Queen Mary alumna Annabel Fabian wins Roundhouse Poetry Slam 2023 at renowned spoken word event at the prestigious London venue, Roundhouse in Camden.
The Roundhouse Poetry Slam is one of the highlights of the Roundhouse calendar, bringing together emerging spoken word artists aged 18-25 to compete for a cash prize and the coveted title of Slam Champion.
Having made it through six national heats, the most exciting voices in spoken word put their original work to the test in front of a live audience and an esteemed panel of judges: gal-dem founder and 'Rosewater' author, Liv Little, T.S. Eliot Prize Winner Roger Robinson and Rachel Long, one of the UK's most acclaimed poets and the founder of Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour.
On the night Annabel’s captivating and emotionally charged performance scooped her the cash prize of £1,000 and crowned Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion 2023.
‘Sometimes the girls are out for blood’ - Annabel Fabian
Commenting on the win, Annabel Fabian said: “I feel very grateful for all the kind feedback on my poetry and it still feels very surreal to have won; I truly wasn’t expecting it. All of the poets that took part were fantastic and I feel proud to have shared the same space as them. It was a great experience to be in an environment surrounded with other young poets.”
At the event Annabel Fabian performed her two original poems: ‘Sometimes the girls are out for blood’- a poem about female rage, and ‘This body is a temple and also a pin cushion’ – a poem which explores and unpacks her feelings regarding her body and what it means to be a woman in a society that values and devalues women based on their appearance.
Annabel Fabian explained: “As a writer I tend to focus on themes of womanhood and the female experience, and I use poetry as a tool to explore my own feelings regarding these topics. Both poems were built upon experiences and feelings that I find can be difficult to articulate. For that reason, I wanted to share the work. Society has a long way to go in terms of gender equality and it felt very special to me to share some of my feminist beliefs on the roundhouse stage.”
‘This body is a temple and also a pin cushion’ - Annabel Fabian
Commenting on her time at Queen Mary University of London, Annabel Fabian said:
“I loved my three years at Queen Mary, I feel like across them all I grew so much as an artist and a writer. When thinking about the development of my writing I am always extremely grateful for the Performance Composition module in my final year. I had been writing poems for a couple years prior to the class but it was during this module I first received feedback and performed my poetry to audiences. I feel like I owe a lot of my confidence as a performer to that module. All the staff at Queen Mary focus on helping you naturally develop your own voice and style in performance and that’s something I am grateful for and have found extremely useful since graduating.”
Join the School of English and Drama new ‘Drama with Creative Writing’ programme here: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/coursefinder/courses/2023/drama-with-creative-writing/
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