By Fran Gillespie
Students at Doha College yesterday morning were treated to a performance by visiting British poet Nick Toczek. The 59-year-old Yorkshireman Toczek, who describes himself as ‘a bald bloke in a Bob Marley shirt’, had the youngsters falling about laughing at his jokes and funny stories and spellbound by his powerful recitals of his strongly rhythmic and rhyming poetry.
Toczek , widely known in the UK as the author of best-selling books of poetry for youngsters, aims his verses at a wide age range, from very young readers up to high-schoolers. His poems, full of plays on words and catchy alliteration, demand to be read aloud and his energetic rendering of such popular poems as ‘Cars in Cairo’ and ‘Dragon in the Cellar’ were cheerfully applauded by his young audience.
“I write poems on all sorts of topics, whatever inspires me,” Toczek told the children. “In fact, I’ve already got a poem forming in the back of my mind about Doha!”
After his performance, Toczek launched into a busy programme of workshops for smaller groups of students which continued throughout the morning. He will conduct more workshops today in the junior department of Doha College.
During the next two weeks Toczek will be performing at schools all over Qatar.
He told Gulf Times, “I’ve been visiting schools, reciting poetry, doing shows and encouraging youngsters to write for the last 40 years. In fact I calculate that I’ve visited around 5,000 schools altogether. I love travelling – I’ve been all over the world from China to Cyprus and many places in between.”
Besides travelling around schools world-wide and writing poetry, Nick Toczek writes novels, teaches creative writing, performs at festivals, clubs and even in prisons, presents his own weekly show on local radio and writes lyrics, including one for the English indie rock band Babyshambles whose leader, Pete Doherty’s personal life is frequently featured in the British tabloid press.
He has published over 30 books and reckons his poetry books alone have sold about ¾ mn copies.
But there’s a serious side to this popular entertainer: he has strong political views, writes political speeches, and in spring 2010 his political opera ‘The Jailer’s Tale’, for which his playscript and lyrics have been set to music by the composer Malcolm Singer, will be premiered at London’s Arts Depot and the Royal Festival Hall. ‘It’s based on Guantanamo Bay,’ he told Gulf Times. |
