Brighton - “The show is about just being back in the room with people”

World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker takes to the road for his second nationwide solo tour with his new show Unashamed which plays Komedia, Brighton on January 19: “What I have found interesting with the past few years, the lockdowns, the national mood given the Queen's death, the thoughts we have, is that these huge moments are times when people are looking for something. I found it interesting how people interacted with the arts and poetry during the lockdowns. Usually I'm writing poems to share on stage but then during the pandemic I was writing them to put online. I think everyone processes things differently and I do think some people turn to poetry in these big moments, just as you read a poem at a wedding or a funeral. It is a way of finding an insight into what is happening. And I do think poetry offers a chance for reflection. During the lockdowns, I was reflecting on my own personal experience and putting it out and I think other people found it helpful just knowing that somebody else was going through the same kinds of experiences even if it was in a rather different situation. And it helped me to realise that I was not the only person feeling that way. The show is reflecting on the past two years. I start with things that I wrote during the lockdowns and how I just tried to find ways of being creative while the world was shut down and I think I just ended up realising how much I needed that connection with other people that we just didn't have, that connection that was taken away and just how that affects our mental health. The show is a celebration of being back with people.

“One side effect to the past few years is that I feel I can be more honest and raw and vulnerable than I have ever been on stage. I'm standing there on stage saying that I found it really difficult but that I am more grateful than ever now to be back amongst people. There are bits that are lighter in the show but that's against the background of how important being creative and sharing something is. People have found it really quite cathartic, just seeing someone else talking about what they experienced – not that it is necessarily over or fully processed in any way, but just to acknowledge the difficulty I do think really helps. So this show just feels like the most helpful and the most healing thing I can do right now. Really the people that I feel for are the teenagers and younger people who missed those university years or coming of age. By the sheer maths of it, it was all such a bigger part of their lives whereas older people have their memories from before. And I do think it's going to take a while for everyone to fully work out how that has affected them. I think through the show I'm perhaps accelerating that process insofar as I have got some sense of the light at the end of the tunnel, having gone through those difficulties. The show is about being back in the room with people. It is a show full of hope.”