A young artist and hip-hop talent collective have teamed up to produce a short drama of spoken word poetry, which will air on a streaming platform later this year.

Michael Eferakorho, 23, from Dartford, calls himself Spoken by Michael.

He came up with the name because he believes it reflects him as a poet, and he figured his surname would be too hard for people to pronounce.

Spoken word is a type of poetry containing elements of storytelling, rap, hip-hop, jazz, folk music and blues.

It is usually based on issues of politics, race, social justice and community.

Michael said: "Music is tailored to have one type of response or emotion whereas spoken word allows you to go through all different kinds of emotions through one piece.

"You can feel really deep, or feel happy or sad just through someone speaking or changing the tone of what they're saying."

Summer Story Tales - Michael using spoken word poetry to reflect on life and 2022 so far

Gravesend collective GTown Talents discovered Michael in their continual search for urban artists in Kent.

They filmed and produced a music video, called Summer Story Tales 2022, to give him a platform to share a piece he wrote to a wider audience.

Jimmy Babalola, one of the founders of GTown Talents, said: "We feel like spoken word is not represented enough, and we want to make it into visuals.

"It is really important to bring that talent out now."

The video shows Michael speaking about street life, relationships and what he has seen in 2022 so far.

Michael, who moved to Dartford when he was two, says Summer Story Tales 2022 is more about things he has witnessed happening to others rather than his personal story.

He explained how he has seen many people try to make money on their own, but not necessarily in a healthy or legal way.

The 23-year-old said: "I've seen little boys trying to hustle and grown men trying to hustle.

"Sometimes it's good to witness and sometimes it's not the best thing to witness."

Michael then entered a short film he was working on to a competition advertised by Screen South – an organisation focused on finding new Kent artists and promoting new ideas.

This led to him work with GTown Talents again to shoot and produce the spoken word drama, called "Views of our Generation", which is set to come out later this year. It will be streamed online.

It will be about numerous events, including how this generation managed to get through 2020 with the pandemic as well as the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement.

He said: "It feels unreal to have this out there.

"Working with GTown and different people in the industry was a good experience."

For Michael, 2022 has been a year of reflecting on different habits and what he needs to do to get to where he wants to be in the future.

He said: "It is definitely a year of grinding."

The next step for Michael is planning an EP – a mini album – which will be coming out at the end of this year and called Tough Love.