Harry Baker (poet)

Last updated

Harry Baker is a British spoken word artist, author and poet.

Contents

Early life

Born in Ealing in 1992, Harry Baker grew up as part of a Christian community in West London. [1] After switching from studying Medicine to allow his pursuit of poetry, [2] Baker studied mathematics with German at Bristol University. [3] [4]

Career

2012 to present

Baker has won the London and UK Slam Poetry Championships. [5] In 2012, he won the World Slam Poetry Competition, becoming the youngest ever winner.

In 2014 Baker began performing as a speaker for TED. [4] His talk ‘A love poem for lonely prime numbers’ has over 2 million views. [6] [7] A collection of his own poetry, The Sunshine Kid, was published in 2015 by Burning Eye Books. [1] Baker received major national airplay on the BBC in 2015 when he wrote and performed a poem for Simon Mayo's Radio 2 show. [8] On Boxing Day 2016, he performed a Christmas Meditation on BBC Radio 4. [9] He occasionally performs as a battle rapper, [2] featuring on Don't Flop. [10] Together with the jazz guitarist Chris Read, he is half of "Harry and Chris", who have performed on The Russell Howard Hour television programme. [11] [12] [13]

Baker is well known as an aficionado of wine gums, and has many poems on the topic.

Bibliography

The Sunshine Kid (2013)

Unashamed (2022)

Wonderful (2024)

References

  1. 1 2 "Quantifying the unquantifiable". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Erin (21 June 2016). "Curiosity Conversations: A Chat with Harry Baker, The Sunshine Kid". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  3. "Harry Baker: "I'm Not Hardcore Nerdy"". The Tab Bristol. 3 October 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Poetic mathematician blends writing with arithmetic". ABC News. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  5. "The love affair between science and poetry". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  6. Baker, Harry, A love poem for lonely prime numbers , retrieved 9 January 2017
  7. TEDx Talks (29 April 2014), Grand Slam Poetry Champion | Harry Baker | TEDxExeter , retrieved 9 January 2017
  8. "Harry Baker's end of show poem, Live from the Edinburgh Festival, Simon Mayo Drivetime - BBC Radio 2". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  9. "Christmas Meditation - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  10. "Don't Flop Entertainment". YouTube. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  11. Russell Howard (29 September 2017), Harry and Chris - End of the World song , retrieved 8 February 2018
  12. Russell Howard (3 November 2017), Harry and Chris - The Fear song , retrieved 8 February 2018
  13. Russell Howard (22 December 2017), Harry and Chris - The Christmas Song , retrieved 8 February 2018