poet

Luke Wright is one of the UK’s leading stand-up poets. Having made his name as founder of live poetry collective Aisle16, Luke branched out on his own, coming runner-up in Slam Poets on BBC3, the UK’s first televised poetry slam. He is now a 4Talent Award winner and regular contributor to Radio 4’s Saturday Live. Since 2006 he has written and starred in three one-man shows, all of which have won five star reviews at the Edinburgh Festival and toured nationally.

Jake Berry is a poet, songwriter, musician and visual artist. Shadow Resolve, a CD of home cassette recordings appeared as the first release on the Front Porch Recordings label founded by the poet and dancer Amy Trussel in 1997. In 1998 he founded the contemporary folk group Bare Knuckles with Wayne Sides. All of Berry's solo CDs and all three Bare Knuckles CDs were released on the Front Porch label.

Read more about Jake Berry on Last.fm.

James Mercer is currently the lead singer/songwriter for The Shins and Broken Bells, a project with DJ Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, producer of Beck and Gorillaz). Prior to The Shins and Broken Bells, he was the lead singer/songwriter of Flake, which later became Flake Music. There is a rare solo recording on January 7, 2004 of Mercer doing some private recordings of hit songs by his band The Shins for a radio station.

Amiri Baraka is an influential American poet, dramatist and music critic. Known for his outspoken political activism, he may be best remembered for his controversial tenure as Poet Laureate of New Jersey. Important writings include Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) and Blues People: Negro Music in White America (1963), which remains one of the most influential volumes of jazz criticism. Baraka's website is http://www.amiribaraka.com/.