The Last Word review – young artists speak truth to poetry

Roundhouse, London
This festival gives voice to up-and-coming performers, from poetry slam winner Rakaya Esime Fetuga to the painfully funny Jack Rooke

The Last Word festival is a celebration of poetry and spoken word in different languages and forms, designed to give a boost to young and underrepresented artists. Much of it is work-in-progress – these voices are just getting warmed up.

In a loose tangle of poetry and prose, last year’s Roundhouse poetry slam winner, Rakaya Esime Fetuga presents Unbraided, a monologue about belonging. Graceful in word and action, Fetuga takes us to the Ghanaian capital Accra and to London’s Oxford Street, talking with one foot in each place – scooping coconut flesh in searing heat and praying in high-street changing rooms. She also details the feeling of being at home in neither.

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The Last Word festival is at the Roundhouse, London, until 22 June. Jack Rooke’s Love Letters is at Assembly George Square Gardens, Edinburgh, 1-24 August.