"I’m really excited about being involved with Cycle of Songs as I love the idea of bringing this history to life, a history which I am part of. I am looking forward to sharing this history not only through my own medium of rap, but with the choral melodies and background production, which I feel will add intrigue and drama to the piece. I am excited to make this history more accessible to others."

I am writing a piece about Freedom, roughly based on the story of Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson, two of the most prominent campaigners against the Transatlantic Slave Trade, who were both at one time Cambridge residents. This will be mixed with my history and personal experiences in Cambridge and the UK. I will be producing my own composition and working with the choral groups to add a greater depth to my rap story. 

To learn more about the piece that Inja has written and to hear a demo version of it you can visit the Sound Files page.

I have been teaching rap, lyric writing and poetry for over 10 years now, in schools and youth centres across the country. I have also worked as a professional rapper since the age of 18. I write and perform my own work, as well as ghost writing and commission writing for a number of people and organisations. I founded a youth organization, Page to Performance, in 2009, in order to raise the interest of young people in poetry and words. Through this, I have been involved recently in a number of projects aimed at bringing to life, through poetry and rap, a very diverse range of subject matters; from riverside developments to world war and the joys of cycling. For each project, I have collaborated with young people to write their own poetry or raps on the subject matter. We have researched the themes together, carried out interviews and tours and finally brought together the pieces in order to share these with the wider communities around them. Sometimes we do this through live performances; sometimes online video presentations. Our final video / poetry presentation about young people’s joy of cycling can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsKlWaIiI7w

Commissioned rap performance on fatherhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0OmPWJIAhE

The ‘Rivers and Rhymes’ project live presentation night is documented here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ8iFZauNu8

 To enquire about commissions, performances or youth education work,

please email Oli@pagetoperformance.org.

http://pagetoperformance.org/about-us/

To hear more of my music, please see: http://inja.bandcamp.com

To view pictures of Inja's involvement with Cycle of Songs click on the slideshow below: