WordWorks Workshop: Spoken Word & Music

Tongue Fu's Chris Redmond brings his wealth of knowledge and passion for the art of blending poetry and music.

Here at SproutSpoken we have had various toe-in-the-water experiences exploring ways to combine music and spoken word and we’re keen to encourage more! And who better to learn from that, poet, musician, performer, and producer: Chris Redmond…

Chris is artistic director of Tongue Fu, one of the UK’s leading spoken word shows, where poets, comedians, storytellers and rappers perform with improvised music and films. Tongue Fu has toured from London’s Roundhouse to Dublin to Rio to Cape Town collaborating with a range of artists from Kae Tempest, to Irvine Welsh and Akala. In 2020 TF released their first studio album, ‘Boat Building’, a collaboration with poets, Vanessa Kisuule, Dizraeli, Amyra León, Anthony Anaxagorou and more. It featured on BBC6Music, BBC R1, 1Xtra, BBCR4’s Loose Ends, BBC In- troducing and WorldWideFM.

“A beautiful album” – Cerys Matthews (BBC 6Music) “…easily one of the best Spoken Word albums in recent years.” Raymond Antrobus

As a musician Chris has toured extensively with all kinds of reprobate bands. In the slightly more respectable world of theatre he has worked with Improbable on Panic, ice&fire on The Nine O’- Clock Slot and with Cecilia Knapp on her show Finding Home. He is currently working as musi- cian, writer and performer for Off The Beaten Track, a new dance/theatre/comedy show by Sole Rebel. He has also composed music for EMI/KPM, BBC One, ITV and Discovery Channel.

A regular at music and literature festivals, he’s featured on BBC Radio 1, 2, 4, 6Music, CBBC and Sky Arts. Chris’s debut collection Let The Pig Out is published by Burning Eye. Sometimes he goes deep (ish). Other times he’s content to splash around happily in the shallows. Like a poetry narwhal, but skinnier and without the prongy bit.

As an educator, Chris leads workshops in writing, performing and musicianship for organisations such as the British Council, BBC, BAC, First Story, National Theatre, the Roundhouse and St Mary’s University, London.

Chris lives in Somerset with his family and their one-eyed murderous cat.

7th May 2022
3pm – 5pm
St Michael’s Church Hall
£5

Don’t miss out on Chris’ headline set at our Face the Music event at Sprout Health Foods in the evening!

SproutSpoken is kindly supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.