University of Banja Luka

Faculty of Philology

English Language and Literature

Page and Stage: Performance Poetry in Britain

Student: Ljiljana Petrović Professor:Tatjana Bijelić

 Poetry as a type of literary art has always been perceived as something that is done in a Commented [M1]: Zaboravi ti „y“ 

passive manner. The work of writing poetry evoked the images of a silent poet in his own
private space, excluding everything that might disrupt him. The same case occurred with the
readers- they were to pull themselves out from any kind of noise and presence of other people
in order to devote complete attention to the poems. In the moment when other types of arts
such as dancing, music and acting started to interfere with the written verses everything Commented [M2]: Mere između zareza, a i ne mora, ali meni
nekako preglednije sa zarezima, ti kako hoćeš
changed. The liberation of text from the page, and ever widening definitions put it squarely at Commented [M3]: Mislim da i prije ovoga treba zarez, ako
„everything changed staviš na početak rečenice, onda ne treba
the heart of Linguistically Innovative Poetry.1
Commented [M4]: Zarez prije and, but, for, nor, yet, or, se
koristi da se povežu dvije nezavisne rečenice, ovdje ti ne treba

The performance poetry began to delete the strict borders between arts and started Commented [M5]: Recimo „blur“ umjesto delete ili „remove“,
čisto zato što ljepše zvuči
incorporating the audience into the process of making and reading poetry. As Sarah Broom
describes “Performance poetry is as diverse and varied as page poetry and it is important for a Commented [M6]: Zarez poslije ovoga
Commented [M7]: Prije ovoga bi trebao zarez, ali ako nema u
criticism to develop which reflects this.”2Everything became a fluid that flows and mixes, originalnom citati, ostavi ovako

creating a sensation and the feeling of togetherness. ‘Performance’ in this context indicates the
interaction of poetry with its audience; the event may often be ephemeral and experiential, such as
a slam poem or improvised talk.3Performance poetry in Britain started in the early 1960s, and
the first presenters of the new wave were Michael Horovitz, Chris Cheek and Aaron
Williamson. This was a refreshing modus of presenting something that is familiar in a
completely new manner.The perception of the poet as one who articulates through different
masks or personas is intrinsic to an idea of performance andpoetry4. By performing while Commented [M8]: Jesi ovo „space“ zaboravila ili je do mog
kompa
reading the sense of understanding and connecting with the inner emotions of the artist grew
Commented [M9]: Zarez iza ovoga
stronger and allowed the audience to feel and live the poem.Yet, the steady stream of words,
Commented [M10]: „A poem“??? ne pričamo o nikakvoj
delivered with careful attention to their rhythmic weight, to their alliterative connections, određenoj pjesmi...nikad nisam sigurna sa ovim članovima
Commented [M11]: „ a steady strem of words“ ???? xD
seemingly at the expense of their meanings, can be a difficult experience to relate to, for those
not used to it.5The most important person creditable for the origins of performance poetry in
Britainwas Horovitz whose “Live New Departures” - a touring version of his poetry and arts
journal “New Departures” marked the beginning of something important and made a path that
enabled other poets in the future to develop it further and to include even more elements in

1
Sheppard, Robert. The Poetry of Saying British Poetry and its Discontents. Liverpool: Liverpool University
Press, 2005.
2
Broom, Sarah. Contemporary British and Irish Poetry: An Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
3
Williams, Nerry. Contemporary Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2011.
4
Ibid.
5
Sheppard, Robert. The Poetry of Saying British Poetry and its Discontents. Liverpool: Liverpool University
Press, 2005.

1
their poetry performance. The particular performance of Horovitz included jazz music and a
saxophonist or a pianist playing in the background while he was reading his poems aloud. The
conclusion that Sheppard makes is that “the poetry performance as a form of musicality”6. As
we can see, at the early beginnings of the development of performance poetry small steps
were taken, however it was enough to wake up audience's interest and evoke their attention. It
was artists' way of showing that the poets are not detached from the real world and the real
people who read and enjoy their poems. The bond was created and it continued to strengthen. Commented [M12]: Zarez, dvije nezavisne rečenice

One of the significant non-British name for the performance poetry in the UKis the Commented [M13]: space

