Apples and Snakes announces Inua Ellams, Michael Rosen, Jordan Stephens, The Last Poets and more live at historic intergenerational event

Apples and Snakes, the UK’s national organisation for performance poetry, presents More Fire at Woolwich Works on 5 November 2026. On Guy Fawkes Night, for one night only, some of the most radical and exceptional voices in performance poetry, aged from 18 to 80, who have never performed on the same stage before, come together. The evening is a transformative spotlight on the origins, present and future of performance poetry. On one stage, the power of poetry is spoken by the poets who have impacted and empowered – a community of truth tellers and rebels passing the flame.

More Fire features: AFLO.thepoet, David Okodeh, Inua Ellams, Jordan Stephens, Michael Rosen, Rakaya Fetuga and The Last Poets
Hosted by Yomi Ṣode

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Images from left clockwise: The Last Poets, Michael Rosen, Inua Ellams, David Okodeh, Rakaya Fetuga, AFLO.thepoet and Jordan Stephens.

For over forty years, Apples and Snakes has championed performance poetry across generations, nurturing new voices while celebrating the artists who shaped the art form. More Fire promises an evening of unfiltered, raw storytelling energy that burns bright for one night only.

From the pioneers who helped invent hip-hop to the poets shaping British culture today, More Fire’s line-up brings together New York based influential voices: The Last Poets, Abiodun Oyewole and Baba Donn Babatunde returning to the UK for the first time since 2019, and Nigerian-born poet, playwright, performer and graphic artist Inua Ellams. Platforming the roots of British performance poetry to now are legends Michael Rosen and Jordan Stephens, with rising stars AFLO.thepoet, David Okodeh and Rakaya Fetuga.

Coming together on stage as one, The Last Poets will lead a pledge, in the spirit of the one they perform at their own shows, inviting every poet and the whole room to join in.

Lisa Mead, Director of Apples and Snakes, says: “Apples and Snakes has been working with The Last Poets since 2013, but they haven’t performed here since 2019. A whole generation of young poets in the UK has never seen them live. More Fire shows why they still matter, and how directly their work still speaks to younger poets working in political, activist spaces today. This night is a showcase of everything Apples and Snakes stands for: platforming poets across the generations, from our youngest performer at 18 to our oldest at 80.”

Ty’rone Haughton, Apples and Snakes Associate Artistic Director, says: “At this moment in time, when the world is so polarised, we have created More Fire to be a night of connection, humanity and understanding of each other. Poets have always given power to the people and movements. More Fire is not poetry for the corporations, institutions or the bourgeois. More Fire is poetry for the people!”

The line-up:
AFLO.thepoet (she/they) is a Brighton-based spoken word artist, activist and academic who uses poetry as a tool for resistance, healing and radical honesty, exploring race, identity, wellbeing and social justice. She has performed everywhere from Glastonbury to a TEDx Talk, hosts the poetry night STATUS FLO at Brighton Dome, and leads the Brighton branch of Apples and Snakes’ Poet in Your City programme.

David Okodeh is an 18-year-old actor, poet and writer from Greater Manchester, whose work centres on his perspective as a young Northern Black man. He was longlisted for the 2026 Forward Prize for Best Poem Performed and was a National Finalist at the Loud Poets Grand Slam. A member of Young Identity and the National Youth Theatre, he has performed at the National Theatre and in the West End, where his debut play, The Worst Part, was also staged.

Inua Ellams is a Nigerian-born poet, playwright, performer and graphic artist, and founder of The Midnight Run, The Rhythm and Poetry Party and Poetry + Film/Hack. Identity, displacement and destiny recur throughout his work, which blends traditional African oral storytelling with contemporary poetics. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned in the Margins and Bloomsbury.

Jordan Stephens is one half of the chart-topping duo Rizzle Kicks, an actor, and author of the Sunday Times bestseller Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak & Dogs. He made his theatre debut in the lead role of Entertaining Mr Sloane, hosted the Channel 4 documentary Hunting My Sextortion Scammer, and now co-hosts the BBC podcast Miss Me. His work explores modern masculinity, relationships and mental health.

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best-loved poets, author of over 200 books including We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Sad Book. A former UK Children’s Laureate and Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, he has spent over fifty years writing, performing and running workshops in schools and communities. His activism goes back to his student days, when he was arrested protesting against the Vietnam War and racial discrimination — the same spirit of speaking out that still runs through his work today.

Rakaya Fetuga is a poet and writer from North-West London whose work has taken her from Qatar to Cuba, writing for organisations including the UN, Cartier Women’s Initiative and the BBC. She has received writing awards from the New York TV & Film Festival and Royal Holloway, University of London, and won the Roundhouse Poetry Slam in 2018. She is an advocate for self-expression and hosts creative events at Rumi’s Cave.

The Last Poets formed in the late 1960s as part of the African-American civil rights movement, and their influence runs through the whole of hip hop. They have collaborated with artists including Nas, Common, Erykah Badu and Kanye West, appeared in HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and the film Poetic Justice, and toured the world for over five decades. At More Fire, founding member Abiodun Oyewole and Baba Donn Babatunde carry that legacy forward, performing to promote self-empowerment through music and the spoken word.

Apples and Snakes More Fire is at Woolwich Works, London SE18, on 5 Nov 2026. Doors 7:30pm. For info and tickets, visit woolwich.works/events/more-fire