Luke Wright is credited, at least in part, for being responsible for rejuvenating poetry in the UK.
He performs his political, moving often very funny poems to full houses these days. He is bringing two performances to New Zealand and is performing at the Auckland Writer’s Festival.
Luke Wright Photo: supplied / AWF
One of his poems 'The Panel' is a furious look at the UK and Nigel Farage, he wrote it two years before the Brexit referendum in 2016.
“It was about 2 years before it happened I was writing that.
“I could feel it coming, that’s one of the things I like about living out in Essex, in the middle of nowhere, is that I get to see more of real life, I don’t live in a media bubble, a city bubble.
“I live in a very, very normal place. I do the school run with my kids every morning, and I meet plenty of people who are very different from me.”
His own background is middle class, middle England.
He says his father would never tell him how he voted but Wright is pretty sure he voted, as did the UK, for Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and David Cameron.
“I always think my dad is a bit of a litmus paper for middle England, when Gordon Brown became leader of the Labour Party I went round to see him and he said; ‘No, no, no good, too dour, not interested in him’, and I knew that Brown was doomed at that point.
“Having parents with different political views to you is really useful because it forces you to make your own political journeys … and also be able to look at someone who disagrees with you on an ideological level and see their humanity. And I think that is something that’s really lacking in our political discourse at the moment.”
Luke Wright performing his poem The Panel
One of Wright’s recent tours was titled tongue in cheek: ‘Luke Wright Poet Laurette’
“The idea of a poet laureate is preposterous, it’s typical of Britain, we’re obsessed with tradition, it seems to be a really silly thing to still have now.
“When the Manchester bombings happened a man called Tony Walsh wrote a poem about Manchester and loving Manchester and about love, he’s written this poem as a commission for some local government.
Walsh, a friend of Wrights, read out the poem at a vigil for the victims of the bombing.
“It was just what people needed to hear at that moment, he said something that was so positive and so life-affirming for people in Manchester it went round the world.
“He was the right poet for the job at that moment.”
Wright has written and performed nine spoken word shows and two verse plays, including The Toll, Frankie Vah, and What I Learned from Johnny Bevan which won him an Edinburgh Fringe First Award.
Luke Wright will appear at the Auckland Writers Festival, details here, as well as in Wellington and Christchurch.
