The epic poem Mental Fight by Ben Okri is published in a single volume which can be ordered from Mental Fight Club  (CLICK) and comprises the following eight sections:

The vision for The Poem Must Go On! - announced at our launch presentation of Time To Be Real in April 2005 – is  to inspire seven groups of people to devise and perform their own audio-visual interpretation of one of the seven sections of Mental Fight which follows Time To Be Real  

The hope is that once each group has created their presentation, each one will perform it at a venue of their choosing in their local community.    And all Mental Fight Club members will be notified of the performances as they arise.   In addition, for each performance, MFC is seeking to find a Poem Patron CLICK (7 Poem Patrons below) and create a new musical setting of Blake’s famous poem Jerusalem CLICK. (7 Settings of Jerusalem below)

When all eight sections have been performed, Mental Fight Club will host a one-day performance of the whole poem in a venue local to the MFC base in Southwark.  

Want to take part?   Then please contact MFC

With thanks to Elephant Links for their support of the Poem Must Go On! Project and Awards for All and the South East London Community Foundation for their support of MFC’s Time To Be Real Launch presentation in April 2005.

7 Groups Growing

The first group to form to take up the challenge was led by MFC member and concert pianist, Elena Riu in partnership with Blue Scream Theatre Company who in May 2006 at Blackheath Concert Halls interwove their award-winning performance of the The Adventures of Tom Thumb with excerpts from Hold On To Your Sanity.  CLICK

Meanwhile, Inside Out, an innovative Ipwich-based mental health and arts group will be performing Section 7 - No-One Is A Loser - at XX in Ipwsich. CLICK

Student and MFC Member, Seth Hunter, is leading a group of around ten individuals mainly from around the Elephant & Castle area who are steadily creating a presentation of Section 2 – Is Humanity Exhausted?  CLICK

Poet, barrister and MFC Member, David Neita is working with Southwark TV to put together a video presentation of Section 5 – Harmony of Politics & Heart – to be shown as a work in progress on World Mental Health Day 2006.  CLICK

Two other MFC members, photographer Phil Ward CLICK and community psychiatric nurse, Cerdic Hall CLICK are looking for people to join them in creating presentations of Hold On To Your Sanity and Signs from the Old Times, respectively.

7 New Poem Patrons

Mental Fight Club wants each group to invite a Patron to be a figurehead for their poem sections – as a living creative symbol for the meaning they have found in the poem.   

We are delighted that to start this process off,  MFC member, Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive of the charity Turning Point has agreed to be Patron for Time To Be Real.

7 New Settings of Jerusalem

At the launch presentation of Time To Be Real, the creator of the phrase, Mental Fight, Mr William Blake, was honoured with the singing of the traditional hymn Jerusalem, set by Herbert Parry.  

In further pursuit of creative diversity, Mental Fight Club is seeking seven people each to compose a new setting of the poem Jerusalem – in any musical genere - that will either be performed at the community performances and/or the one day Mental Fight extravaganza at the end of the project