Talk #159

Testament

Tuesday 20 January 2026, 5.30pm

Salutation Pub (upstairs)
Higher Chatham Street
Manchester
M15 6ED

Please check back later for the registration link.

A video recording of this talk will be available from 20 February.

Testament is a writer, rapper, educator and world record breaking beatboxer.

Testament is writer of awards nominated play Black Men Walking (Best Play UK Theatre Awards, Best New Play Writer’s Guild of Great Britain) and Orpheus In The Record Shop which was broadcast on BBC Four TV.

As a poet Testament was Black Nature Writer-in Residence for the Yorkshire Dales 2024, and part the award-winning Hot Poets eco-poetry collective. He is also a contributor to the acclaimed Gifts of Gravity & Light: A Nature Almanac for the 21st Century (Hodder Books) 2021.

Testament’s diverse work includes spoken word, composing music for award winning adverts, writing musicals, performing at Downing Street, making radio history documentaries, nature essays and freestyle rapping for Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Testament has had numerous TV appearances on BBC, ITV and Sky Arts and has been the guest host on Radio 4 poetry show The Verb twice. His poetic radio drama Daughter won Special Commendation at the BBC Audiodrama Awards 2022 and was nominated for the Prix Europa.

He was 2019 Channel 4 Writer-in-Residence for The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester.

As a facilitator, Testament runs the HIP-HOP CLINIC - a workshop that company that runs rap, poetry and beatbox workshops around the world. He has also worked with BBC Bitesize and presented GCSE Poetry podcasts.

Currently, he is a writer on the hit Top 10 NETFLIX animated show Castlevania Nocturne.