Harry Baker (poet)

Last updated

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

Contents

Harry Baker
Born London, England, U.K.
Occupationpoet
Education Bristol University
Notable worksWonderful (2025)

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]

Baker is a practicing Christian, and has stated 'Because I try and write from a place of honesty, my faith comes through in the poetry.' Baker has further stated that his Christian faith is part of every aspect of his life. [5] Baker has stated that he views all creativity as being "a worshipful act" [6]

Baker recently performed at the Big Church Festival, the UK's biggest Christian festival. [7]

Career

2012 to present

Baker has won the London and UK Slam Poetry Championships. [8] 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. [9] [10] 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. [11] On Boxing Day 2016, he performed a Christmas Meditation on BBC Radio 4. [12] He occasionally performs as a battle rapper, [2] featuring on Don't Flop. [13] Together with the jazz guitarist Chris Read, he is half of "Harry and Chris", who have performed on The Russell Howard Hour television programme. [14] [15] [16]

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

Bibliography

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 Baptist Union of Great Britain : 'Trying to spread some joy'". Baptists Together.
  6. ↑ "Episode 263: An interview with Harry Baker". Mid Faith Crisis podcast.
  7. ↑ TBN UK. Big Church Festival Highlights Warehouse Worship https://watch.tbn.uk/watch/vod/52575384/warehouse-worship.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ "The love affair between science and poetry". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Baker, Harry, A love poem for lonely prime numbers , retrieved 9 January 2017
  10. ↑ TEDx Talks (29 April 2014), Grand Slam Poetry Champion | Harry Baker | TEDxExeter , retrieved 9 January 2017
  11. ↑ "Harry Baker's end of show poem, Live from the Edinburgh Festival, Simon Mayo Drivetime - BBC Radio 2". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  12. ↑ "Christmas Meditation - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "Don't Flop Entertainment". YouTube. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  14. ↑ Russell Howard (29 September 2017), Harry and Chris - End of the World song , retrieved 8 February 2018
  15. ↑ Russell Howard (3 November 2017), Harry and Chris - The Fear song , retrieved 8 February 2018
  16. ↑ Russell Howard (22 December 2017), Harry and Chris - The Christmas Song , retrieved 8 February 2018


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.