Barista on Galle Face was full of expectant poetry lovers for this Book Buzz event and they gave Bristol based poet Lucy English a very warm welcome back to Colombo (where she was born). With the rich aroma of fresh coffee wafting through the room, Lucy performed her poetry to the highly appreciative audience.
As well as being a lecturer in Creative Writing and a published author of novels and poems, Lucy is famed as one of Bristol’s leading performance poets, engaging in ‘Slam Poetry’, which is when writers perform their poetry to an audience who rate the poets and judge them by picking their favourite poet. Lucy gave a dazzling performance of some of her slam pieces during the first half of the evening.
In April 1996 Lucy won the Bristol Poetry Slam, the first one she had ever entered, and has since then performed poetry all over Britain and abroad. Apart from this year’s tour of India and Sri Lanka, the British Council has previously sponsored Lucy in tours of Denmark, Holland and Hungary. Lucy also performed her work to a delighted audience in Kandy the night before coming to Colombo.
After her performance, British Council Sri Lanka Director Tony O’Brien hosted questions from the audience before Lucy gave an encore to round off a very pleasant evening’s entertainment. Members of the audience then came forward to have their books and CDs signed by Lucy. Before her performance we had the opportunity to interview Lucy about her work, and here are some extracts from the interview:
What or who influences you in your work?
I did my MA in English Literature, so I have the canon of English literature in my head. But in terms of modern poetry, I really like the work of Sylvia Plath, also Heather Dunmore and Kathleen Jamie. I’m also heavily influenced by performance poets from the States where performance poetry is very big.
What are your main sources of inspiration?
I’m a people watcher, so much of my inspiration comes from observations of people and listening in on their conversations.
What are the main themes of your work?
My poem ‘Another Life’ (published on Write Clique) deals with remembering your dreams and that we all have creative gifts. People tend to forget that and get sucked into their jobs and the 9 – 5 routine. My new collection of poems ‘Family Life’ looks at different aspects of family life, thinking about my own family and what’s left now that my children have grown up.
You won the Bristol Slam the first time you entered the competition. Was that a surprise for you and are you surprised by your success?
I was shocked to win the Bristol Slam! I went in for a joke and I won it! Then I started doing normal gigs, and it has snowballed since then. Sometimes in life you wake up and think ‘How did this happen?’, but I have an attitude of ‘I’ll have a go at that, and if it works, it works’ and I guess this one has particularly worked out.
You were up in Kandy yesterday. Were you pleased with the performance and by people’s reactions to it?
I was very pleased. About 85 people turned up, which is an extraordinary audience for poetry…in the UK you would be lucky if 20 people turned up, but you do get more for performance poetry. I had a very nice reception up in Kandy. There were lots of people from the University asking very searching, intelligent questions afterwards, so I had a really nice time up there.
Here in Sri Lanka reading and writing are very popular - we have the Young Writers group and Write Clique – what advice can you give to aspiring poets and/or performance poets?
In terms of performance poetry, you can have written the most brilliant poem in the world, but if you perform it badly you are going to kill it. It’s all in the presentation. Sometimes people talk too fast, mumble, cover their face with paper…they forget that the audience is there. I’ve seen good poets absolutely destroy their work by being totally introverted. Yes it is about words, but it’s also about the audience, and it’s good to remember that. I think a really good performance poem is in the writing too though. You write a poem differently if you are going to perform it, because of your interaction with the audience.
You took up writing ten years ago, and you’ve already achieved a great deal. You are now a lecturer in Creative Writing, you have three books published, you’ve entered and won many competitions, and you’ve toured the UK and abroad. What’s next for you?
I want to concentrate on poetry and performance. I now have a class at the college in Performance Poetry and I would like to develop that. I would like to see more students thinking about the presentation of their creative work. On a personal level, I have written another novel, which is with my agent, and I am writing another. I’m also seriously considering doing a PhD in creative writing.
At the moment we have a collection of posters in the British Council artistic celebrities and their favourite words. For example the poet Sinead Morrissey said hers is ‘Incandescent’, and John Agard says his is ‘Lovely’. What’s your favourite word and why?
I’d have to say ‘Exuberance’, because it’s a quality that is sometimes lacking in British Society. We could do with a lot more exuberance. It also has that lovely ‘uber’ sound in the middle of it.
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Lucy EnglishNovelist, Performance Poet, Slam Sex Goddess...
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