Veritable Verbosity as London Word Festival launches
What’s your favourite word? After years of consideration, I have narrowed mine down to a top five: ‘discombobulated’, ‘drat’, ‘serendipitous’ and ‘free food’. My particular passion for the last two led me to the launch of London Word Festival, a month-long celebration of verbal dexterity, lexicographical tomfoolery and linguistic expertise. Or ‘talking and writing’, for the laymen in the back.
Crammed into a teeny bar in Shoreditch was a crowd of hipster wordsmiths, who had taken a night off from reading the dictionary to meet up and affirm the fact that Words Are Cool. Plied with wine and lettered cupcakes, guests got down to the serious business of playing scrabble and ‘adopting’ the new words that lined the walls, while organisers let us know what to expect from the festival.
Kicking off on Sunday 7 March with The Chip Shop, an innovative screen-printing workshop manned by Henningham Family Press, the festival boasts 13 different events throughout March including comedy, art, storytelling, poetry, and play-of-voices and a scrabble tournament. The actually-related Henningham Family team return with the Keep Printing and Carry On poster-making night on Saturday 20 March, and the Art of Storytelling on Wednesday 31 March
Also participating in the festival is trendy performance poet du jour Laura Dockrill (she’s, like, friends with Kate Nash from their days at the Brit School), aka Dockers MC. The 23-year-old ‘poet for the iPod generation’ writes her material using hip hop beats and references to London street culture, with refreshing results. Laura entertained the masses at the launch with her verbal stylings, a warm-up for her spot supporting ‘grimly hilarious’ poet Tim Turnbull at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club on Wednesday 24 March.
Meanwhile, the funny words look set to flow. King of the comedy rant Robin Ince is hosting the School for Gifted Children: Space Special on Thursday 11 March, which promises to give both sides of your brain a workout in ‘an evening overflowing with affectionate joy towards all things scientific and massive’. The show also features an appearance from Large Hadron Collider keyholder Professor Brian Cox, and a stand-up science class from Helen Keen. Like school, only funnier.
Another highlight is comedienne and panel show regular Josie Long, who will be doing some soul-searching in One Hundred Days to Make Me a Better Person on Wednesday 10 March. Taking a band of comedians, writers, musicians and normal Joes on her journey of self-improvement, Josie’s premise is simple: vowing to do one thing, each day, for one hundred days, in the hope of ‘creative betterment’. Onstage back at the launch party, Long mused on the results of her experiment: ‘I’ve begun to have a new vibe about me. For a start, I’m the kind of person who uses the word ‘vibe’ now…’
So I recommend you follow her lead, pay the festival a visit and pick up some new favourite words of your own. If the free cupcakes were anything to go by, it should be a cracking month.
London Word Festival runs from 7 March to 1 April, in various venues across London. Tickets from Free to £10, available on www.londonwordfestival.com.