It’s the first balmy Sunday of the year and in central London, behind a baby-pink door and up seven flights of stairs, an enthralling young crowd is beginning to assemble. We’re at Flute, a cocktail bar atop Broadwick Soho, for the capital’s hottest appointment, which actually isn’t a club night – it’s a literary event, Adult Entertainment, this time hosted in collaboration with model and actor Adwoa Aboah.
Adult Entertainment, founded by 34-year-old musician, poet and scene fixture James Massiah, feels somewhere between a nightclub and an arts opening, though it’s far more intimate than either. (See also: gallerist Sadie Coles’s Gargle, or The Rap Party at The London Library, or the itinerant Soho Reading Series.) “I call it ‘party poetry’,” Massiah tells me over fizzy wine and fries, explaining how he likes to keep the readings snappy and informal so that patrons can socialise and let loose. “People want to enjoy themselves. Poetry provides an entry point into that – it really is about human connection and meeting people.”
