Tongue Fu is the UK’s leading spoken word and music show. Writer, musician and founder, Chris Redmond, invites extraordinary poets, comedians, storytellers and rappers to take risks, re-working material live with jaw-dropping improvised soundtracks from a crack team of quick witted, genre-hopping musicians.
No two shows are the same and this irreverent blend of well crafted words, improv and music have earned them critical acclaim at music, poetry and literature festivals across the UK and around the world. Tongue Fu is part gig, part experiment; a high energy, big hearted show with a wide appeal.
Belle Ehresmann
Bellatrix is a fast rising singer and songwriter who also happens to be a guildhall trained double bassist and former world beatboxing champion.
This unusual and multifaceted artist is always engaged in a diverse range of projects for which she wears a multitude of different musical hats.
Anthony Joseph
Anthony Joseph is a poet, novelist, musician and lecturer described as ‘the leader of the black avant-garde in Britain’. His written work and performance occupies a space between surrealism, Jazz and the rhythms of Caribbean speech and music. He is the author of four poetry collections and a novel The African Origins of UFOs. In 2005 he was selected by the Arts Council of England and Renaissance One as one of 50 Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature.
Zena Edwards
Raised in Tottenham, North London, Zena Edwards has become known as one the most unique voices of performance poetry to come out of London. She is also known for her polemic voice, speaking on panels for climate change and creative campaigning for equality and equitable rights.
“As a performer and writer, Zena Edwards takes storytelling into the twenty-first century.” – Pure Poetry
Rebecca Tantony
Rebecca Tantony is one of the leading figures in the thriving spoken word scene in Bristol and beyond.
She has been a major part of the Bristol poetry scene for several years, not only as a writer but also a performer, curator of the Harbourside Festival’s poetry stage and a Creative Writing teacher.
Pumn de Tărână
Pumn de Ţărână has been active since 2008 on the stage of Romanian rap. He has released four rap albums to date, most recently “Eu sînt litera” (2016), marking the moment of transition to written poetry and spoken word. He made his debut as a writer under the pseudonym of Onisimus Lang with the poetry volume “Sfidarea Stafidelor.” He calls himself the happiest poet alive, not using poetry for therapeutic purposes, but enjoying it as a cup of coffee before taking the first word out of his mouth in the morning.
Tudor Ciubotari
Tudor Ciubotari started the Poethree project in 2014, through which he managed to familiarize the Romanian public with the concept of spoken word and acted as a foundation for the development of the Poethree Collective community and the first Romanian word festival: Poethree Connexions.
Along with these, he has organized over 50 events promoting lyrical art in a completely new light.