American poet Allen Ginsberg. He set the ground for Horovitz and the rest by including them
in his performance in 1965 in Albert Hall at the International Poetry Incarnation. Ginsberg
was a rare poet who dared to criticize the society and to talk about taboos by presenting a new
viewpoint on such topics. He was one of the most important figures in the 1950s concerning
“the counterculture” and one of the most prominent members of the so called “Beat
Generation”.The Beats’ emphasis upon the importance of the spoken word meant poetry Commented [M14]: zareeeez

inhabited the public sphere,often as protest.7He fought against militarism, economic

materialism and sexual repression and had liberal views on drugs, hostility to bureaucracy and
openness to Eastern religions showing that “poetry can also perform the demands of appealing
to an audience and inciting change”8 His influence on the British performance poets lead to
the creation of the group called the Liverpool Poets.
The Liverpool Poets presented a group of the most influential poets in England in the
1960s. They made a choice to openly and publically raise their voice through their poems
against the issues that were concerning the society. Most of the members were coming from
the working class, a class that was neglected and overlooked the entire time, while only the
aristocracy and higher class had the privilege to decide on the important things, and to set the Commented [M15]: zareza bez

default values everyone else ought to follow. As an answer to this situation this group stood Commented [M16]: zareza sa

up against this mode of life and began talking about the middle class issues. Their writings
were colored with directness of expression, simplicity of language, suitability for live Commented [M17]: ispred „the“
Commented [M18]: the
performance and concern for contemporary subjects and references. They also included
Commented [M19]: the????
humor in their poems but with slight adjustments, as to reflect every possible emotion a Commented [M20]: the?? xDD
human can feel. All this resulted in the creation of The Liverpool Scene, which was a poetry Commented [M21]: „so as to“ i nema zareza ispred

band. This was the proof that the performance poetry in Britain was getting new forms and

6
Williams, Nerry. Contemporary Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2011.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.

2
that the public reaction was positive. The connection of music with the words on the paper
appeared to be excellent combination which intrigues the readers, in this case the listeners. Commented [M22]: „An excellent combination“ ??
Commented [M23]: „intriguED“, slaganje vremena
Similar bands such as The Scaffold and Grimms continued this tradition of mixing poetry
with music, and became very popular at the time. All this encouraged further progress of this Commented [M24]: Ubaci subjekt „and they became“ ili briši
zarez prije „and“
new friction which led to the creation of the organization called Apples and Snakes.

Apples and Snakes is an organization for spoken word artists and performance poets in
the UK which originated in 1982.The main stage for them were pubs and festivals, and their
manner included stand-up comedy and humor overall in the poetry performing. This was a
breakthrough in the field of performance poetry which set the ground for progress and gaining
wider audience. Its first poetry performance was held in the Adam's Arms pub in Conway
Street in central London. Apples and Snakes included poets who had a certain reputation in
literary circles, and were considered high profile poets. The most important names that should Commented [M25]: Nema subjekta, nije nezavisna rečenica,
nema zareza...valjda xD
be mentioned are JohnAgard, Jean "Binta" Breeze, Malika Booker, Billy Bragg, Charlie Dark, Commented [M26]: space

InuaElams, PhillJupitus, LemnSissay, Kate Tempest, and others. The most notable thing when Commented [M27]: SPACE
Commented [M28]: Nemoj sada koristiti Oxfordski zarez ako
it comes to this organization is the fact that it follows the tradition of the performance poetry, nigdje do sada nisi

yet in the same time it adjusts the topics so as to serve the current issues that are emerging in
their country and the entire world in general. The events and poetry nights in the last couple
of years give us the insight in their mode of acting. For example, in 2013 it organized a series Commented [M29]: „Have given us“ ????

of events for young poets on climate change, and in the fall of 2014 it held a series of poetry
events as a tribute to thephotographic exhibition that was displayed at the National Portrait Commented [M30]: space

Gallery- Picture the Poet. However, in the 1990s, hip hop and movement started to emerge
and to interfere with poetry, putting aside the combination of comedy and poetry.

