World Poetry Day: 5 young British spoken word poets to listen to today

There’s still time to celebrate
Ellie Pinney
Liz Connor21 March 2017

Ever since World Poetry Day was recognised by UNESCO at the turn of the millennium, it's become a celebration of all kinds of poetry around the globe.

If you’ve long had your fill of dusty tomes filled with Frost, Yeats and Wordsworth, why not tap into the new guard of spoken word artists emerging on YouTube?

From London to Bristol, the country is awash with exciting, innovative and energetic young voices that are redefining the literary genre, performing poetry that encapsulates what it means to be a millennial in Britain today.

Here are five to get to know.

Caleb Femi

26-year-old ex-teacher Femi made it his mission to empower disenfranchised youth by ‘normalising’ poetry after he became the first Young People’s Poet Laureate for London last year. As a poet, Caleb delivers his pieces with a soft lilt and deep honesty that touches on everything from mental health and gentrification to 'chatting up peng girls' in Peckham.

Solomon O.B

Hackney-born Solomon O.B was crowned Hammer & Tongue National Poetry Slam champion at the Royal Albert Hall last year, after wowing audiences with Unorthodox Beginnings - a poem about being raised by his foster parents. His performances are a unique blend of hip hop and poetry, bridging the gap between spoken word and music.

Hollie McNish

After writing poems in secret for many years, it took Holly McNish a year attending the same spoken word poetry night before she could summon the courage to speak herself. Now videos of McNish’s home-recorded poems have repeatedly gone viral, some receiving over a million YouTube views in just over a week. Listen as she shares her poem 'Cupcakes or Scones', which takes on the infantilisation of women by the media.

Books that will be made into films in 2017

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Luke Wright

Essex-born Wright began writing and performing poetry at age 17 after seeing Martin Newell and John Cooper Clarke perform. His poems frequently discuss the lives of the British working-class. Here, he tells the story of Tracy, a tower block resident who spends her afternoons staring at the Dartford Toll from her bedroom window, wishing she could “throw a quid in a bucket” and escape into the tunnel and out of sight.

Kate Tempest

Social activist and performance poet Tempest already has a string of accolades under her belt - she’s been nominated for a Mercury Shortlist prize and scooped the Ted Hughes Award for her work Brand New Ancients in 2013. After being inspired by an English teacher at school, Tempest started to read poetry and performed at her first open mic night at 16 as a rapper. She grew up in south-east London where she still lives, waxing lyrical on everything from class wars, Brexit and migration with a wit, intelligence and realism that has become a clarion call for her generation.

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