Unashamed

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Harry Baker is the World Poetry Slam Champion and champion of the people. His TED Talks have been watched by millions of people and translated into over 20 different languages. He has two books published with Burning Eye and the latest, Unashamed, was accompanied by an Edinburgh fringe show and 40-date tour of the UK. He is the only person to have sold out the Tom Thumb Theatre three nights in a row and he is yet to find anywhere that does a better French Toast than Forts.

Chris Read is a singer-songwriter and one half of musical comedy duo Harry and Chris. He won Twyford High Schools's battle of the bands competition the year Harry won an award for 'Most Potential', but harry was given an extra paper round at their local newsagent even though Chris had been working there longer so who's the real winner? He has written songs for the recent Netflix smash hit Ladybug and Cat Noir, and he also once did a ten hour shift rapping about a frozen yoghurt called pinkberry. Harry didn't ask his permission before writing this bio but imagines he'll be fine with it.

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So it’s partly trying to embrace those two sides of my brain and my life that people often see as separate. But I think what it has become is a celebration of being your full self, in terms of that emotional spectrum as well, so I think it’s the most out-and-out silly I’ve been at points. Together they are Harry And Chris, The nation's favourite comedy-rap-jazz duo, as seen on The Russell Howard Hour, Greenbelt Mainstage, and more recently at a Northumbrian Water Conference. Expect soulful singalongs, lyrical wizardry, questionable freestyles and unquestionable bromance. Part poet, part stand-up comedian – he’s also a mathematician and writer – Harry Baker will be appearing in Cambridge in the new year.

Gemma Barnett won the 2021 ‘Poetry for Good’ prize judged by Rachel Long and was featured on BBC Woman’s Hour. She was a winning finalist of BBC Words First in 2021 with ‘i killed them when they came for my kid’. Her poem ‘My Abortion was Funny’ was selected and published in the Verve Poetry Festival Anthology on Protest 2023 and commended for the Out-Spoken Poetry Prize 2023. Her debut short film ‘Bridge’ premieres next month at BAFTA/BIFA qualifying Norwich Film Festival. She was commended for the Poetry Kit Spring Competition and was longlisted for the AUB International Poetry Prize. She's developing her next show thanks to a commission from Camden People's Theatre. Helen Seymour is a poet/writer/performer who has toured two solo shows across the UK, premiering her latest at Southbank Centre as part of London Literature Festival. Her debut collection The Underlook was published by the Poetry Business in January 2022. Moving and funny in equal measure, her poems describe a disappointing experience with a psychic, the case of a missing piglet and the decision to relocate into a well. She is currently working on her debut novel and potentially a new show about her late hamster. After a sellout Edinburgh Fringe Run and subsequent 40-date UK Tour, World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker is making like Theseus and taking on a mini-tour before his 26-30 railcard runs out. Returning to some of his favourite places with a mix of old faves and new bangers, the maths-loving, TED-talking, German-speaking, battle-rapping, happy-crying, self-bio-writing unashamed human brings his signature playfulness and poignancy that has made him a fan favourite and reached millions of people all over the world. Harry continues: “The title [ Unashamed] in one sense is about being your full self, and so for me I studied maths at uni, I’ve done poetry on the side, and then the two kind of flipped – so the last 10 years I’ve been able to be a full-time performer and have a bit of an interest in maths.The Tunbridge Wells Poetry Festival presents World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker. He is a poet and a maths graduate. He writes about important stuff like hope, dinosaurs and German falafel-spoons. His work has been shared on TED.com and viewed millions of times worldwide, as well as being translated into over 20 different languages. When there’s not a global pandemic on he performs all over the country and has really really missed live gigs. His latest collection ‘Unashamed’ was published with Burning Eye in 2022 and he has been sharing poems from it at every available opportunity ever since. A collection of poems taken from sold out shows combined with new work written at a time when that was no longer possible. From the joyful creativity of German compound words to having his prime number poetry shared on TED.com, it took Harry far too long to realise that maths has been as much a part of his work as the poetry. That both are about figuring out the world around us, finding wonder in your surroundings, and searching for connection wherever you can.