Poet in the City Podcast

As part of Poetry & Lyrics Festival 2017, the Poet in the City Producers present this special edition podcast episode. Together we explore how the realms of poetic language and music have helped map the search for a perfect world - be it personal, political, or spiritual. We examine the potential for Utopia, and its flaws, taking the listener on a creative journey to imagine the impossible. A unique arrangement of performances, reflection and debate with Dr Ruth Padel, the Reverend Lucy Winkett, James Massiah and Niles Hailstones from Asheber & The Afrikan Revolution. Poet in the City Producers is a group of talented 16-25 year olds changing the way we see poetry by producing innovative media and live events to promote this age-old art form in the modern world. This special edition podcast episode is brought to you by Poet in the City Producers Axel Kacoutié, Amica Sciortino Nowlan, Ariel Silverman, Louisa Danquah, Milica Cortanovacki and Olivia Amura.

With Wendy Cope, Luke Wright, Zoe Wanamaker, Tiffany Watt Smith, Rachel Cooke and Will May. Episode 5 celebrates the sidesplitting, surreal and downright silly side of poetry. Insights and anecdotes come from poets Wendy Cope and Luke Wright, Zoe Wanamaker channels the spirit of Stevie Smith with some fantastic live readings, and Dr Tiffany Watt Smith, of the Queen Mary University of London Centre for the History of the Emotions, helps to keep order with an academic view on laughter. This podcast was produced by Alia Cassam.

In this special edition podcast we take you on a journey through sound, into the world and work of Samuel Beckett. With expert commentary from his biographer James Knowlson and the academic John Pilling, as well as insights from acclaimed Beckett actress Lisa Dwan, we’ll discover how Beckett used poetry to ask the questions that lie at the very heart of what it is to be human. Featuring live material from a Poet in the City celebration of Beckett at Milton Court Theatre in London, we’ll hear live readings of Beckett's work, examine Beckett’s life and relationship to poetry, consider the artistic preoccupations which made Beckett unique as a writer, and ask whether Beckett still speaks to audiences today. All music featured kindly provided by Portishead.

In Episode 3 we take you on our own German cultural exchange through poetry. The podcast brings together themes and perspectives from our Contemporary German Voices series of live poetry events, which saw Poet in the City, in collaboration with TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellow, Professor Karen Leeder from Oxford University, bring two of Germany’s best contemporary poetry voices to UK audiences. As well as showcasing the work of brilliant German poets Durs Grünbein and Ulrike Almut Sandig, the podcast features live poetry performance and commentary from guests including the award-winning UK poet Don Paterson. With the spotlight on Germany, we’ll be finding out about all night poetry festivals in Berlin, how a Grimms fairy story gets turned into electrifying sound-art, looking at the influence of Rainer Maria Rilke on contemporary British poets, investigating the art and craft behind translation, and myth-busting the idea that German poets classically tend to be philosophical, inward looking and soul-searching.

In episode two, we ask whether poetry can give us another way of looking at the election and can tell us more about ourselves than the latest the poll-figures. We talk to two of the UK’s brightest contemporary poets about how they take on the politics of today - talking immigration and feminism with Hollie McNish, and looking at how issues of economic policy and the environment get translated into the poetry of Helen Mort. If language is having a crisis in politics at the moment with spin-culture taking hold, we find poetic antidotes with Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King’s College London, looking to historical examples of political language with both style and substance. And when it comes to creating social change, we ask what role poetry today plays in the debate… This podcast contains some themes which some listeners may find upsetting.

Why does Andrew Motion think all poems are performance poems? How did Juliet Stevenson’s reading of a WH Auden poem onstage lead to the beginnings of a career in acting? These and other intriguing questions are explored in ‘Off the Page and onto the Stage’ – a special edition podcast from Poet in the City that takes an insider’s perspective on the art and craft of taking page poetry and turning it into live performance. With insights, commentary and performances from actors, producers and poets, this programme goes on a journey that begins with poetry performances of the past, to those happening here and now, and finally looking into the future for live performance. With contributions from Dean Atta, Andrew Motion, Tim Dee and Juliet Stevenson.