Chuck Perkins: Poet Laureate of New Orleans

Just back from Cambridge, where I was lucky enough to read on Saturday night with RipRap, a poets and musicians’ collective. Star of the evening was Chuck Perkins, who is over from New Orleans where I met him last year and has been doing a reading tour of the UK: Liverpool, Manchester (where he gave a superb performance last Saturday, supported by local young poets’ collective Young Identity), London’s South Bank – with quick stopovers in Toulouse and Amsterdam. (To check out Riprap with samples of the superb music composed by Kevin Flanagan for a range of poets, go to http://www.kevinflanagan.net/

Chuck – dubbed the Poet Laureate of New Orleans – is a hugely dynamic performer with

In Manchester, onstage with musicians Andy Boothman and Aid Todd

a unique approach that combines beautiful resonant language with trenchant critique of current US politics and the economic crisis. Backed b y the Kevin Flanagan Quartet, he gave a hugely exciting set that had the audience spellbound.

If you haven’t heard his work, here’s a clip from YouTube that shows Chuck at his best. We hope he”ll be back in the UK soon.