Gay in the UK. Their debut show Burgerz toured internationally to sold out shows and won the Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre award in 2019. In 2020, Overflow debuted at the Bush Theatre to widespread acclaim and later streamed online in over 22 countries.
Jay Bernard is a writer, film programmer and archivist. Their first poetry collection Surge, based on the New Cross Fire archives, was shortlisted for multiple awards and won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Jay is the author of three pamphlets, The Red and Yellow Nothing, English Breakfast and Your Sign is Cuckoo, Girl and their award-winning short film Something Said has screened in the UK and internationally.
Sabah Choudrey co-founded Trans Pride Brighton in 2013 and made The Rainbow List in 2015, celebrating 101 of the most influential LGBT people in Britain. Currently Director of Colours Youth Network and Director for Middlesex Pride, they are a trustee for Inclusive Mosque Initiative and an experienced Psychotherapist and Care Practitioner supporting LGBTQ theatre. Their book Supporting Trans People of Colour: How To Make Your Practice Inclusive is out now.
Chloe Filani is an artist, performer, poet and writer working with and in her lived experiences as a black trans woman of Yoruba and Eshan heritage. Her 2023 collection A Lady of the Night, a Victorian Tale is published by Montez Press. ‘Change’, her episode of Anthems - a series of manifestos, speeches, poems and rallying cries written for Pride 2023 - is available to listen to wherever you get your podcasts.
Oakley Flanagan is a writer, poet, and playwright. Their poetry appears in bath magg, Poetry London, The Poetry Review, The North, Under the Radar and Wasafiri. Oakley is an alum of Roundhouse Poetry Collective, The London Library Emerging Writers Programme, The Genesis Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers' Programme and Southbank New Poets Collective and winner of the ruth weiss Emerging Poet Award. Their pamphlet, G&T, is published by Out-Spoken Press.
CN Lester is a multi-genre musician, author of the critically-acclaimed Trans Like Me, and founder and artistic director of arts event Transpose at Barbican. They work internationally as a trans/queer/feminist educator, writer, speaker, and activist and their words and music have featured in print, on radio and at arts venues and festivals worldwide. They made their fiction debut with the 2023 collection Furies, alongside Margaret Atwood, Ali Smith, and Emma Donoghue.
Mendez is a British writer based in Margate. Their debut novel Rainbow Milk(Dialogue, 2020), an Observer Top Ten Best Debuts choice, was shortlisted for the Polari First Novel Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction and a British Book Award (Fiction Debut). They are a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the WritersMosaic.
Tatenda Shamiso is a writer, director and live performance maker with origins in Zimbabwe, Belgium, the United States and Switzerland. Shamisos’s work endeavours to make the strange feel familiar (and vice versa), generating laughter and tenderness across cultural divides. He received the 2024 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Theatre Writing, and the 2023 Evening Standard Theatre Award in Emerging Talent for his solo show NO I.D.
Femi Tiwo (FKA Michelle) is a queer Nigerian/Togolese multi-disciplinary artist. A Barbican young poet alumni and co-founder of Sistren Collective, their work spans radio, poetry, theatre, film and music. Writing includes: Rights For Whom, Exactly?(Fly The Flag/Young Vic) and performance includes: Little Miss Burden (Bunker); Parakeet (Roundabout); And The Rest of Me Floats (Bush Theatre); Ackee and Saltfish (BBC3); We Love Moses (dir. Dionne Edwards); The Ting (Channel 4 Random Acts).
Inua Ellams is a Nigerian-born, UK-based poet, playwright and performer who has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the BBC. His latest play was an adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters set in Nigeria, staged at the National Theatre. The Actual, his fifth poetry release and first full collection, was published in 2020 by Penned in the Margins.
Tone is a DJ and broadcaster. Her show, Diaspora Distins on Oroko Radio showcases talent from the African continent and the global black diaspora and she has also appeared on Rinse, Foundation FM, Radio 1Xtra and more. Live, she has played All Points East, Afropunk, No Signal and opened for Kokoroko, Ragz Original, Superjazzclub and more.
Books by the speakers will be available to buy at the event and online from our partner bookshop Hatchards.
This event will take place in person at The London Library. Doors (and the bar) open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Please see our Event Access Guidelines before you arrive.
This is a standing event but there will be chairs available in the room.
London Library events are subject to Terms & Conditions
