Harry Baker (poet)

British spoken word artist, author and poet

Harry Baker is a British spoken word artist, author and poet.

## Early life

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Born in Ealing in 1992, Harry Baker grew up as part of a Christian community in west London.[1] After switching from studying medicine to allow his pursuit of poetry,[2] Baker studied mathematics with German at Bristol University.[3][4]

## Career

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### 2012 to present

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Baker has won the London and UK Slam Poetry Championships.[5] In 2012, he won the World Slam Poetry Competition, becoming the youngest ever winner.

In 2014 Baker began performing as a speaker for TED.[4] His talk ‘A love poem for lonely prime numbers’ has over 2 million views.[6][7] A collection of his own poetry, The Sunshine Kid, was published in 2015 by Burning Eye Books.[1] Baker received major national airplay on the BBC in 2015 when he wrote and performed a poem for Simon Mayo's Radio 2 show.[8] On Boxing Day 2016, he performed a Christmas Meditation on BBC Radio 4.[9] He occasionally performs as a battle rapper,[2] featuring on Don't Flop.[10] Together with the jazz guitarist Chris Read, he is half of "Harry and Chris", who have performed on The Russell Howard Hour television programme.[11][12][13]

Baker is well known as an aficionado of wine gums, and has many poems on the topic.

## Bibliography

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The Sunshine Kid (2013)

Unashamed (2022)

Wonderful (2024)

## References

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1. ^ a b "Quantifying the unquantifiable". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
2. ^ a b Smith, Erin (21 June 2016). "Curiosity Conversations: A Chat with Harry Baker, The Sunshine Kid". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
3. ^ "Harry Baker: "I'm Not Hardcore Nerdy"". The Tab Bristol. 3 October 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
4. ^ a b "Poetic mathematician blends writing with arithmetic". ABC News. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
5. ^ "The love affair between science and poetry". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
6. ^ Baker, Harry, A love poem for lonely prime numbers, retrieved 9 January 2017
7. ^ TEDx Talks (29 April 2014), Grand Slam Poetry Champion | Harry Baker | TEDxExeter, retrieved 9 January 2017
8. ^ "Harry Baker's end of show poem, Live from the Edinburgh Festival, Simon Mayo Drivetime - BBC Radio 2". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
9. ^ "Christmas Meditation - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
10. ^ "Don't Flop Entertainment". YouTube. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
11. ^ Russell Howard (29 September 2017), Harry and Chris - End of the World song, retrieved 8 February 2018
12. ^ Russell Howard (3 November 2017), Harry and Chris - The Fear song, retrieved 8 February 2018
13. ^ Russell Howard (22 December 2017), Harry and Chris - The Christmas Song, retrieved 8 February 2018

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