mark grist
DESCRIPTION
Spoken word artist and rap battler Mark GristTRANSCRIPT
Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | May 8, 2014 | 17
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what’s on08:05:14
Alltalk
Meet poet, rap battler
and former teacher
Mark Grist – he’s
got all the chat
Mark Grist is ridiculously inventive.A former Peterborough teacher turned
poet and ethically sound rapper (youwon’t find him spouting anything homophobic,misogynistic or racist), Grist has a serious knackfor wordplay. Oh, and he ticks all the boxes forcharisma, enthusiasm and lyrical speed.
First breaking out in 2012 after teachingteenage grime artist MC Blizzard a thing or twoin a rap battle that went viral (it’s clocked morethan 4million YouTube views) he spends his timechallenging the stereotypes of poetry and hip-hop, visiting poets’ graves and is now bringinghis latest show, Rogue Teacher, to CambridgeJunction.
The show, which got rave reviews at the 2013Edinburgh Festival, revolves around Grist’s life,going from loving so much about being an Englishteacher, to becoming increasingly frustratedwith government policy and the red-tapedbureaucracy being lashed across classrooms.
“Eventually, after a lot of telling young peopleto follow their hearts and use their skills and doeverything they ever wanted to do with their
lives, I decided I should do the same,” explainsGrist, who initially left his teaching post for a year.“The show is this story of leaving the classroom,realising it was actually quite a safe environmentand going out into the wide world to try to existas a poet, facing the kind of gruelling poverty andbizarre series of hoops you have to jump throughin order to make a living as an artist.”
The “gruelling poverty” bit is obviously saidwith a laugh, because Mark Grist is funny. Veryfunny, and very self-aware, quick to note whatmakes him and this new, strange existence weird,interesting and appealing.
Because the weirdest thing is, he really did gofrom teaching GCSE English to rap battling onYouTube. “I accidentally became kind of pseudofamous,” he says in bemusement. That Blizzardrap, which saw him slam the 17-year-old withlines like “don’t start clicking, I know this mightlook like some kind of extreme babysitting”and “you’d still give yourself a hernia trying toassemble flatpack furniture” while wearing a suit,mind, transformed everything.
“All of a sudden people know me as a rap battler
instead of as a poet,” says Grist. “No one’s reallythat interested in my poetry as such, but peopleare stopping me in the street and asking me toinsult them.”
Rogue Teacher grapples with how that sitswith him being a teacher and “whether thatcontradicts some of the values you originallyhad.”
Not that he really fits the generic idea of a rapbattler. He’s barely sweary, and peppers his vocalswith feminism, realism and total sense. Takeone of his most popular pieces, Girls Who Read,a takedown of guys who see girls as a collectionof body parts to be drooled over: “I want a girlwho reads. . . and the info she gets from what shereads, makes her a total fox”.
Grist explains that he wants to inspire peopleand make them realise “we don’t really need todo anything that we don’t want to do; it’s quitepossible to create our own jobs.”
Not that that isn’t a scary prospect.“It was terrifying,” he admits, on quitting
teaching. “It made me realise how much lots ofthe little things about your job, and often the
18 | May 8, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Poetry
Editor: Paul Kirkley Writer: Ella WalkerEmail: [email protected]
For breaking entertainment news for thecity, visit cambridge-news.co.uk/whatson– plus follow @CamWhatsOn on Twitter
Mark Grist:� Mark Grist: Rogue Teacher,Cambridge Junction, Thursday,May 22 at 8pm. Tickets £13 from(01223) 511511 / junction.co.uk
The poet, rap battlerand all round niceguy goes rogueand returns toCambridge Junctionfor a show that’llmake yourmind work.ELLAWALKERhas a chatwith him
‘People stop me in the street and ask me to insult them’
Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | May 8, 2014 | 19
things that annoy you, hold you together as a person in a lotof ways.”
Adjusting to the fact he was penning verse rather thanmarking papers and pointing out uniform misdemeanours,was actually quite a shock. “Routine and the people youencounter day to day at work help shape who you are andhelp you to feel you are doing something relevant. I suddenlyrealised I could spend three days in bed, no one would reallycare. That is quite a different existence and one where I haveto try and find ways to feel like it has value.”
Over the last year he’s come to the conclusion he needsto continue working with young people: “I still need to havesome kind of educational role because that’s really the way Ifeeling I’m doing something worthwhile and fulfilling.”
