Bibi June on Spoken Word Theatre

In this episode the two Mels chat to Bibi June!

Bibi June is a poet, producer and theatre maker originally from Amsterdam, now an import Glaswegian. Through personal experience, their work explores narratives of race, queerness, migration and social inequalities. They mix Glasgow’s down-to-earth culture with Dutch directness in an intimate high-energy performance.

In spring 2017 they received funding from the Workers Theatre to develop their first show, 'Daughter, Mother, Truth', as part of the Megaphone residency, created to promote artists of colour in Scotland. Their first pamphlet ‘Begin Again’ was published by Speculative Books in December 2017. It is a collection of poems on queer life and happiness. Their work has been published in the Beyond Boundaries, Now That’s What I Call Poetry and We Were Always Here anthologies. In 2018, they were part of the judging panel at the National Scottish Poetry Slam, were selected for the Young Arts Industry Programme at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and received both a Disrupter Grant and a Nurturing Talent fund.

They run ‘In The Works’, a spoken word theatre company co-founded with Ross McFarlane and Ellen Renton. ITW was set up to promote innovative spoken word theatre and develop an accessible, diverse and sustainable tradition for the art form. Their first production, A Matter of Time', debuted as part of the Edinburgh Free Fringe 2017. Their second show ‘The 900 Club’ received 4 and 5 star reviews from The Wee Review and The Sunday Post, and SGFringe respectively for its run at the Scottish Poetry Library as part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. It has since been performed in Glasgow, Perth and Nottingham. Their newest show, Make/Shift, is currently touring spoken word events across the UK & Ireland.

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