Hey friends.
In the dark clouds of covid and lockdown we couldn't have live performance in the same way, but one silver lining in that dark cloud was that I (Harry Baker) started a podcast, which I don't think anybody else in the world thought to do in that time. Each week a different guest would join and we would share something old, something new, Something Borrowed, and something blue. Sometimes it was poems, sometimes it was music, mostly it made us all feel a little less alone.
One glorious UK Tour later and I realised the thing I want to do most in the world is have a monthly night in Margate so we're back baby! After a glorious rebirth in 2023 we are back for the new year in the one and only Forts with a bang(er) in the form of Special Guest Raymond Antrobus!
As well as some chat and performance from me and Ray, there will be an open mic where you are welcome to come and perform a poem or song (either your own or Something Borrowed (!) from someone else), as well as somewhere warm and cosy to escape the winter.
Harry Baker is the World Poetry Slam Champion and champion of the people. His TED Talks have been watched by millions of people and translated into over 20 different languages. He has two books published with Burning Eye and the latest, Unashamed, was accompanied by an Edinburgh fringe show and 40-date tour of the UK. He is the only person to have sold out the Tom Thumb Theatre three nights in a row and he is yet to find anywhere that does a better French Toast than Forts.
Raymond Antrobus was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of three poetry collections, The Perseverance, All The Names Given his latest collection Signs, Music is forthcoming in September 2024. His Accolades include The Ted Hughes Award, The Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, A Sunday Times Young Writer of the year award, as well as a shortlisting for the T.S Eliot Prize, Griffin Prize and Forward Prize. In 2018 he was awarded The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, (Judged by Ocean Vuong), for his poem Sound Machine. A selection of his poems was added to the UK’s Oxford Cambridge RSA GCSE syllabus in 2022. He has also published two children's picture books, Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses and hosted a number of award winning radio documentaries including ‘Inventions In Sound’ (BBC Radio 4, 2021). He is a Cave Canem Graduate in the US, a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature in the UK and divides his time between Margate and New Orleans.
Forts opened its big glass doors during lockdown and opened our hearts shortly after. Run by dream team Will Pits and Chris Rye, Everything is delicious and everyone is lovely. If this goes well we can do it monthly, then the logical progression is obviously to make it fortnightly, then Forts, nightly.
You are wonderful and if you've read this far you are absolutely my kind of person, so I would love to see you there. As with all my shows there is an option for a free ticket if you can't afford to pay for one in this moment, no questions asked. There are only 30 seats available so make sure you book early!