The Wickedest

Caleb Femi, award-winning poet and author of the contemporary British classic, Poor, returns with a thrilling and life-affirming new poetry collection The Wickedest

The Wickedest is a minute-by-minute depiction of a typical night at a legendary monthly house party known as ‘The Wickedest’, held at an undisclosed inner-city location. Through the evening we meet a vivid cast of characters, spanning from teens through to adulthood, all navigating a revelry steeped in camaraderie, community, desire and a spirit of jubilant defiance.

A modern epic, The Wickedest explores the institution of house parties or ‘shoobs’ and their role within British working-class communities. The poems here range from classic English sonnets to experimental forms and are immersively interwoven with original photography, text messages, nightlife application forms and blueprints. The book playfully dissects parties—in space, sound, law and bureaucracy—to document the precarious nature of our nightlife venues, denied space by red tape or closure.

In Caleb’s inimitable, cinematic style the book builds to a crescendo that is at once euphoric and grief-soaked, but ultimately an assured celebration. The Wickedest pushes us to cast our own minds to the moments we stood amongst our loved ones on a dancefloor, arms upstretched, and freed ourselves from the weight of reality to float.