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