L8 Unspoken

Liverpool 8 spoken word artists celebrate iconic Granby Four Streets on film and online.

First the renovation of Victorian homes around Granby Street in Toxteth attracted a Turner Prize nomination - now nine Liverpool spoken word artists have recorded their poems inspired by Toxteth on those same streets as part of the L8 Unspoken film and web project. 

In a unique collaboration for the L8 Unseen project, the nine poets braved the summer rains on Saturday 1 August to film performances of their work on and around Liverpool 8’s iconic Granby Four Streets: Beaconsfield, Cairns, Jermyn & Ducie Streets. 

The L8 Unseen exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool highlighted the rich diversity of this area to the south of the city and celebrated the lives and experiences of its inhabitants. The exhibition received over 400,000 visitors during it's time at the museum. This unique series of spoken word short films was shown on the large screen in the exhibition throughout the day until the exhibition closed on 6 September 2015. The exhinbition currently resides at the Kuumba Imani Millenium Centre on Princes Road.

Some of the poets; Sandi Hughes, Tommy Calderbank, Ann Lopez and Abdul Malik
Al Nasir, were featured as subjects for portraits in the original exhibition. A further five poets, also with roots in Toxteth, were identified by producers B3 Media and all nine were invited to write poems inspired by their passion for the neighbourhood. 

The nine poets were; Nikki Blaze, Sara Yekutiel, Levi Tafari, Curtis Watt, Lewis Farmer, Tom Calderbank, Sandi Hughes, Ann Lopez and Abdul Malik Al Nasir.

L8 Unspoken was shot for B3 Media by
Ian Lysaght and Jah Jussa from Tabacula and produced by Marc Boothe.