GET::FREE #3 w/ Headtops
Come shuck out and GET::FREE at BORN::FREE's bass-heavy Afro-diasporic club night with live percussion.
The brief to DJs is simple: to promote the best of experimental Black sound with unforgiving bass lines and melodies that will convert wall-leaners and bar-hangers into entities shucking out until they forget themselves.
The third edition is a collaboration with London-based DJ collective Headtops, whose four selectas will be spinning back-to-back throughout the night along with BORN::FREE residents at the infamous Peckham Audio. The lineup of DJs are curated not based on genres or BPMs alone, but rather on the belief in their collective ability to raise vibrations for audiences regardless of their musical preferences.
The line-up includes:
anxious.selecta b2b MA.MOYO (BORN::FREE)
Darkstepper (Headtops)
Fat-Lïp (BORN::FREE, Oroko Radio, Hard Food)
Rae Dee (Headtops)
Shadobeni (Headtops)
Zest, the Blaackhippy (Headtops)
Tun up, let loose; get sweaty + GET::FREE. 21+ | No ID, no entry | Doors close at 1am.
This event is the second of three consecutive events marking BORN::FREE's 10th Birthday as part of the second BORN::FREE WEEKENDER– celebrating a decade of platforming Black writing across London and beyond back where it all began: SE LDN. Make sure you check our 2024 Writers’ Collective Showcase at South London Gallery on 10 October.
2024 Writers' Collective Showcase
2023 saw BORN::FREE launch our inaugural Writers' Collective. We return this year with another eleven Afro-diasporic writers based in London and the South-East, welcoming them to the BF Family. After meeting for fortnightly facilitated sessions with BORN::FREE's Co-Directors, along with other autonomous link-ups with each other to connect and reflect on their writings, BORN::FREE is gassed to present work developed in this period for the first time.
Along with a musical accompaniment, music and networking, join us this Black History Month as we celebrate a new generation of Black British writing. Find out more about each of the Writers here.
This event is the second of three consecutive events marking BORN::FREE's 10th Birthday as part of the second BORN::FREE WEEKENDER– celebrating a decade of platforming Black writing across London and beyond back where it all began: SE LDN. Make sure you check out the third edition of bass-heavy club night GET::FREE on 12 October at Peckham Audio.
Veranda: Carnival Warm-Up
Veranda is London’s flagship and O.G poetry and music jam– featuring a house band boasting London’s top emerging musicians, and an audience made up of minds ready for meditation, conversation and creative elevation. Veranda facilitates experimental live performance that prioritises Afro-diasporic narratives; opening up space for rhythmic dialogue + curious encounters.
This edition of Veranda is celebrating the origins of dub poetry with headline sets from MALIKA BOOKER and JAMES MASSIAH. A DJ set of dancehall, soca and funky house from 16THSS (Voices Radio, Recess) and a house band led by our Musical Director NATE RICKETTS (Steamdown). Hosted by our Creative Directors BELINDA ZHAWI + MALAKAÏ SARGEANT
There will be an opportunity to perform on our open mic. If this sounds like a bit of you, get in touch with a sample of your work before 22 August with your name and 'Veranda open mic' in the subject line. Shout us on bornfreejam@gmail.com.
James Massiah (he/him)
@jamesmassiah
James Massiah is a poet & musician from South London, UK whose work explores ideas about sexuality, mortality & philosophy through performance, writing & visual media.
His ongoing series of New Poems is released in volumes and details his day-to-day experiences of life, love and labour in London. He has been commissioned to produce work for the BBC, the Guardian & Nike as well as featuring in campaigns for Selfridges, Loewe, Adidas & Champion.
He has performed readings at the Tate Modern, the Courtauld, the Institute of Contemporary Arts & the Houses of Parliament & been profiled in Vogue, Dazed, i-D & GQ. He has also curated events for Boiler Room & hosts the monthly ‘Poætry Show’ on NTS Radio.
Malika Booker (she/her)
@malika.booker
Malika Booker is a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, a British poet of Guyanese and Grenadian parentage, and co-founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen.
Her pamphlet Breadfruit, (flippedeye, 2007) received a Poetry Society recommendation and her poetry collection Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre 2014 prize for first full collection. She is published in The Penguin Modern Poet Series 3: Your Family: Your Body (2017).
Malika recently co-edited the issue of Stand Journal curating an anthology of poems by African American, Black British, & Caribbean Women & Identifying Writers. Booker currently hosts and curates Peepal Tree Press’ literary podcast, New Caribbean Voices. A Cave Canem Fellow, and inaugural Poet in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare Company, Malika was awarded the Cholmondeley Award (2019) for outstanding contribution to poetry and elected a Royal Society of Literature Fellow (2022). Her poem The Little Miracles, commissioned by and published in Magma 75 (autumn 2019) won The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (2020). Her poem Libation, published in Poetry Review (winter 2022) won The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (2023).
GET::FREE x Talawa Firsts 2024
Playing on our company name BORN::FREE– the term given to the generation of Southern African youth born after independence from colonial powers – GET::FREE encourages, simply, the permission to liberate oneself, communally, on the dancefloor. The lineup of DJs are curated not based on genres or BPMs alone, but rather on the belief in their collective ability to raise vibrations for audiences regardless of their musical preferences.
