Cabaret for Freedom with Salena Godden, Nick Makoha, J. Chambers & Young Identity

Advance tickets for this event are now available for MLF Get Closer Members to buy. Memberships start at £25 per year - for full details of membership benefits and buying options click HERE. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday 14 August at 10am.

Join us for an evening celebrating the legacy of influential writer, dub poet and political activist Benjamin Zephaniah. Enjoy some reggae-infused hip hop from J. Chambers & The Redemption Sound, electrifying poetry from award-winning writers Salena Godden and Nick Makoha, and the premiere of new work created especially for the occasion by Young Identity members Maya Chowdhury, David Okodeh, Abhijeet Singh and Fauzia Agboonhin.

Salena Godden is an author, poet, memoirist and broadcaster of Jamaican-mixed heritage. Her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death won the Indie Book Award for Fiction. Her latest poetry collection With Love, Grief and Fury is full of love and hope for people and the planet. The title poem, Pessimism is for Lightweights has been sung as a rallying call at national protests and is on permanent display at the People’s History Museum in Manchester.

Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright based in London. His debut collection Kingdom of Gravity was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize. His new collection The New Carthaginians has been hailed as a work of staggering originality, depicting the odyssey of three characters: the Poet, a Black Icarus and a resurrected Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Artist and dub poet, J. Chambers is a true example of self-made artistry. His recent music and film project Homecoming was a journey of self-discovery through which he collaborated with some of Jamaica’s iconic studios to produce his hopeful, uplifting and energetic songs.

Young Identity is a Manchester-based arts charity with a mission to nurture, develop and champion the voices and creativity of diverse young people through literature, writing and performance:

Maya Chowdhury is a young British Bangladeshi, Muslim poet. She has facilitated poetry workshops, hosted, curated and performed at poetry events as well as writing a poem that accompanies two murals in Old Trafford, for Safer Streets. One of her poems featured in the Young Identity anthology, No Disclaimers volume 2.

David Okodeh is a 17-year-old poet, actor and writer from Greater Manchester. He became the winner of ‘The Poetry Place’ slam at the age of 16. Having performed at both the National Theatre and West End, he has poetry published in the British Library and the Creation Through Form anthology.

Abhijeet Singh is a poet and translator based in Manchester. Their work has been published in Propel and The Bombay Literary Magazine, and they were shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize. Abhijeet is a recipient of a Collaborative Doctoral Award from Manchester City of Literature and Manchester Metropolitan University. Their Pan-African poem will appear in the new big picture show Pan Imperial War Museum, in October 2025.

Fauzia Agboonhin is a Nigerian-Canadian slam poet and author of I Never Truly Hated You. She is a Young Identity One Mic Stand slam champion and was ranked fourth place in Canada at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word Poetry 2019. She has performed for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2022 and is a recipient of the 2023 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Award from Canadian Member of Parliament Arielle Kayabaga. 

Wheelchair Users and those with other access needs requiring a free Essential Carer ticket should contact the Quaytickets Box Office on 0161 876 2015 to purchase tickets.