Ben Mellor

Biography

Performance Ben is an award-winning slam poet (BBC Radio 4 Slam Champion 2009, Dike Omeje Slam Poetry Award 2008), writer and actor who has performed his work at theatres, festivals, schools and young offender institutes nationally and internationally. He is the founder of Moksha Arts, a performing arts company dedicated to addressing social and ecological issues. Moksha produced Ben’s debut solo spoken word theatre piece, Voices of Dissent and are currently developing new solo and collaborative projects. Ben is also a founder member of spoken word/hip hop theatre collective, Pen-ultimate, who are currently touring their debut show, A Night on the Tiles, to venues around the UK. Ben’s debut poetry collection and spoken word album, both titled Light Made Solid, were published this year by Flapjack Press, and he has had poetry and fiction published by Route, Corporatewatch, Puppywolf and Poetry Review. In addition to working with studio-based producers and sound designers he performs spoken word, MCs and beatboxes with various musicians including Jason Singh, Myke Wilson and singer/songwriter, Léonie Higgins. “ A pure undiluted talent. Concentrated” Lemn Sissay “… lyrical dexterity & content that demands attention, gets it, and most importantly… holds it.” Diké Omeje Education Ben is an accomplished and experienced workshop facilitator, project coordinator and director who has worked for Contact, Apples & Snakes, Creative Partnerships, Phoenix Youth Theatre, and a host of other schools and young people's organisations. His areas of interest include performance poetry, drama (with a focus on forum, physical and hip hop theatre), environmental arts, creative writing and human beatbox. Ben has experience of working with infants, children, young people and young adults from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities, including young offenders, NEETs, gifted and talented and mental health survivors. “Ben finds a unique and natural way to engage with young people, giving them a platform to learn and have new experiences and also give them a sense of leadership and power sharing that is really special.” - Danny Fahey, Project Manager, Contact. “Ben Mellor is a talented writer and performer with a boundless energy and enthusiasm for sharing this art with young people. We have worked with Ben for many years. His ability to be flexible, understand the needs of the young people he works with, and subsequently adapt his work to inspire and engage them has been invaluable.” - Wendy Ellis, AD/CEO of The Phoenix youth theatre.

Samples

Hiroshima, My Love He was like this alpha male particle Who randomly crashed into me at a party, all Promise and ambition, but that first collision Released amorous energy equivalent to nuclear fission. I felt chained to the reaction, Forever changed by our attraction And split, not into sub-atomic fractions, But simply into me before, and after, our interaction. In the early days he'd shower me With praise and flowers, be they radiant roses Like rays of sun the earth devours when days are done Or tulips, geraniums cadmium red or yellow as uranium. I was enriched. 235 times over, His alchemy made heavy water days fizz like soda I glowed, ablaze, irradiated, penetrated like gamma, he Even made me begin to imagine creating a nuclear family. He worshipped me like the goddess Demeter He said our love was too abundant to meter, We could cheat the fallout from an atomic bomb, Beat the apocalyptic hinterland of a nuclear winter. Man, he was wrong. For beneath a love too good to ever be through Grew a tumour of mutant words so meant to be true But empty of energy when his fuel rod was spent, waste Mounted in underground pools too deep to be faced And when it leaked out we covered it up With a blanket of secrets, smothered it, fucked With forced groans that used to be felt, drowned The sound of alarms screaming of melt-down And as our half-lives decayed, contamination Became weapons grade stockpiles, proliferation Of fissile missiles made destruction mutually assured With just a hair-trigger deterrent like Damocles' sword. Mushroom storm clouds brewing a rain of ruin Estranged lovers ducked for cover pressed button pursuing A white-hot solution for cold war allies turned enemies All that's left is a shadow of love burned on our memories. Love Drug Assumed I was immune to eyes, but yours seduced me like Rohypnol, Neutralised my acid butterflies with a smile like Pepto-Bismol My bowels dropped, like Senokot, as I watched you on that podium But your radiating radiance blocked me like Immodium You’re essence was essential, complex as multi-vitamins You made me hyper-active, then calmed me down like Ritalin Your (ha ha ha) Nitrous Oxide laugh was unsurpassed But it covered your abrasiveness like Elastoplast Your force turned dark, as if your name was Anakin, You became my headache, and my simultaneous Anadin, My Canesten, and my irritating itch, My Optrex, and my bit of aggravating grit. You were the heroine that saved me from being left alone But I preferred that habit to being addicted to your methadone Now you’re my opiate religion, how I wish that I’d foreseen The pain you’d cause me that would hook me to your morphine I was happy when I met you, now my moods are so black You’re the root of my depression, I depend on you like Prozac I used to write as an antidote, but now my flow’s blocked, You’ve frozen my emotional expression like Botox You pummel my self-confidence then ease me like Deep Heat Your tongue so surgically sharp it cuts me three feet deep But your saliva’s antiseptic, protects my wounds like Savlon My stomach’s filled with bile you turn to milk like gaviscon As I refrain from warning ‘you’re messing with the wrong fella’- My bitten tongue lies flaccid, your kiss soothes it like Bonjela My lips are tingling with sores, but your mouth is like Zovirax My breath constricts as if my neck’s been tied by twenty tie-racks I whisper ‘I feel suffocated’, but that just gives you kicks, You smother me till I asphyxiate then let me breathe like Vicks This relationship is sick, but I can’t kill it yet I want to quit but you’re more addictive than a cigarette And other girls are Nicorette - they’re not a patch on you. There’s no cure, as there’s no disease I’d rather catch than you.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.