Such example of combining stage poetry and movement is ShadoWork. It incorporates

theatrical movements, dance and the text of the poem in order to bring the audience closer to
the theme of the poems and to evoke intimacy between the writer and the “reader”. The most
important goal in the performance poetry is deleting the distance between the two. The
transfer from passive to active mode is achieved by including all the people present in the
performing area. The ability to approach the literature from a more humanly side offers the Commented [M31]: „humanly“ je prilog, može jedino biti „to
approach the literature more humanly“ , nemam pojma koji je
introspectiveness that otherwise is not possible to achieve. All of the elements are gathered in pridjev od humanely – human ili humane side??

one place- the writer, the poems, the audience and the additional forms of arts, whether it is
music, movement or something else, diving deeper into the core of the poems, going together
through every stanza and feeling it as one person.The process of writing these poems
mightbest be thought of as a series of transformations of descriptive language into exuberant Commented [M32]: might BE best thought of

3
and performativelanguage, a transformation that is fully aware that the material of poetry Commented [M33]: spaceeee
Commented [M34]: „the“????, već objasni prije zareza kakva
isnot perception –however important – but language.9 je to transformacija, pojma nemam xD

Glancing from the perspective of a modern reader today, the performance poetry does
not present something unusual and extraordinary, but it is instead the window into the other
world, now reachable to everybody. Asit was mentioned earlier, the first steps of performance Commented [M35]: space

poetry were taken with precautions and gradually so as not to shock the audience in a negative
way, yet to present them the new mode of living a poem. So, the best suitable way for doing Commented [M36]: „but“ umjesto yet

so, as we had already seen, was the poet reading his writings aloud, then combination of
reading and music, furthermore with dance, acting and movement on the stage. Performance Commented [M37]: the

writing challenges our conceptions of the purely literary by emphasizing multiplicity and
interdisciplinarity.10Nowadays, when we all live in a digital era, technology dictates trends
and directs the path of every aspect of our lives, and the poetry is not an exception.

When we think about the most famous and influential performance poets today, one of
the first ones that comes to our mind is Patience Agbabi. She started performing poetry in Commented [M38]: „one of the first ones to come...“

London in 1995, and has been famous for her live performances ever since.11Her work is Commented [M39]: Ili briši zarez ili dodaj „she has been“

musical in every sense, attuned as much to the punning and political immediacy of the
rhythms of rap and dub, as it is to traditional forms like the sonnet, sestina and Chaucer’s rime
royale.12 She is known as a fierce and proud woman, “self-proclaimed activist”whose aim was
to „to right the wrongs of the world.”13 Her signature wasthe voicing of the characters in the Commented [M40]: space

poems, as she once proclaimed: ‘I wanted to see what happened if I let the characters speak
for themselves rather than edit them’.14 This was her method for showing the readers another
perspective, by telling a story from someone else’s point of view. Her first retelling was of
Chaucer, the Wife of Bath presented as the Nigerian ‘Mrs Alice EbiBafa’, who ‘went down a
storm in performance’.15 Broom also described Agbabi as someone who “use book simply as Commented [M41]: jesi li ovdje u originalnom citatu bilo
„useS“?? treba biti „as someone who uses“
a trigger to help her remember and relive the experience of the poetry in performance”16
Patience Agbabi presented the fact that the poetry does not lose its strength and meaning by
performance, but instead adds another layer to it therefore creating a stronger connection with

9
Williams, Nerry. Contemporary Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2011.
10
Ibid.
11
Bijelić, Tatjana. Eight Contemporary British Poets. Banja Luka, Beograd: Zadužbina Petar Kočić, 2008.
12
Patience Agbabi. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2017, from http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/patience-
agbabi
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Broom, Sarah. Contemporary British and Irish Poetry: An Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

4
the audience “using hand movements to emphasize the rhythm […] performs without
reference to a text, keeping eye contact with the audience.”17 With her modus of performing
she is “revitalizing something that has, to a large extent, been lost or marginalized in Western
culture: the power of the poem as a specifically oral phenomenon.”18.After Agbabi's
performances the audience is left with a sense of personal connection with the poet, a sense
that some kind of positive and enlivening bond between audience and poet has been achieved Commented [M42]: the audience

on an interpersonal level.19

Another notable performance poet who made a trace in Britain is Benjamin Zephaniah.
As someone who possesses both Jamaican and British characteristics inside himself, in his
performances Benjamin combines these two opposite cultures: the poetry with reggae. He
wants his poems and music to be heard and seen, protesting and leading the revolution by
speaking publically abouteverything others were silent, especially with the questions of race Commented [M43]: space

and identity. He contradicted the authorities of the state implying that “the literary
establishment only rewards those black poets who are perceived as harmless and non-
threatening”20. Zephaniah's goal was to use his poetry as a medium to wake up the
marginalized masses and make them act. He wanted to bring them closer to the current
struggles they are going through and highlight the fact that they were not alone. Through his Commented [M44]: they WERE going through, slaganje
vremena
performances he “constantly moves from the individual to the general, from personal detail to
political principle, from the specific case to the general pattern and this is what makes his
poetry so relentlessly active.”21 Zephaniah used his words as weapons against oppression and
the irony as the central figure in his works in order to show that he is willing to stand up
regardless of the consequences.He insists that poetry was oral and approachable, ‘something
dat people understood’.22Agbabi and Zephaniah took the risks and began something that will Commented [M45]: that ??? il je ovo Jamaican verzija od that
xD
forever mark the stage poetry.

