FORMED in Edinburgh in 2011, Neu Reekie is a loose collective of poets, artists, film-makers and musicians brought together on occasion by two Scots, poet Michael Pedersen and the writer and publisher Kevin Williamson.

[[{"fid":"12202","view_mode":"inlinefull","fields":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Animating the human condition: Who I Am and What I Want","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Animating the human condition: Who I Am and What I Want","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"Animating the human condition: Who I Am and What I Want","class":"media-element file-inlinefull","data-delta":"1"}}]]On a foray down south to the wondrous, fossilised venue that is Leytonstone Ballroom, a smattering of Scottish spoken-word presentations are on offer, most notably from Harry Josephine Giles, whose selection of poems, all with the same title of Abolish the Police, turn out to be the most interesting contribution of the night.

Giles, brought up on Orkney and now based in Edinburgh, is writing the poems across 2019 at the rate of one a week and here we’re treated to some from the first tranche, virulent in their call for an end to societal control but slyly cognisant of the vulnerability we might feel in its absence.