Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * * *

Cast: Jess Green

Performance poet Jess Green focuses her poetry on her own experiences of when she worked in schools as a reading champion. She has created a very fast paced performance, lasting just over an hour and delivers no less than ten unique poems accompanied by acoustic guitar and a Cajon drum. Green introduces us to Janine, a tired sixty-something who is fighting for her pension on the picket line, and Sandra the librarian who secretly removes ‘unsuitable’ books and takes them to the tip. There are many more characters in Green’s repertoire and all just as quirky and funny as the last.

Although all are based around school and the frustrations of trying to teach under our shared current government, there is a definite story being told here. Green’s poems are wonderfully structured, and her energy and passion are dominant all the way through. Confident, bold and strong throughout, her words flow from one line to the next and she creates and paints wonderful pictures with each stanza. The musical soundtrack is more than background; it lifts her words and only strengthens the natural rhythm she has created within her poems.

Ms. Green has created unique, funny and inspiring work. She has taken her own observations and has used them to create social commentary through poetry that will always have a voice. Social commentary is a very human thing; it is the heartbeat of who we are, and forms bonds that creates communities that want to make a difference.

Even if you are not a fan of poetry, it should be urged for anyone and everyone to go and witness first hand Ms. Green and her band The Mischief Thieves. They are right on the front line for performance and are immensely entertaining.

Janie Phillips