Adisa
Adisa exploded onto the spoken word scene in the summer of 1993, his mango flavoured metaphors and his larva-fuelled performances soon became legendary on the London performance poetry circuit. One year after taking is show on the road, Adisa landed first place in a national competition titled, new performance poet of the year. Benjamin Zephaniah who was one of the judges later said, 'Adisa is the future it's so good to have something to look forward to' Adisa has delivered his work in many arenas from pub basements to Buckingham palace, from primary schools to day centres for senior citizens.
Adisa is on a mission to take poetry to the people wherever he finds them; he has taken his word from continent to continent. Adisa delivers his work in a format known as Edutainment, he believes a good performance should be able to entertain the audience, but at the same time challenge the audience to look again and question what it is they hold to be true.
His performances are observations of life, through the Eyes of an African Griot born on a European shore; he takes the audience on a journey of reflection wrapped tightly in a blanket of humour. Dumping stereotypes in the trash harder than a NBA basketball star.
Adisa has found great demand for his work within the walls of education, he frequently visits schools throughout Europe, to deliver performances which have been described as a giant pizza with toppings of African wisdom, observational comedy, life skills, and concert like call and response routines.
His workshops are revolutionary, the classroom becomes a cosy theatre and every student is the leading actor, and the director is the voice within.
His work has been published in various poetry anthologies like including Poems Out Loud selected by Brian Moses (Hodder Wayland Books), Velocity: The Best of Apples and Snakes (Black spring Press) and Moving Voices Black Performance Poetry (Hansib Publications). In the winter of 2004 Adisa was honoured to receive the title of Hackney Poet Laureate.
Adisa constantly strives to redefine the genre of performance poetry, elevate it to its rightful place on the world stage. His latest offering is called Verbalizm. Verbalizm is more than just a poem read to a piece of music, as that would be impossible, due to the fact that, poetry is music and music is poetry, So what we have here is two musical disciplines smelted together forging a brand new genre; VERBALIZM.
Adisa is an Ebb & Flow recording artist; Ebb & Flow is a creative label whose vision and dynamism brings new light and direction to the whole media landscape. The Verbalizer spins tales, set in life's market place to be concluded inside your head.