Adisa Andwele

Michael Richards, better known as Adisa Andwele, is a rhythm poet from Barbados. Adisa has performed at many different places such as pubs, theatres, music and literature festivals, schools, day centres for senior citizens, and Buckingham Palace. He has earned many achievements during his career, including Hackney Poet Laureate and a winner of 'New Performance Poet of the Year'. In 2009 and 2010, Adisa toured England with his one-person show '1968 - The Year That Never Ended'. Some of the countries he has performed in are Switzerland, Botswana, Italy, Nigeria, and Sweden.

Biography Born in Rock Hall, St. Thomas, Richards first found fame in the late 1970s with the poetry collection Whispers in the Spirit. He began working with musicians, incorporating Caribbean rhythms with his poems, and appeared with the Re-emergence band. A second collection, Rhythm an' Roots, was published in 1989, and Richards became the first poet to stage a solo performance in Barbados in 1990.

Publications Whispers in the Spirit (1979) Rhythm an' Roots (1989) Black Distant Voice (1992) Riot in the Land Antiquity (2002), Peepal Tree Crop Over (2003), WOW Caribbean

Discography Mike Richards and the Re-Emergence Band Live (1991) Conscious (1993) Doin' It Safe (2000), Ice