Beats, Rhythms & Rhymes: Spoken Word Evening

Beats, Rhythms & Rhymes is a spoken word evening at the Museum of Oxford on Saturday 17 October, put on as part of Black History Month. It brings together spoken word, performance poetry and song, with the whole thing built around the way music is used to tell stories and celebrate history, communities and resilience. If you're into poetry that doesn't just sit on the page but works with sound and performance, this is exactly that.

The evening is a collaboration with Unlock the Chains Collective, a company that makes theatre and cultural engagement exploring the Black experience through a mix of dance, music, song and spoken word. They bring artists together to develop what they describe as a Black Arts aesthetic, and that's the energy they're bringing to this night. It's less a traditional poetry reading and more of a performance, where the spoken word sits alongside music rather than just over it.

One of the better bits of the ticket is that it includes free entry to the museum and to the Sounds of the City exhibition, so you can have a wander through the galleries before the performances start. If you're coming from out of town or just fancy making a proper afternoon of it, that's a nice way to settle in before the main event.

Doors open at 6:30pm, and the performances start at 7pm. Tickets start from £8.80, which includes the booking fee, and as mentioned, that covers your entry to the museum and the Sounds of the City exhibition too.