The brief to DJs is to promote the best of experimental Black sound with unforgiving bass lines and melodies that will convert wall-leaners and bar-hangers into entities shucking out until they forget themselves. Tun up, let loose; get sweaty and GET::FREE!
This edition of GET::FREE is programmed as part of Talawa Theatre Company’s festival of new Black writing and performance, Talawa Firsts, after a successful collaboration last year. DJ sets from BORN::FREE’s ANXIOUS.SELECTA + FAT-LÏP plus more TBA. Live percussion from T-JAI.
This event will be held on the fourth floor of a concert hall venue and is wheelchair accessible. Find out more about the venue and your visit here.
Veranda x Talawa Firsts 2024
Veranda is London’s flagship and O.G poetry and music jam– featuring a house band boasting London’s top emerging musicians, and an audience made up of minds ready for meditation, conversation and creative elevation. Veranda facilitates experimental live performance that prioritises Afro-diasporic narratives; opening up space for rhythmic dialogue + curious encounters.
This edition of Veranda is programmed as part of Talawa Theatre Company’s festival of new Black writing and performance, Talawa Firsts, after a successful collaboration last year. Partnering for the first time with long-term friend of ours, TOUCHING BASS will be represented with DJ sets from BROTHER PORTRAIT and NAIMA ADAMS.
We will also be featuring TOBI ADEBAJO as one of two headliners, with a special guest headliner to be announced soon. Featuring the Veranda house band and hosted as usual by our Creative Directors BELINDA ZHAWI + MALAKAÏ SARGEANT.
There will be an opportunity to perform on our open mic. If this sounds like a bit of you, get in touch with a sample of your work before 20 June with your name and 'Veranda open mic' in the subject line. Shout us on bornfreejam@gmail.com.
tobi Adebajo (they/them)
@tobiadebajo
tobi Adebajo is an Anti-disciplinary artist exploring the question: “Who is not in this space? and why?” Their projects are curated to highlight the inaccessibility of society for and to other’d bodies, encouraging freedom with/in movement whilst celebrating survival. Focusing on sound, movement, visual & written pieces; tobi’s practice draws from all the senses and relies upon meaningful collaboration to create works centralising diasporic experiences whilst simultaneously honouring the power of identity. tobi presents evidence of communal & spiritual language that we inherently possess but may be unable to access; framing this language as a basis for collective healing and liberation.
Brother Portrait (he/him)
DJ set
@brother_portrait
Naima Adams (she/her)
DJ set
@naimaadams_
Guest feature
TBA
Veranda: Summer Shake Down
Veranda is London’s flagship and O.G poetry and music jam– featuring a house band boasting London’s top emerging musicians, and an audience made up of minds ready for meditation, conversation and creative elevation. Veranda facilitates experimental live performance that prioritises Afro-diasporic narratives; opening up space for rhythmic dialogue + curious encounters.
The first Veranda of 2024 features JEMILEA WISDOM-BAAKO and KAREEM PARKINS-BROWN ft. a DJ set from MA.MOYO (RTM FM) and a house band led by our Musical Director NATE RICKETTS (Steamdown). Hosted as usual by our Creative Directors BELINDA ZHAWI + MALAKAÏ SARGEANT
There will be an opportunity to perform on our open mic. If this sounds like a bit of you, get in touch with a sample of your work before 20 June with your name and 'Veranda open mic' in the subject line. Shout us on bornfreejam@gmail.com.
Jemilea Wisdom-Baako (she/her)
@writerznscribez
Kareem Parkins-Brown (he/him)
@parkins.brown
100 Agents of Climate Change
Join us for a transformative digital residency with partners In Place of War.
Become a cultural leader, build skills for creative activism and develop climate-conscious projects in our two-week digital residency with our partners In Place of War. We are looking for ten Black people to join us to make up 100 Creative Agents of Change to learn tools for creative campaigning, create engaging projects, and help shape the future. Expect a programme full of workshops, talks and mentoring from global change-makers.
Participants also have the opportunity to pitch for £1,500 towards their own project, and will receive a free laptop when you take part.
If you believe in the transformative power of art as activism and have a commitment to using it to impact your community we’d love to hear from you. Sessions will be hosted in the summer for 18-30-year-old, UK-based participants.
All of the details are in the application pack below. You can fill out the expression of interest form below. Apply by 6pm on 24th June.
2024 Writers' Collective
APPLY NOW! Deadline Extended to 03/04/2024
We are excited to announce that we are looking for up to twelve Black writers to join us in our second cohort of our annual Writers Collective. This year we are running sessions fortnightly between May-August with our Showcase in October– all of which will be hosted by our mates at South London Gallery.
All of the details are in the application pack below. You can fill out the expression of interest form below– we look forward to reading your work!
Top Doll launch – with Karen McCarthy Woolf + Friends
BORN::FREE brings you an interdisciplinary launch event for Top Doll, the debut novel by acclaimed poet Karen McCarthy Woolf, in association with Dialogue Books and supported by Reference Point.