Joshua Idehen

On 11 November 2026 at Project House, Leeds, British-Nigerian poet, vocalist and musician Joshua Idehen brings a live set that threads spoken word through jazz and electronic textures. First noticed with the trio Benin City, he has since moved between the UK jazz scene and club production, collaborating along the way with Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming and Daedelus. His writing is sharply rhythmic, built on a clear, front-facing delivery that folds everyday observations, social reflections and more intimate narratives into pieces that sit as comfortably on a stage as on a dancefloor.

Idehen’s voice cuts across supple synths, house-leaning and broken beat pulses, with arrangements touched by contemporary jazz. Recent releases map the route: Learn To Swim (2021), made with Swedish producer Ludvig Parment, and the 2024 EP Mum Does The Washing, both fusing cadence, text and production without splitting the poetry mic from the concert or the club. In Leeds, he pushes that line further, shifting between collective drive and close-up storytelling, words carrying the rhythm and the rhythm carrying the words.