RAS Takura is hoping to create a platform for spoken word poets in Kingston. With this in mind, he is staging the inaugural Spoken Words & Nyabinghi Drumming for African Liberation at Skyline Drive in Kingston on Saturday.

“This new event really came about because I noticed that when I have the show in Portland each year, a lot of people from Kingston flock to Portland for it, so we saw a need for a spoken word event in Kingston,” Ras Takura told the Jamaica Observer.

The Portland show to which he refers to is the eight-year-old Dis Poem Wordz and Agro Festival, of which he is the organiser.

“It’s very important to have platforms that showcase spoken word in Jamaica because we don’t really have public, open spaces for it regularly,” he said. “We have the Calabash Festival but that is held biennially. Edna Manley College has one every last Tuesday but once again, we don’t really have a regular public event in this reggae revival space where poets can come and read their work — so that is what we are trying to do,” he said.

Saturday’s session will feature acts including Chakula, Sheena, Meeka Nyoka, Dexta Mawle, Richie Innocent and Ras Takura. New Yorkers Jive Poetic and Mahogany L Browne are also rostered for the event.

Browne is the author of Black Girl Magic. Her collections include #Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out Online (2010), Redbone (2015) and Smudge (2016). She is also the poetry programme director and Friday Night Slam curator for the Nuyorican Poets Café.

Jive Poetic is the host of Friday Night Slam. He is also the founder of Insurgent Poets Society and co-founder of The Soundbites Poetry Festival held in New York. He received the 2017 John Morning Award for Art and Service.