Tyrone Lewis is hands down one of the hardest working people in the U.K. spoken word scene. For over a decade he’s not only written and performed his own brilliant poetry, but also tirelessly supported others by running events including Boomerang Club and by filming events, poems, interviews, and documentaries through Process Productions. So many poets in our scene have benefitted from his (usually unpaid) labour. I relied on several of his YouTube videos for my PhD research: having archives of performances and interviews is so valuable for understanding our history and culture and for developing a critical discourse around our art form.

So when Tyrone asked me to do an interview with him for Process Productions, I was delighted! I’ve been on his channel before in the Scores, Please documentary series all about poetry slams (which is definitely worth a watch) and had a great time chatting with him again. We filmed several segments and this is the first to air. We talk about my practice as a poet, promoter, and researcher; how I define spoken word; regional styles and the impact of the Internet; and more. Check out our conversation on his channel below. And if you’d like to support the important work he does, you can get early access to his videos and plenty of other perks by pledging to him on Patreon. Enjoy!