If you were to ask me who is my favourite poet this week, I’d probably say Reggie Watts, who is not a poet but an improv comedian/musician. If you haven’t heard of him, there are a few things he does in his act: One is layering loops of his own beatboxy rhythms, vocal bits and soulful improvisational singing / rapping. He is really really good at this. Another is a wry deadpan standup routine that plays with meaninglessness (but delivered as if it were meaningful). He code-switches, sometimes mid-sentence, into a few different voices and languages. If he only did one of these things, it would be cool and impressive, but somehow the combination of these things with no clear transition from one to the other, makes it profound and artful, to me. And super hilarious. I kind of feel new patterns forming my brain as I watch him. He also seems like a totally decent and wonderful human being. Check him out.
Raoul Fernandes 