As the result of the publically engaged poetry, one of the most popular directions in
the contemporary performance poetry, so-called “slam poetry” was created. The term slam
poetry denotes a type of poetry expressing a person's personal story and/or struggle usually in
an intensely emotional style. It is very powerful, sincere, and moving. This new genre is the Commented [M46]: ili koristi oxfordski zarez svugdje ili nemoj
nigdje....lakše nigdje xD
continuation of the inclusion of other aspects of human lives in the stage performance, and
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
22
Williams, Nerry. Contemporary Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2011.

5
here,the most intimate partsare present: human emotions, exposed openly to the public. Commented [M47]: spaceee

Broom suggests that “poetry slams draw huge audiences, attracted in part by the overlaps
between performance poetry and contemporary musical genres like rap and hip-hop.”23The
ladder was raised up much higher, and it is expected from a high-quality slam poet to be able
to unite multiple skills (all of which have to be above the average) to create an atmosphere of
a perfect poem performance. The vocabulary has to be impeccable, the movement on the
scene, as well as acting, is something obligatory, and what is possibly the hardest, the
performers have to express deep and sincere emotions in front of their audience. The aim of
the entire performance is to evoke the same emotions they feel, or at least empathy and Commented [M48]: ja bih stavila i at least između zareza.....
they feel, or, at least, empathy and understanding
understanding within the listeners. This kind of devotion and passion can be expected only
from those poets who possess the ability to transfer their emotions, which is a difficult and
demanding task.

When we talk about modern, nowadays performance poets, it is important to mention

one of the youngest representatives in this area, and her name is Kate Tempest. Born in the
1985, she presents the newest wave of influential performance poets in the UK. In 2013 she
won the Ted Hughes Award for her work “Brand New Ancients”, and in 2014 she was
selected as one of the 2014 Next Generation Poets by the Poetry Society. Her performance
consists of spoken words and hip-hop, but she also has a band and is a playwright. Her focus
is on the current issues the world is struggling with, mainly wars and poverty. Although, some
of the critics accuse her of lacking variety and being too predictable in her performances
considering rhythm, noises and movements on the stage, she continues to spread her art and to
attract more and more listeners every day. In one of her interviews she says: “I’m talking
about economics, technological advancements, humans fusing with cyborgs, nano-robots that
cure and detect diseases, international relations – nobody can see where we’re heading.”24

The most influential newspapers in the UK, such as The Guardian and Independent,
have only the finest words when describing Tempests work:

“She is one of the brightest talents around. Her spoken-word performances have the
metre and craft of traditional poetry, the kinetic agitation of hip-hop and the intimacy

23
Broom, Sarah. Contemporary British and Irish Poetry: An Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
24
Milton, Jamie. “Kate Tempest interview: 'We are living in absolute f**king madness'.” Independent, October
6, 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/kate-tempest-interview-let-them-
eat-chaos-new-album-release-date-poetry-refugee-crisis-mercury-prize-a7346301.html

6
 of a whispered heart-to-heart... Tempest deals bravely with poverty, class and
consumerism. She does so in a way that not only avoids the pitfalls of sounding trite,
but manages to be beautiful too, drawing on ancient mythology and sermonic cadence
to tell stories of the everyday”.25

Her path as a female poet, who speaks about things that are avoided speaking in
public, was tough but in the end it paid off. As she said, the aim of her performances is to Commented [M49]: ovo „that are avoided speaking“ ne može
nikako, mora biti neki drugi oblik glagola speak umjesto ING, that
express sympathy and love with human beings all around the world, to connect with them, to are avoided being spoken in public možda, pojma nemam...gledam
u ovo pola sata....xD
feel their sufferings and to express it through her art. In times when everybody is trying to
create a distance between himself/herself and others, to neglect other people's issues and mind
only his/her own, she does exactly the opposite-she enhances the intimacy and emotion
sharing. Her words confirm this:

