We’ve found it – the record which acts as the antidote to the holiday (and general) stress – it’s Poetica.
Written during lockdown by Rachael Sage and Dave Eggar, Poetica is a collection of poems from Sage’s personal experience set to a heady mixture of jazz, blues and traditional Appalachian instrumentation. The result is an album which sounds like it could be taken directly from a speakeasy performance, or else the pages of a beat poet’s ashy notebook.
For this new endeavour, Rachael Sage has chosen to partner with young person’s creative agency BEATFREEKS, a company whose work has roots in creativity and spoken word in particular. Beatfreeks’ General Manager, Amerah Saleh, says, “We are delighted to be partnering with Rachael and supporting her beautiful new album, Poetica. Our story here at Beatfreeks began with storytelling, when our founder Anisa created ‘Poetry Jam’ back in 2013 – an open-mic event to give young people in Birmingham, UK a space to have their voices heard, to express and to be free in the space. Since then, thousands of young people nationwide have walked through our doors with something to say, and Poetry Jam is still just as popular to this day. It’s such an important place for young people to be able to express themselves, and I have no doubt seeing Rachael reach such incredible heights with her work will inspire the many talented young people we have in our network to feel empowered to share their story.”
Rachael Sage adds, “I am delighted to have been asked to be an ambassador for BeatFreeks, who are doing exceptional work enabling diverse youth to have their voices heard in creative as well as corporate spaces. The origins of Beatfreeks and focus on spoken word and poetry as a way to bring young community together is so moving to me because it also reminds me of my early days in NYC’s East Village, where I would regularly attend open mics, debut new songs and poems in a shaky voice that gradually became more confident, nurtured by the mutual support among my peers. An environment of collective respect and reverence for individual perspectives that can strengthen the collective creative scene is such a powerful, vital space, and I look forward to lending my voice and experience as an artist to the Beatfreeks mission of inclusivity, mindfulness and positivity around issues that truly matter.”