David Chislett will be appearing at Mercury Live in Zonnebloem on Thursday 23 August with a story-telling and music poetry performance as part of the Waxing Lyrical series of shows at the venue. He shares the bill on the night with award winning artist and performer Shannon Hope.
Chislett released his debut poetry collection, For Your Or Someone Like You in July 2012 and has been playing live poetry shows around Johannesburg weekly since then. The performance includes stories from Chislett’s past, reflections on writing and glimpses into the motivations of the poems. He also recites spontaneous selections from the book and plays musical versions of some of the poems during the performance.
“An author is all too often confined to the shelf and perhaps a launch,” Chislett explains of the show, “This way I can get out there and live the book. Poetry is such a dynamic art it seems a pity to condemn it to the shelf. This is my way of setting it free, one show at a time.”
“I also decided to add value to the book by recording an album with it,” says Chislett, “I gave the poems to a selection of musicians and those ten tracks are on the album. There are some very interesting songs that have resulted from the process.”
Artists featured on the album include Matthew Van Der Want, Shannon Hope, Rambling Jay Bones and Shotgun Tori. The live show however features only compositions by Chislett from the poetry collection.
Waxing Lyrical
David Chislett, Shannon Hope
Thursday 23 August
20:00
Mercury Live
Devilliers street, Zonnebloem
R30.00
