World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker noticed he had been using the word wonderful quite a lot in his poetry just recently.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to
00:06speak to World Poetry Slam champion Harry Baker, who is on his third national tour,
00:12heading for dates including Worthing and Brighton. Now Harry, what a fantastic title you have
00:17for this tour, Wonderful. But you were saying the whole notion of wonderful is slightly
00:23more nuanced as the show developed. It's both, isn't it?
00:28Yes, I think being a poet is part of paying attention to the world around you and finding
00:36that joy and that wonder in the little things. And that was what sparked the idea for this
00:39show. But as time went on, I realised that you can't do that without also paying attention
00:46to the difficulties in amongst that. And I think what I have learned, what I've come
00:50to the conclusion of, is that what makes life wonderful is holding the light and the darkness
00:58and sharing that with other people. And what I've found as people respond to the show
01:02is that it is those vulnerable parts and those raw parts that connect deeper. And then it's
01:09a relief to have a joke that makes someone laugh, that brings them out of that moment
01:14of tension. But I think what I love about poetry is it being able to hold both. So the
01:19show is trying to do both of those things.
01:22Absolutely. And poetry is the ultimate in honesty, isn't it really? Because you're
01:26drawing on your own experiences and you haven't always found things easy, as you were saying.
01:32Definitely. And I think I'm a very different person to the person I was when I started
01:39writing and the poems reflect that. And I think to be at this certain stage of life,
01:44I've got poems now about grandparents dying or about friends who are having babies or
01:51trying to have babies and not being able to. And that's such a sensitive thing that
01:55I feel really grateful that I've got 10 years of practice of articulating myself to be able
02:02to then capture those things that I never could have foreseen that I would have been
02:06thinking about.
02:06Well, absolutely. And it's probably a really stupid thing to say, but it always seems to
02:09me that poetry is the most personal, the most exposing art form, isn't it?
02:16Yes. And I think that's what I loved about it, especially when I first saw it being performed.
02:21Being in a room with someone and seeing them and hearing them and feeling it and not even
02:27being able to necessarily explain it. But whether it's someone giving you goosebumps
02:32or making you laugh, making you cry, it was that immediacy of it that made me want to get
02:37involved and keep writing. And that's, I think, what's kept me going this whole time.
02:41And it's so interesting, this idea of performance, isn't it? Taking poetry into a theatre. I think
02:45that the stereotype you think of someone sitting at home, probably with a candle,
02:49reading poetry to themselves, but you are taking it out into the public, aren't you?
02:55Definitely. And I think everything I write is with an aim to share it on stage with people.
02:59And recently, I've loved that videos of those performances have then been shared
03:05online and reached people in their own homes. But I think for me...
03:08What does it give you to share it then?
03:12Say it again, sorry?
03:12What does it give you to share it?
03:15I think it's that sense of connection and that sense of something exists solely in your head
03:22to share with other people and to feel like it has reached them, whether or not they've
03:26come to the same conclusion as you. But it is that sense of being a part of something bigger
03:31and hoping that in sharing your experience or your insight or your sense of humour,
03:38you enable other people to see things differently as well. So I think what I love about the tours
03:42is getting to meet people after the shows as well and hearing how
03:45they've come across my work or how it's reached them in their lives too.
03:48Absolutely. And the same. These days, there's a whole new perspective for poets, isn't there?
03:53Through online, through Twitter, through Facebook, etc. That the Wordsworths and
03:59Carrie didn't have, did they?
04:03Definitely. And I think I love all of it. And I love that it can reach people
04:08through scrolling through TikTok or it can reach people because a friend has bought a book at a
04:13gig and given it to them, or it can be something they weren't expecting at all. But I think when
04:19people hear it and when people feel it, it is relevant to them and it does make a difference.
04:24And I think my hope is that the barriers we put up ourselves are coming down in terms of thinking,
04:31oh, this can't possibly relate to me or this isn't really my thing. I think if people are
04:35willing to meet you halfway, then they can get something from it,
04:41no matter what their previous preconceptions were.
04:45Well, I'm sure they'll meet you more than halfway in Worthing and Brighton on tour.
04:49Harry, lovely to speak to you. Thanks for your time.
04:53Thank you so much.