Prose Interviews Poet Raymond Antrobus
We are pleased as punch to bring you an exclusive interview with the talented Brit, Raymond Antrobus, who was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule to tell us all about himself and what he’s involved with. If you had yet to come across him, Raymond Antrobus is a poet, performer and hearing aid user, born and bred in East London, Hackney.
His poems have been published in magazines and literary journals such as The Rialto, Magma Poetry, Oxford Diaspora's Programme, British Council Literature, Shooter Literary Journal, The Missing Slate, Morning Star, Media Diversified and University Of Arkansas Press.
Raymond has read and performed at festivals (Glastonbury, Latitude, Bestival etc) touniversities (Oxford, Goldsmiths, Warrick etc), and has also read internationally (South Africa, Kenya, North America, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Switzerland etc).
He is co-curator of popular London poetry events Chill Pill (Soho Theatre and The Albany) and Keats House Poets. His work has appeared on BBC Radio 4, The Big Issue, The Guardian and at TedxEastEnd. Sky Arts and Ideas Tap listed Raymond in the top 20 promising young artists in the UK.
P: You are proud to explain that you were born and bred in East London. Do you still live there?
R: Yes, I often have to make a point of being born and bred in East London (Hackney) because now It's so heavily gentrified. To extent I feel I have more of a right to be here because people like me are disappearing. Hackney is a place I grew up in and around a street culture that lured me into certain negative things. I survived that. To see it become a place that certain people now claim as their own, makes me feel anger. Having said that, while growing up Hackney was a place I wanted to escape so I am a hypocrite for wanting to claim it now everyone wants to be here. It's complicated.
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To read the rest of this fantastic interview and for links to videos of his performances, please head over to blog.theprose.com and let us know your thoughts.