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George the Poet: Live from the Barbican

+ Sophia Thakur

,Barbican Hall
Image of George the Poet set against a yellow background

Spoken word performer George the Poet presents his unique combination of music, poetry and social commentary, with live orchestral accompaniment.

For years George has written poetry about the highs and lows of Black life, backed by the driving force of Black music. In this evening’s one-off show, ‘Common Ground’, he looks at the unifying power of this music, and how it has transformed the world – be it jazz in America, reggae in Jamaica, or grime in Britain. With spoken word taken from upcoming episodes of his award-winning podcast, he walks us through historic injustices which sparked Black music movements and birthed 150 years of musical innovation.

Tonight, he’ll be accompanied on stage by a twelve-piece ensemble of classical musicians from the BBC Concert Orchestra, and audience members can submit their questions for an interactive Q&A session.

Spoken-word performer, poet and author of the book Somebody Give This Heart A Pen, Sophia Thakur opens the evening.

Tagged with: Contemporary music Live from the Barbican Contemporary Music

This performance is subject to government guidelines.

Under new guidelines, we’ve fewer available seats in our venues and thoroughly clean between performances. Two households can sit together (subject to review), and we ask you to not swap seats so we can maintain a safe distance between you and other groups.

Livestream tickets will be available to watch back until Sat 3 Jul at 8pm. You can buy a ticket up until this point.

Produced by the Barbican

Generously supported by Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley.

Ask a question

In this performance, George looks at the unifying power of Black music and how it's transformed the world. You can ask George a question related to this by tweeting @georgethepoet with the hashtags #GTPCG and #AskMeAnything. He'll select a few questions to answer live during the show.

Read the programme

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Barbican Hall