To celebrate National Poetry Day, St John's welcomed poet and spoken word artist, Kimba for the day. Kimba shared his poetry with the pupils, exploring the wonders of rhythm and rhyme with a hip hop influence. He also talked about his inspirations behind both his poems and his music.
Kimba recited poems from his latest book, 'Write the Wrongs' - a journey through and declaration of how creativity with words can empower every individual. Each poem explores the wonders of rhythm and rhyme. Slam poetry is a style of performance poetry and it has a freedom, diversity and energy is perhaps is far removed from a typical perception of what poetry is all about.
Right from the start of each session, as the pupils watched Kimba perform, they were entranced, entertained and amazed: poetry can be cool!
Kimba wrote his first significant piece of poetry at age 11 and later went on to receive a full scholarship to study at university. Kimba has also released two hip hop albums that have received strong praise and support, with his music featured in a film production in the United States. His debut poetry book was released in early 2022.
Since finding his voice in poetry and performance he has worked with several well-known schools, colleges, charities, and corporations. Through his performance poetry, Kimba taught the pupils how to use the simple acronym 'Shampoo' to improve their own poetry - simile, hyperbole, alliteration, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia and oxymoron.
Everyone at St John's enjoyed seeing Kimba in action, joining in with his tongue twister raps and watching him perform his poems with such passion and conviction.
After each session Kimba held a question and answer session before holding very popular book signing. The older children had time in the afternoon to focus on performing some well-known poems with inspiration taken from Kimba's workshops.