The Babble On strand of the Edinburgh International Book Festival has brought many talented writers and performers to the city over the last few years and The Last Poets could well be the most anticipated. The group formed on the 1960’s, blend poetry and music and are pioneers of rap and hip hop. Dutch writer and performer Christine Otten recently published a novel charting the history of the group and she is in Edinburgh with The Last Poets to discuss this novelisation and to talk about the long and complicated history of the band.
Otten’s book is more than just a straight forward novelisation. It charts the complex past of one of the most exciting and influential acts in the history of music. It is also a book about struggle, passion, New York, black America and a love of music and poetry. The event is chaired by music journalist Olaf Furniss and features Christine Otten and three of The Last Poets – Baba Donn Babatunde, Umar Bin Hassan and Obiodun Oyewade. When asked what they thought of when they realised their story was being catalogued by Otten, Umar Bin Hassan states that “I thought she was crazy. She was fearless”. While Baba Donn Babatunde mentions that Christine is “A worthy writer to tell the story of The Last Poets“. Their story is a complex one and takes a writer with confidence and passion to complete the task. Christine talks about her choice of writing the book as a novel, as opposed to a traditional biography. “With a novel you can be, feel and think like the characters” and the technique works well.
The Last Poets talk about their past, former band members and the pressures of creating art and being an activist. Unfortunately due to some unforgivable timekeeping from the chair The Last Poets get little time to actually perform. Only after the hour is up do the audience get to hear one song from Baba Donn Babatunde and half a poem from Umar Bin Hassan. Meanwhile Obiodun Oyewade spent the hour patiently sat behind his bongo drums, with little opportunity to actually play. It felt like a missed opportunity and the band were rushed out of door as the event greatly over ran the allocated hour time slot. There were no audience questions, but plenty from the chair. With having such a talented and influential act at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, it is frustrating that they were not given the chance to perform their poetry and music to their many fans. Hopefully the Book Festival will have The Last Poets back again, as their visit this year felt far too brief.