Award-winning playwright, poet and performer Inua Ellams is curating R.A.P Party, an evening of hip-hop-inspired poems and favourite hip-hop songs with an all-star bill at the Purcell Room of London's Southbank Centre on Saturday 3 August at 8pm as part of Southbank Centre’s celebration of urban arts and street culture. From Friday 2 August to Sunday 4 August skaters, BMXrs, DJs, free runners, break dancers and poets have been invited to perform in the urban spaces around the Southbank, which has been anxious to reassure skateboarders and other “urban arts users” that there will still be a place for them in ambitious redevelopment plans. The skateboarders face being shifted away from the Queen Elizabeth Hall Undercroft, to make way for cafes and restaurants, and are likely to be relocated under nearby Hungerford bridge. The singer Billy Bragg has surprised many of his fans in an article in the Guardian urging the skateboarders to accept the switch in the wider interests of the arts community.  

PHOTOGRAPH: GREG FREEMAN / WRITE OUT LOUD