10.02.2016
ArtsEd BA Acting student Rachel Nwokoro was crowned the 21st UK SLAM! Champion on Saturday 4 February at the Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton. Competing against fourteen other spoken word artists, Rachel won first place with her piece ‘Proud to Be’ and now holds the longest running national slam title in Europe. She will go on to represent the UK at the World Cup of SLAM! in Paris in May 2016.
Judges included Jade Anouka, Abe Gibson, Katie Haworth, Simon Lawrence and Fanny Walker and runners up were John Wheeler and Toby Campion.
Rachel was delighted with her success:
Winning the SLAM! Championship was an overwhelming experience. I knew that I would be competing against the strongest performance poets in the UK and so I was just glad to be performing on the same stage. I had to prepare three poems and it was all incredibly tense when I made it to the third round. It was also quite emotional as my winning piece, ‘Proud to Be’, was first performed in my first-year storytelling project at ArtsEd. To have the opportunity to represent the UK at the World SLAM! Championship in Paris is incredible. I'm grateful to Juma Sharkah, who graduated last year and acted as my mentor, for being in the front row when I won and to ArtsEd and Jane Harrison for supporting my outside pursuits.
For more details and to hear Rachel perform her work go to: