The shortlist for the 64th Evening Standard Awards was announced yesterday and the winners will be made public on 18 November.
Poet in Da Corner is a coming of age story inspired by Dizzee Rascal’s seminal album. In a strict Mormon household somewhere in the seam between East London and Essex, a girl is given Dizzee Rascal’s ground-breaking grime album Boy in da Corner by her best friend SS Vyper.
Precisely 57 minutes and 21 seconds later, her life begins to change – from feeling muted by dyslexia to spitting the power of her words; from being conflicted about her sexuality to finding the freedom to explore; from feeling alone to being given the greatest gift by her closest friend.
In this semi-autobiographical piece, the audience is invited to step into a technicolour world where music, dance and spoken word collide, and discover how grime allowed Debris Stevenson to redefine herself.
Debris Stevenson is a young poet, lyricist and dancer who has performed her unique work everywhere from BBC Radio 3’s The Verb to London’s Roundhouse. The play is directed by Ola Ince, featuring grime MC Jammz, with music and composition by Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante from hip-hop dance company Boy Blue.