Theatre News

Jade Anouka, The Guilty Feminist and Saul Williams to feature in spoken word festival

The Last Word returns to The Roundhouse in Camden

Deborah Frances-White, Jade Anouka and Saul Williams
Deborah Frances-White, Jade Anouka and Saul Williams
© The Guilty Feminist/Dan Wooller/Roland Tanglao

Details have been announced for this year's The Last Word, a spoken word festival at The Roundhouse in London in June.

The festival will be headlined by American artist Saul Williams, a pioneer of slam poetry who has worked with the likes of The Fugees, De La Soul and Nine Inch Nails. His act is a story of a Burundi hacker who becomes an internet sensation when he hacks NASA.

Further highlights include Jade Anouka (Donmar Warehouse's Shakespeare Trilogy), political poet Matt Abbott, renowned spoken word artist Polarbear, and Deborah Frances-White with her hit podcast The Guilty Feminist.

HighRise’s concept-rave LIL.MISS.LADY will explore the history of Grime from a female perspective, and nabokov’s Suitman Jungle, will chart the journey from trading floors to dance floors.

Maria Ferguson looks at whether being from Essex makes you an Essex Girl, Koko Brown responds to the "but where are you really from?" question, and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan looks at being a brown Muslim in Britain in LOL, InshAllah.

For the first time, the festival will also take place in venues away from the main Roundhouse location, including The Albany and Canary Wharf Theatre.

Producer Jack Prideaux said: "The Last Word festival is now in its fifth year and continues to attract some of the biggest names in spoken word.

"The Last Word festival enables us to challenge pre-conceptions of what spoken word is and it’s the mix of established artists and exciting new talent that makes it so special."

The Last Word runs at The Roundhouse and other venues from 13 June to 1 July.