Listen to Paula talk about books with Charles Adrian here. You’ll also get to hear the song, Paula Varjack, written about none other. Paula is someone who is the best kind of a friend of a friend. I saw her on a Facebook group we were both part of, the Spoken Word team going up to Edinburgh in 2013 with the PBH Free Fringe. I didn’t get to go in the end but it was only a matter of time before our paths crossed.
Paula reminds me a little of Salena Godden, one of my favourite poets. They have the boundless energy, wide smiles and filthy laughs, the optimism and party spirit that has poetry raging, rocking and rollicking. Smooth easy music mixes with raw sounds and follows them around.
On Feb 13th, Paula is part of the Anti-Valentine Festival launch. Come see what she’s made for us. You can buy tickets here.
PAULA VARJACK
With her Berlin postcode, Ghanaian mother, British Father and dual nationality (British/American), It’s probably easiest to say Paula is from a lot of places, but particularly London, Washington Dc and Berlin. Trained as a filmmaker in London, she ran away from her career in television, to pursue documentary filmmaking in Berlin. Within months she emerged as a performance poet (she’s not quite sure how it happened either) She is as likely to perform at a gallery or cabaret night, as at a poetry slam. Sometimes performing with live and recorded music, she has collaborated with music producers, Backdraft, Cloudfist Conceptz (aka Jonas McCloud), Filtig and Dj That F*cking Sara, to find beats that go with her words.In 2008 she was nominated for “Best Performance by an International Poet” in the Farrago London Slam awards. Her first solo show – Kiss and Tell, premiered at Hau Zwei as part of the Berlin 100 grad theatre festival. In 2009 she entered the world of hosting and creating events, the first of which, the anti-slam, is a satirical take on slams where the worst poet wins. Her poems play with the unspoken dialogue in romantic and sexual relationships, the neurosis that plays into the world of urban dating, stories from the edges of club culture, and the politics of being a cosmopolitan woman of colour. What can you expect from her performances? Well…sit back comfortably and get ready to be… Varjacked.
Paula on Facebook
Paula’s vimeo channel
Chok Notes to Self 