Poetry reading at Handel&Hendrix Museum, 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, London 23 Jul 2018

The Handel&Hendrix Museum is located at 25 Brook Street, in Mayfair. It is dedicated to the lives and works of baroque composer George Frideric Handel and rock and roll guitar god Jimi Hendrix. The building was home to both men during particularly prolific points of their careers, during which they changed music forever. Their living spaces are separated by a wall and 200 years.

The Museum runs as a charity, and in addition to being open six days a week, and housing an intimate look at the lives of both men, they regularly host acoustic music gigs and sometimes photographic exhibitions. They had never held a poetry reading before, but i felt it would honour Hendrix in a dignified way, especially given his great love of Bob Dylan, who's records dominated Hendrix's collection. I was so happy curators Nicole and Sean agreed. They were wonderful to work with and so enthusiastic and felt that my poetry reading should be held in what had been Jimi Hendrix's bedroom from 1968-69.

The museum and myself invited a variety of artists, musicians and poetry lovers to attend the reading, and on Monday night we gathered in the vibrant bedroom of a young man who had changed the musical landscape and so many lives in such a short span of time.

I started with my poem Shackles and read a large portion of my new work from my third collection Zoreh. I shared my love poems and political poems for a beautifully receptive audience sitting at my feet. I also reflected on what it must have been like for Hendrix, a young man of colour, to rise to the heights of a stellar musical career, when Jim Crow laws had only just been brought to an end in 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Hendrix certainly found freedom and self expression in London. After my reading it was lovely to meet and speak with those who had attended. I was honoured to be the first poet to read there, and look forward to returning.