Word on the street is that slam poet Jack is off to Edinburgh final
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Inverness poet and performer Jack Hunter joins 11 other slam poets for the Loud Poets Slam grand final at the Edinburgh Book Festival later this month.
To get there, he won the Highland heat of the Loud Poets Slam Series at the Bike Shed in Inverness in May and now will compete for the £3000 prize and title.
Runner-up Lynsey Gilmore is going down to the final too.
As winner of the regional heat, Jack received a prize of £200 and said at the time: “It was amazing to have an event like that in Inverness and what was brilliant was there was such a cross-section of different ages and demographics taking part.”
Saying he was surprised to win up against poets of the calibre of his fellow contestants, Jack added: “It was my first slam, so it is doubly surprising!”
Jack said: “Everyone has their own unique style and that is what comes through. They talk about things very specific to them and they are lived experiences.”
As well as a fun poem that majored on the sounds of the words with alliteration, Jack performed poems from his own lived experience, living with cerebral palsy.
He said: “The second poem I did was a poem called Inspiration, basically how disabled people are perceived in the eyes of the media and how demeaning stereotypes are actually very outdated and how actually disabled people can contribute to everyday life and live everyday lives.
“It’s trying to combat very outdated models and ideas of what it is to be disabled. I am trying to propagate the idea disabled people are only impaired by the societal barriers they face.
“There is a couplet in it that goes: ‘Our only impairment is how we are viewed, so some people need to change their attitude.’.”
And Jack’s third poem in his winning selection returned to his own situation: “It was more specific to me, about having cerebral palsy and talks to my experience of moving through school with that and is called You’ve Got To Be Ballsy To Have Cerebral Palsy!”
Jack explained the combination of approaches he takes: “For me my poetry is definitely influenced by humour and having a surrealist take on life, but also trying to pair that with some sort of argument or political statement. I think if you have humour and it’s quite surreal or tongue in cheek, it undercuts and makes it more palatable. Politically palatable poems is what I am going for.”
Jack’s influences includes masters of the art of performing poetry.
“I got into poetry because I really got into John Cooper Clarke. In an interview they asked him to advise anyone trying to get into poetry and performance ‘Copy off someone you like’ but ‘write about what you know about’. That was the jumping off point for me. I got influenced by other poets like Kae Tempest and through music and lyricism obviously – from Bob Dylan to more modern RnB influences, someone like Kendrick Lamar and bands like Sleaford Mods and Yard Acts and also more established names like Beck, it all has quite a lot of humour in it.
“I can’t really play any music, but I relate to a lot of musical processes and like the idea of hammering away at things as if I am making a little album.
“That is just sort of romanticism on my part.”
Jack welcomes that Inverness has places you can hear or perform slam poetry, mentioning both The Bike Shed and The Tooth & Claw have open mic nights.
Jack said: “One of the things for me is that poetry is a widespread thing and lots of people do it and are interested.
“But the actual pathway – hopping platforms – it’s quite tricky to get your foot in the door and one of my motivations to do the slam was to get my foot in the door. Slam is interesting, the competitive nature brings people in.
“Ultimately I am under no illusions anyone in the slam out of the 10 of us in that regional heat could have won it. And it is so subjective, you could have had a different audience, different judges, but the same poets, and you would have another reaction.
“I think that is the thing, as well. It is flattering to win it and especially when the calibre of the other poets is very high.
“But my attitude towards winning and going down to the bookfest, I want to do a good job because I want to represent them, that community of poets.
As well as being a poet, Jack is an actor and performed a one-person play last summer at the Edinburgh Fringe at Summerhall about the experience of living with cerebral palsy.
“I studied at Queen Margaret University and have an actual job.”
Jack is also working on something with Eden Court which he hopes will be seen later this year or at the start of next.
“The poetry is a bit of a side-hustle,” he laughed. “But for me the chance to read at the Edinburgh Book Festival is massive.”
Jack was very pleased with the £200 he got for winning the Inverness heat – but joked it would go to his energy company.
“I’ve already won just to get to the Grand Slam Final in Edinburgh.”
The Loud Poets Grand Slam Final is being held on Saturday, August 26 at 8.30pm in the Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court, Edinburgh. EVENT DETAILS:
