“I can feel the excitement in the air as you anticipate what Harry has for us today…” announced Head of English, Matt Taylor, as he introduced world-renowned slam poet, Harry Baker, to perform in Tuesday’s Collect.
The maths graduate, who now enjoys his time touring internationally, proceeded to captivate his audience, as he spoke with ardour about ‘The Scientist and the Bumblebee’.
“I got into poetry through a love of language and especially rhyming; whenever I listened to music it would be the lyrics that jumped out at me.” Harry continued “I once did a paper round before school and had the revelation that the word bumble rhymed with lots of things and so in my head, I started making a poem / wrap about the bumbley, mumbley, jumbley, rumbley, crumbley, stumbley, fumbley bee.”
Students and staff then had the opportunity to participate in the German chickpea-based tongue twister that is ‘Falafel Löffel’, which begs the question: ‘wie viel falafel ist zu viel falafel?’ Finishing on a poignant note about “being the best, most brilliant and bold versions of ourselves”, Harry, performed his latest work ‘Unashamed’.
Throughout the day, Harry led workshops with students to develop their own poetry prowess, and ultimately judge the Year 9 Poetry Slam culminating this fun unit of work. Reflecting on what he saw, Harry said “I have loved coming in today, both leading workshops, getting the students to write and hearing them present in their slam. When I was a teenager, I found poetry incredibly helpful as a way of figuring out what was going on in my head and expressing myself.”
The slam champion added, “The way that they have responded today and the nuance with which they are writing already, just inspires me and makes me want to go and be better. It’s been a fantastic day and it feels like there is a culture of poetry in the school, which is not always the case but is always a good thing!”
Take the next step by selecting an option below, or if you want to drop us a quick message, you can do so with the form.
Δ