The poetry establishment belittled and dismissed performance poetry right from the start. But as audiences swelled in the 1990s, spoken word poets became impossible to ignore.

Lemn Sissay returns to his first ever paid gig, and charts how voices outside the mainstream made themselves heard. Joelle Taylor recalls the rising tide of live poetry, while Simon Armitage explains how it became possible to straddle the divide between stage and page.

Written and presented by Lemn Sissay
Sound design by Charlie Brandon-King
Produced by Richard Lea and Joe Hallam

A Bafflegab production for BBC Radio 4 Show less