Simon Mole
Simon Mole
Simon Mole is an emcee and spoken word artist whose writing and performance foregrounds the unseen and the unheard, the forgotten and the yet to occur. He makes passionate and honest music exploring concepts and ideas from outside the standard spectrum of hip hop content, and his poems are shared with listeners in a way that pushes them to make their own meanings and connections.
Simon built his skills at the open-mics and battles of the Brighton hip hop scene, before moving to London in 2003. As one half of ‘Mole & Iris’ he has put out two well received mini-albums, the second of which, Clouds, was released in 2008.
Since his early teens Simon has also been writing and devising theatre-based art, and in 2008 he was commissioned by Brakin Arts Festival to create a piece challenging the boundaries between hip hop, theatre and spoken word. To Slough and Back was described as humorous, accessible and imaginative, and was also shown at the Secret Garden Party festival.
www.mypsace.com/moleandiris
Simon has a wide range of experience across London and the south-east working in schools, youth clubs, and pupil referral units, as well as at Great Ormond Street Hospital as part of Jonzi-D Production’s ‘Hip Hop Hospital’ project. He gives young people the opportunity to develop new creative-expressive skills and his workshops are proven to increase the confidence and communication skills of the participants.
Alongside these inter-personal skills, Simon’s main strength is his ability to use his art-form to facilitate curriculum-based-learning. He has worked with Creative Partnerships on many successful projects using hip hop and poetry to inspire children’s learning in subjects as diverse as Maths, English, Geography and PSHE/citizenship.
Relevant Age Groups:
7 - 11 years, 11 - 14 years, 14 - 16 years