“I’ve spent my life immersing myself in other people’s stories, other people’s
opinions, getting close to other people’s experiences. You are allowed into the internal
experience of a person you’ve never met, never lived in the same country as them, in
the same time as them, and you’re welcomed in in a way that opens the world, shows
you into the universe, says ‘here you go, here is human experience’ . . . It’s not a
decision that I made. It’s part of loving music and literature. To love people. That’s
the primary push towards writing for me, because I’m in love with human beings.” 26

25
Wolfson, Sam. " Kate Tempest: the performance poet who can't be ignored." The Guardian, April 10, 2013.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/10/kate-tempest-performance-poet-cant-be-ignored
26
Mullally, Una. “Kate Tempest: ‘I’m in love with human beings’.” The Irish Times, October 14, 2016.
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/kate-tempest-i-m-in-love-with-human-beings-1.2818088

7
 The overall impression when it comes to performance poetry is that it demeanors the Commented [M50]: ovo nije glagol, nego imenica demeanor –
ponašanje...vjerovatno si htjela reći umanjuje –
differences between people of all races, classes, genders, ages etc. For years the poets and decreases,diminishes, reduces

poetry circles were closed for everybody outside, and unintentionally that same thing caused
the readers to disconnect with them over time. Gradually, they lost interest because the poems
and the topics were foreign to them and they simply could not feel it as their own, their mind
could be incorporated in it. The phenomenon called performance poetry overturned the Commented [M51]: je li ovdje terba „could NOT be“

passive creation and reproduction of writings and presented an active mode of inclusion. The
public got the chance to see the poets, hear them uttering their verses, and observetheir facial Commented [M52]: briši oxfordski zarez
Commented [M53]: space
expressions, non-verbal body language, which brought the sense of reality and closeness.

Britain as a country had some very influential poets who passionately streamed
towards engaging their listeners, making them not passive watchers, but active participants in
the process. The fresh air they brought woke up the audience and that was their biggest award.
The proof of how popular they were back then and still are now is seen in the creation of the
numerous poet societies that had only the best members and the most influential poets in the
state.

Although this was a very big change in the creation and production of poetry, it did not
happen at once. It was presented gradually, examining the tolerance of the audience. Part by
part, different forms of art were incorporated in performing poetry on stage, starting with
music, and continuing with movement, acting, dancing, until today when the technological Commented [M54]: briši zarez

achievementsare used for evoking deeper sensations. Starting from Michael Horovitz, Ted
Milton, Adrian Henri and continuing with Benjamin Zephaniah, Patience Agbabi and Jim
Templeton, and today with Kate Tempest, Muslim Belal and Luke Wright, all of them
achieved their goal to engage people, to make them stand up, to become a part of the art, not Commented [M55]: and not just the observers i bez zareza

just the observers.

The British performance poetry society is still in progress and continues to shake the
grounds of the untouchable topics. The young poets can and dare, they are not afraid, they are
fearless. Their goal is to connect, to erase boundaries, to spread empathy. The reality and
poetry are one, they cannot be divided and separated from each other. This is the message
they are spreading, and it is working.

References:

8
Benjamin Zephaniah. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2017, from
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/benjamin-zephaniah

Bijelić, Tatjana. Eight Contemporary British Poets.Banja Luka, Beograd:

ZadužbinaPetarKočić, 2008.

Broom, Sarah.Contemporary British and Irish Poetry: An Introduction.New York: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2006.

Sheppard, Robert. The Poetry of Saying British Poetry and its Discontents.Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press, 2005.

Milton, Jamie. “Kate Tempest interview: 'We are living in absolute f**king madness'.”
Independent, October 6, 2016. Accessed January 26, 2017.http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/music/features/kate-tempest-interview-let-them-eat-chaos-new-album-release-
date-poetry-refugee-crisis-mercury-prize-a7346301.html

Mullally, Una. “Kate Tempest: ‘I’m in love with human beings’.” The Irish Times, October
14, 2016. Accessed January 26, 2017. http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/kate-
tempest-i-m-in-love-with-human-beings-1.2818088

Patience Agbabi.(n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2017, from

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/patience-agbabi

Williams, Nerry. Contemporary Poetry.Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2011.

9
Wolfson, Sam. "Kate Tempest: the performance poet who can't be ignored." The Guardian,
April 10, 2013. Accessed January 26,
2017.https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/10/kate-tempest-performance-poet-cant-
be-ignored

10