That means working with English departments to helpthem tackle poetry in different ways and sharing his poetrydirectly with kids (“I quite like that because if you’re rubbish,then they’ll just tell you you’re rubbish”).
“I definitely find it more nerve-wracking being a poet thanbeing a teacher,” he muses. “My first year of teacher trainingwas pretty much a baptism of fire; I had an awful lot oflessons go horribly wrong.
After five years though, he was ready for a change: “Itkind of felt like I was just going through the motions a bit,it was getting quite straight forward and easy. I was part ofthe furniture, the students didn’t really behave badly for me,there wasn’t a huge amount of challenge left in it.”
Starring in a new Channel 4 documentary series with thefantastic Mr Drew from Educating Essex has definitely givenhim a challenging element to teaching again. Mr Drew’sSchool for Boys takes 11 of the most excluded boys in thecountry and aims to show that no young person should begiven up on, and that there are always ways to break thecycle of poor behaviour.
“It’s really challenging, but it’s really exciting as well andit’s probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever done in mylife,” explains Grist. “Hopefully it will make people realise
these families aren’t alone, there’s lots of behaviour that’sstopping children from fully engaging and I think someyoung people just get written off and we think thatcan’t be resolved. I hope we show there areways we can fix aspects of this behaviour.”
From standing in front of kids totaking on MCs, does he ever gettongue tied?
“Loads, actually,” he laughs. “It’squite easy when you’re reading apoem, you’re just in a routine,and you’re quite safe, it’swhen you’ve finished a poemand making your way to thenext one, that is where youcan get quite tongue tied.”
He adds: “I think nowon stage I’m hopefullypretty slick!”
Rogue Teacher won’t bethe Peterborough poetlaureate’s first starringrole at CambridgeJunction. Last Octoberhe wowed in the HollieMcNish curated Poets vsRappers night as part of theFestival of Ideas (McNish isthe Cambridge doyenne ofspoken word, dontchaknow).
At the time, he finished thenight in belly wobbling styletalking about what life was liketeaching and why poets need moreconfidence. He was a-mazing.
. . .continued on page 27
MA
RK
GR
IST
ON
HIS
FA
VOURITE POEM
I loveRoald Dahl’s
RevoltingRhymes. His
retelling of LittleRed Riding Hood is
still one of my favouritepoems. I loved it as
a kid, I thought it wasbrilliant and for me, as a
child, that was one of thefirst moments I realisedpoetry could be fun andpoetry could be for me;
it wasn’t somethingthat was reserved forsomebody else that I
had to rise to a certainlevel for, but actually
it was there forme, and I could
enjoy it.
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A POET AND – OH GO ON THEN – HE KNOWS IT: Mark Grist
‘Poetry is asmuch yours asanyone else’s...’
This time around he’ll once again have thesupport of Hollie, who’ll be performing too.“I’m very lucky as a poet to be friends withpeople who are also some of my heroes and I’dclass Hollie McNish as one of those people,”Grist enthuses. “I think she’s incredible.”
Other names he recommends for those newto spoken word and page poetry are LukeKennard, Tim Clare, Luke Wright and newguy Harry Baker (“People will read that listand think they’re just names, but you don’tunderstand! They’re amazing, search themonline, watch them do a thing and you’ll love‘em!”).
The effect these writers and performers haveon him is what Grist aims to emulate for hisown audiences.
“I want people to understand that poetryis as much yours as it as anyone else’s,” hebuzzes. “I often find that interesting in relationto teenagers because I think teenagers are toldwhat they should be interested in, rather thanhave a communication about something.
He adds: “It’s a to-ing and fro-ing betweenme and the audience but it’s one where theyknow I’m really interested in trying to engagewith them.”
Grist’s next project involves even more to-ingand fro-ing, with a whole lot of improvisationthrown in.
Dead Poets Death Match is a show he’sdeveloping for this year’s Fringe with long-timecollaborator MC Mixy. The idea is audienceswill get to pick from a selection of famous deadpoets, learn about them and see them “broughtback from the dead” and put up against eachother in rap battles “so you can see Sylvia Plathversus Ted Hughes, you can see Larkin versusSir Walter Raleigh.”
How awesome will that be? We told you Gristwas inventive.
� from page 19