News at Eleven: "You know, actually, a long time ago

when most people were illiterate, more people memorised poetry. They had to. The irony is that having education and books made us memorise poetry less. The oral tradition in Britain has really died because of publishing and formal education. What we should be excited about, and what the statistics don't reflect, is the number of kids who say, 'I want to tell you about my life in Hackney, and here's my rhyme,' the kids who get up and go to poetry slams. You can go any night of the week to venues in London, Manchester, Birmingham; you can see them having competitions and freestyling--and, yeah, some of it's not great poetry, but it's their lives. It's relevant to them. And out of it you'll get some good poets of the future."

from The Times: Benjamin Zephaniah

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