Joy Francis speaks to soul diva Mica Paris and previews her forthcoming Valentine’s Day special concert at Rich Mix.
Patsy Isles, Commissioning Editor at Tamarind Books, explains why she’s looking for inventive, quality children’s writers.
Award-winning choreographer Jeanefer Jean-Charles talks World Records, Pans People and ego.
Leading authors, film directors and playwrights tell Mesha Mcneil their high points from 2009 and their artistic plans for 2010.
Words of Colour and Rich Mix are giving one lucky soul lover the chance to win a pair of tickets to see Mica Paris on Saturday 13 February. Find out what you need to do – and fast!
By Karen Plumb
Meet me in that place where only you and I can go;
Our lips join, skin and bodies mould
United in a haven of our own design.
Raw passion unleashed has freedom to explore;
Oh I need you inside, how much further before…
Our minds, hearts, all intimate parts melt:
To form a molten whole.
Time and time you have taken me to that place
To others, unknown and unseen
Leaving no trace when we go,
No one can tell where we’ve been.
Conspicuously we are hand in hand
Towards a path of discovery
That leads to each other’s secret space.
Higher and higher we climb ecstatic,
Harder and harder it is to come to the end
Taking turns to lead and then to follow
Intimacy, desire and obsession
Become our special friends.
That place is more familiar now.
Yet ag ain and ag ain, I am struck by how
You surprise me
With what you know:
A familiarity that breathes content.
No longer do we need to map directions;
Highlighting landmarks and beauty spots.
Together we have discovered new places of desire;
New heights to soar: unknown to us before.
And our bodies merged long ago too:
You are now part of me,
As I am part of you.
By Nicola Greenwood
She had he
He had she
It was a bedtime story
Never to be read again
By Louise Hercules
When I sealed you to my sequined breast
You bore right in and never left
For there you grazed across the core
In seasons four? Well, I’m not sure
But through every vacant pore you crept
To bind me tighter as I slept to dream of heaven scented flesh
Upon my own there you would rest
For days….nights….unhurried….still
Enough to cl aim the shattered will that lay in pieces at your feet
Perhaps it was a clear defeat
Complete annihilation of the soul?
Indeed, I still resolve into the bitter succulence that is…..
This unrelinquished bliss.
Mesha Mcneil takes a provocative look at whether free speech should be extended to the BNP to allow their irrational racism to be exposed.