West Midlands

Previously Birmingham’s poet laureate, Dreadlockalien runs the U.K. School’s Poetry SLAM Championship. Representing the West Midlands, he will team up with Spoz, another former poet laureate of Birmingham and poet-in-residence at Birmingham City FC. The slam team will be chosen from young people from the Birmingham area.

SPOZ

SPOZ…because it’s easier than his real name, ‘GIOVANNI ESPOSITO’ and happens to be the bit between the ‘E’ and the ‘ito’ (sort of).

Spoz is an award winning performance poet, singer / songwriter, film maker, playwright and is the poet-in-residence at Birmingham City FC. Spoz was ‘crowned’ Birmingham’s eleventh poet laureate in October 2006. He continues to work extensively in schools, lifting the appeal of writing and performing poetry to hitherto, unseen heights.

Spoz released his first poetry anthology for “the young and young at heart” in January 2009. “The Day the Earth Grew Hair … and Other Stuff”, Is available from his website www.spoz.net

Dreadlockalien

Dreadlockalien is one of the hardest working artists in the West Midlands. Touring UK venues with his performance poetry and slam sets as well as three plays, Amalgam Jam, Soundclash and Chocolate Wars, Dreadlockalien continues to push the boundaires of live literature.

His urban hip-hop dub flow verse delivery of words and concepts addresses social issues such as citizenship, identity, immigration and Black British experiences. No steel pan and samosa tokenism here; strictly education before entertainment.