Press Release  15th Oct 2004 Oxford             News   Arts

                       

UK Poet Crowned International Champion

 

Event:  The Canadian Spoken Word Olympics

Time:    7th – 10th October 2004

Venue: The National Archives Gallery Ottawa

 

 

Oxford-based performance poet Steve Larkin became the first UK Slam Poet to lift a major international poetry title on Saturday at The Spoken Word Olympics in Ottawa, Canada.  The inaugural competition was modelled on the highly successful US National Poetry Slam where thousands flock every year to see the best spoken word artists.  A slam is a democratic poetry competition where would-be poetry stars are given three minutes on a microphone to inspire the audience and are scored by 5 randomly chosen judges.

 

Steve has been a performance poet in the UK for ten years or more sharing stages with the likes of Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Hegley and John Cooper Clark but has only received a fraction of the recognition that the “big names” have received.

 

The competition pitted together some of the finest new poets from around the world with poets coming from as far away as Germany and France.  The hot favourite to take the title was former US Nationals Champion Mike McGee, followed by a number of up and coming slam poets from the States.  Larkin, one of only two UK poets taking part, impressed the judges enough to go into an early lead, and proved that this was no fluke by leading the contest to the very end, impressing the judges with a mixture of comedy, verbal dexterity, wit and passion and being awarded consistently high scores including a number of perfect 10s.

 

This victory now puts the UK on the slam poetry map, which has for the last fifteen years or more been a phenomenon that has been celebrated in mainly in North America.  Steve Larkin is now a named to be reckoned with on the international poetry scene.  Steve said of his victory “You say you’re a poet and people ask questions because they want to know how good you are and I’ve always just had to say “I’m really good” and people don’t trust you or they think you’re a big head, and now when people ask I can say “I’m really good I’m an International Champion” and they will trust me that I am good and probably still think that I’m a big head.”

Mike McGee said of Steve “This guy is awesome, he reminds me of Eddie Izzard, I can’t wait  to see him out here.  He’s gonna be huge in The States”

 

Steve is the creator of the highly successful Hammer And Tongue which brings together the nationally and internationally renowned poets.

 

ENDS

 

Note to editors

 

1.      Details and pictures can be found at www.stevelarkin.com

2.      Spoken Word Olympic details: http://www.wordolympics.com/festival/

3.      Steve’s band Inflatable Buddha www.inflatablebuddha.co.uk

4.      Steve is president of Hammer And Tongue www.hammerandtongue.org

5.      Contact Steve 01865 200550 or poetry@hammerandtongue.org

6.      For photos of slam activity http://poeticdream.com/photo.htm