LIFE LESSONS
Toby Campion is a UK national poetry slam champion and a world poetry slam finalist. He grew up in Leicester, but it was while he was working and studying in America that he discovered slam poetry in 2012. He has performed on stages across the UK, from Gl
Poet Toby Campion
IN AMERICA, THERE IS A LOT MORE PERSONAL NARRATIVE AND POLITICAL STUFF IN POETRY, WHEREAS IN THE UK IT’S MORE LIGHT- HEARTED People often suffer from self- doubt when writing and always worry too much about perfectionism
I went to an all- boys state school for five years. It fostered very prescriptive hetero- normative male roles in a really unhealthy way. I made myself the smallest version of myself I could be so I didn’t stand out more than I already did
FOR A LONG TIME, I COULDN’T SAY TO MYSELF THAT I WAS GAY, I HAD INKLINGS OF KNOWING FROM A VERY YOUNG AGE BUT I VERY MUCH PUT THEM IN
THE BACK OF MY HEAD AND REPRESSED THEM I didn’t tell my parents I was gay until a trip home from university when I was 21. They didn’t say much about it and the next time I came home for a visit I think my mum was quite relieved that I hadn’t turned into something different. I think she thought because I told them I was gay I was going to become something totally different I try to free write every day for five minutes, just writing continuously whatever is in my head and I find that unclogs things. If I write every day, it makes coming to
a blank page less daunting I WAS TAUGHT THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS WRITER’S BLOCK. YOU JUST HAVE TO GET THAT OUT OF YOUR HEAD, ALTHOUGH I DO STRUGGLE TO BELIEVE IT AT TIMES
It’s terrifying to compete in a poetry slam. It’s like a polite rap battle, I can get caught up in a sense of fear and selfconsciousness. But they are a great way to hone your skills and have an appreciation of an audience. However, performers can forget poetry slam is a format not a style
If you are a straight man and you perform poetry, you get groupies after a gig, but I have never got with anyone through poetry. People I have gone out with have asked me to write them a poem, but I don’t really write poems about people until I have broken up with them... THERE IS A FESTIVAL CALLED GREEN BELT, WHICH I LOVE. THERE ARE MORE THAN A THOUSAND PEOPLE WATCHING, JUST LISTENING TO YOU. IT’S NOT LIKE A NORMAL FESTIVAL WHERE PEOPLE ARE WASTED OR OFF THEIR FACES
I have a thing of hating anything I wrote a while ago and never wanting to see it again, but I had to get over that with my book because I spent a long time on it I USED TO WRITE ABOUT WHERE I’M FROM, NOW SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL POLITICS ARE A BIG PART OF IT. MORE RECENTLY, I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT DATING IN THE GAY WORLD AND HOW HISTORY SHAPES THE SPACES IN WHICH WE OPERATE AND INTERACT IN BRILLIANT, AS WELL AS UNHEALTHY, WAYS I have been doing a lot with polari, a secret gay language, and drawing comparisons to modern language gay and queer people use today. In many ways, we still have our own secret way of communicating BEING IN A NATIONWIDE COMMERCIAL LAST YEAR WAS FUNNY BECAUSE PEOPLE THOUGHT MY FRIEND WAS MY GIRLFRIEND. PEOPLE ARE REALLY INVESTED IN THAT RELATIONSHIP, BUT THE POEM WE WROTE FOR THE COMMERCIAL WAS ABOUT FRIENDSHIP, AND WHEN I TELL PEOPLE WE ARE NOT A COUPLE THEY ARE DEVASTATED. A LOT OF THE COMMENTS ON YOUTUBE ARE “LOL DOESN’T SHE KNOW HER BOYFRIEND IS GAY?” I find the horrible reviews people write quite funny. There was one that read they wanted to grab a flame thrower every time they see me