(photo credit to Nick Rawle)Stevie Watson is a poet and a performer and that's still kind of a new world to me so I was especially pleased to get chatting to her at Writing Industries Conference this year and that she agree to follow that up with an interview. Enjoy. HR: Tell us all a bit about yourself and your writing?
SW: Excuse me if I ramble. I'm going to trust you to tell me when I'm being unnecessary?
Okay, so, I'm an American Literature Student in Norwich (a life choice that had nothing to do with Stephen Fry. Obviously.). I like tea, (brackets), Cartoon Network and Charles Bukowski...on paper. I guess I started writing in primary school, but I try to repress the first attempts at writing stories but didn't find performance until I was about fifteen. Tell you about my writing? I just try to explain what I go through in a way that resounds. I write words. And I hear people like hearing them. They tend to be pretty fast and, more recently, written to be spoken. I'm a 'style-explorer' (quoth a friend!) and I don't like to shy from vulgarity if it'll get my point across.
Surely everyone loves Cartoon Network? So what drew you about performance particularly?
It's true, it's true. I guess I started learning about spoken word pretty early on so I kind of link paper and performance poetry. Our college's Writers' Group took a trip to Leicester's main spoken word open mic, Word!, when we were all fifteen or so, which made me realise that spoken word is something a lot of people enjoy. I expected kind of striped shirts and cigarette holders, but was confronted with a room of people from all over who happened to like poetry. Eh, and I was just starting to read the Beats; who doesn't want to be Ginsberg, y'know? At the same time, I can't play an instrument, and it had never occured to me that the voice can be just as powerful a medium as music if you say the words the right way. There something so direct about spoke word too. Ppaer poetry is great; I love writing it, reading it, sending it out there, talking about it, but it's not so immediate as spoken word. I like to be able to connect with the people experiencing my poems. Paper poems can provoke reactions, sure, but sometimes it's satisfying to see people's shock or to make an audience laugh. It's a lot easier to determine which lines work when you can't avoid the response.
so when did you start actually performing, tell us about your first time. ;)
Haha, I struggle with this one. The first time I read my work in public was actually at that first Word! night. The group of us did a workshop at City Gallery, Leicester immediately before it so we all had material fresh on us and when we walked in the compere was doing the rounds so my friends and I figured, 'Why not?'. I can't imagine it was so interesting to watch! But as far as actually performing goes, I'd count it as the Loughborough Streets Alive Festival in 2008. So I guess I was sixteen, not fifteen! It was on a small stage in the middle of the street in Loughborough town centre which made it all the scarier because the people watching were the passers-by not exclusively poetry fans! Before the event, we'd had weeks of prep with Serenah and on the way there, I think we scared other passengers on the train by practising in the aisles! And to get into the festival spirit I'd gone to have my face painted just before the performance which helped 'cause I could make a joke out of it when I got on stage which I think relaxes everyone. To be honest, the scariest bit is waiting before you get on stage. Once I got up, I felt okay. And remembered all the words, which was a bonus!
Wow, i'd be terrified. Ok so what do you think it is about spoken poetry that is so much more effective than written?
Well, first thing is, as I said before, it's immediate. It's unavoidable. When you're reading it can be easy to drift in and out of the words, to skip bits or to miss the writer's intention because sometimes the tone's a little ambiguous. But when you're performing your own work you sort of get more chance to say the words exactly as you intended them and to get feedback straight away just from the faces of the audience. If you can actually see someone gasp at a line, you know you're onto a winner. By the same token, if people are staring off around the room, it might be time for a re-think of the poem you're reading... And it's cool, haha! To clarify, there's a lot stigma around poetry for young people; it's old, it's stuffy, it's boring, it's nto about anything people actually experience, it's all Keats (sorry to Keats fans...). Spoken word can hit the mainstream and bring poetry back down to Earth for people. Artists like Scroobius Pip, for example, whose work has even hit the UK singles charts! The first time my flatmates were dragged to one of my performances, a few of them came to me afterwards and said, 'We didn't know poetry could be like that.'. Or my sister, who I dragged to see Sureshot read once. She's really into rap but said poetry was 'boring and for old people', despite my protests of, 'rap and poetry are SO close!'. After seeing Sureshot, she got a much more open mind about it. It's not that I don't think paper poems can be effective. Of course they can. But whereas paper poems feel, to me at least, like a really personal experience, spoken word feels more about experiencing as a group. Reaching out to people.
Ha so if not Keats, which are your favourite dead poets?
Haha, what a question. Poets all round? Plath's images - sometimes she nails things in a way that makes me wonder how no one ever said it before. Bukowski's killer down-to-earth-edness (that counts as a word, right?). I admire him so much. He's a real breath of fresh air at the end of a long day. Roald Dahl's 'Revolting Rhymes' still make me giggle; I bought them for my baby sister after finding out Spike Milligan makes her laugh. Those poems stuck in mind since we ended the days on them in primary school so reading them to her now is a fantastic feeling. All kids should have that book in school, I swear. I read a cracking one by James L. Dickey a few weeks ago, 'Falling', that makes me think he'll be a fast favourite. I like how he puts movement into words. Christina Rossetti, if only for 'Goblin Market'! Oh god, Adrian Henri! The poems of his in 'The Mersey Sound'; I call them apocalypse poetry 'cause they're all alternate endings: 'If you weren't around, things would be like this...', y'know? There's probably a proper name now that I mention it, but 'Without You' is so beautiful to the point where I wrote pieces of it in my Valentine's Day card to my boyfriend this year. I'm sure he appreciated it, haha. And, of course, Ginsberg's completely outrageous, stunning images. 'The Lion for Real' kills me every time.
Cool, some really great choices and yes what twisted kid didn't love the Revolting Rhymes!! Ok just for fun then, since you are a Cartoon Network fan... what cartoon character would you be?
For attitude, costume, powers, family, a cute bedroom, the greatest novelty phone in the world and kick-ass villains inclucing Mojo Jojo, Him and Fuzzy Lumpkins, it's got to be Buttercup from The Powerpuff Girls!!
Huge thanks to Stevie for joining us on Un:Bound.
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