Raymond Antrobus uses spoken word poetry to portray a diverse experience of sound

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/ [login to see] /raymond-antrobus-spoken-word-poetry
Raymond Antrobus was born deaf. When he came to poetry, much of his work was built on the history and foundations of poetry slams and spoken word performances.

"I really felt a lineage of poets in music, poets in voice, poets in performance," Antrobus says.

The author of two poetry collections – The Perseverance and All The Names Given – Antrobus has now released an album of spoken word poems called The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids. It was produced by Grammy-award-winning music producer Ian Brennan.

Brennan had read Antrobus' poems before, but it was just a few months ago – in June this year – that he heard the poet perform on stage. "It was such a beautiful night," he says.

Realizing that he and Antrobus were both going to be at a festival in London the following month, he wrote to the poet to collaborate. And Antrobus was excited by that.