Teen poetry

In The Independent, Bill Hicks reports from the London Teenage Poetry Slam.

It's a Saturday afternoon, and seven teenagers take the stage of the Stratford Circus in east London. They're handed a trophy, and the crowd goes wild, stamping and chanting, "Lam-mas! Lam-mas!"

This is not a basketball match, but the finals of the London Teenage Poetry Slam, and these pupils from The Lammas School in Leyton have just won a cup for the quality of their poetry. Specifically, for writing and performing blistering poems about living in London E10, and their family roots in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Turkey – and Waltham Forest.