Also available as audio-only on iTunes, Spotify & wherever else you get podcasts.
We wrapped season 2 but stay tuned as we will be bringing y’all new interesting poetry content in the off season. First up is a swapcast from across the pond, “Word Spoken;” a poetry show hosted by Pen Clique fam Henry Betwick, featuring the best new poets in the UK scene. Henry dives into the stories and experiences behind his guests’ poems and presents it all with the high quality treatment we think poetry deserves. We love this show because of their captivating coverage of spoken word and we’re excited to put our listeners on to more exciting poetry content from the online poetry community. Subscribe to Word Spoken on YouTube and all podcast platforms, and stay tuned as we drop even more poppin poetry content throughout our off season.
[CLIQUE UP]
- Word Spoken online: Official Website
- Word Spoken on IG: @wordspokenpodcast
- Sarah Callaghan on IG: @scallaghan1
Instead of the Pen Clique bois gassing up our mans Henry about his new UK-based poetry podcast, we’re gonna let him talk to yall direct:
And a special write-up from Henry the gawd himself:
Word Spoken is a platform that shed’s light on what it means to live in modern Britain as told from the perspective of some of the UK’s finest poets. UK culture is diverse and different perspectives rarely share center stage.
Just like all other artistic expression, performance poetry and spoken word needs to evolve with the times in order to reach wider audiences and to stay relevant. Word Spoken podcast was launched with this in mind.
I started going to open mic nights in London and each night the talent I saw would blow me away. The cherry on top after the show was having a conversation with the poets themselves and getting to know the person behind the poetry. The combination of hearing these poets perform and having a chat with them afterwards was such a fulfilling experience it got me thinking.
With so much talent across the scene it seemed a shame to limit the reach of spoken word artists to the confinements of the open mic setting. More people needed to hear this.
I realised I needed to create a space for poets to showcase their work and as well as giving them a chance to open up a conversation about some of the issues and themes raised in their work.
From this, Word Spoken was born. On the show each poet performs 3 different pieces – each one bringing with them their own unique combination of lyricism, storytelling and performance.
From the comedic and entertaining to the passionate and purposeful, poetry is healing for both the writer and the listener. Word Spoken: Get to know the person behind the poetry.
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Episode 23 ft. Shalane Goss
How do we grow through heartbreak? On the final episode of season 2, Shalane Goss joins the clique as they dive into their feels and wade through the murky waters of accountability in relationships during ‘Threads and Lines.’ An 18 year old Sarah Kay performing on Def Poetry gets the ‘2 Piece combo’ poetry review treatment, and the clique pull unexpected gold during the #poetry Instagram poetry review. Shalane ends the show with love abounding with her ‘Five for Ya Eye’ prompted poem.
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Episode 11 Ft. Bess Kepp
Get hit with 20+ years of Poetry wisdom! Cory “Bess Kepp” Cofer cliques up, bringing with him his deep bag of poetry tricks and hip hop clout. Bess illuminates black struggle and pain like Big Daddy Kane during “Threads and Lines” and the boys dive deep into the poetic pond and get salty and sweet during the “2 Piece Combo”.
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Mini Ep: Reflecting on Quarantine-Era Pen Clique
After daily posts and weekly livestreams all throughout 2020, we ghosted in April 2021 without warning. We finally address what happened to Pen Clique, where we’ve been, what we’ve been up to and our plans for Pen Clique.
