Lewis Buxton and Daisy Henwood are the writers behind TOAST, a Norwich based poetry company. Ahead of curating the performance poetry programme at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, they talk of falling of love, with each other and poetry itself
Who are you both and what do you do?
We’re TOAST – a Norwich based, poetry company run by writers, Lewis Buxton and Daisy Henwood. We’re a small team who make big, live poetry events for audiences who are new to poetry. We’re both writers as well – Daisy got her PhD from the University of East Anglia, and has since been writer-in-residence at Norwich Castle, Weribee River Trust and now for Norfolk Create and Connect at Sweet Briar Marshes as well as having work published in some of the UK’s leading literary magazines. Lewis’s first book ‘Boy in Various Poses’ came out in 2021 and he regularly tours around the country – in 2024 he is touring his new one person show ‘Friend’.
Where did you two meet?
We met on a bench at the University of East Anglia. We spent years as each other’s best friends – hanging out together in cafes, libraries and pubs, going to gigs, reading books and drinking cups of tea. Eventually, we fell in love. We got married in 2023 and now have a small dog called Frankie.
What led you to founding TOAST Poetry and what’s the thinking behind it?
Poetry is really entertaining. It is funny and challenging and serious and silly and brilliant all at once. This is the founding philosophy of TOAST. We wanted to create a company which put on the shows we wanted to go and see, which would bring in audiences like our parents who wouldn’t usually buy tickets to a poetry event.
Every show we do has something for everyone. We want it to be poetry, but not as you know it, an exciting mixture of theatre, comedy and live performance. All the energy of music with the pin-drop attentiveness of a play.
What were you both doing before? What attracted you to poetry as a way of expressing yourselves?
Poetry is short. That’s what attracted us to it. Poetry had always been a big part of Lewis’s life – he had a ‘real job’ for about 5 minutes – but writing, performing and teaching poetry was always what he really wanted to do. He found poetry in a field in Suffolk and in the shelves of Haringey Public Library in North London. He read it on trains round the country as he tried to see and perform as much live literature as possible.
For Daisy, poetry was a respite after the weight of a PhD. It is an espresso compared to a frothy cappuccino, the shot of whisky to the head-heavy pint of prose.
For those of us who struggle to pay attention to things, poetry is perfect. As both readers and writers it both gives us that bump of adrenaline and recognition, but it doesn’t take up a huge amount of time. You can read it in between tube stations or whilst you are waiting for the kettle to boil.
We were lucky, we found poetry that spoke to us and about our lives, but we truly believe there is something out there for everybody. That’s what we try and programme at TOAST events.
How would you describe the collective?
We would describe it as a community. We want to make events that welcome people in, that make them feel at home, where audiences are comfortable and are part of a conversation.
We also want to create a community for writers – we run a monthly writers meet up, where we get together with other people who write poetry of all levels and backgrounds and share our feelings about it.
What is your involvement with this year’s N&N Festival? How much are you looking forward to curating the performance poetry programme?
At NNF 2024 we are programming six shows across three days at The Speak Easy Tent in Festival Gardens.
It’s a really exciting time for us – we have always done standalone shows, once a month usually, so packing in six shows in a short amount of time is going to be a ping pong ball in a hurricane and we cannot wait for the joy and chaos we’re going to create.
What can festival goers expect if they venture into the new Speak Easy tent?
Everything from radical punk poetry to soft and kind comedy. We start our run of shows with Harry Baker who is a wonderfully welcoming presence, who tells stories and jokes all within the framework of a poem. We’ve then got the joy that is Dean Atta. He’s been writing YA novels in verse and poetry collections about what it is like to be an LGBT+ black writer: I think a lot of people will see Dean and find something of themselves in his words. We’ve got Kate Fox and Salena Godden who have be stalwarts of the British spoken word scene since the 1990s – they are political and joyful and full of amazing stories. Then we have the hilarious absurdism of Luke Kennard who won the prestigious Forward Prize for Poetry. There really will be something for everyone.
How did the TOAST on the Coast tour go?
TOAST on the Coast was our new venture as we toured Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Sheringham in early April 2024. It all went incredibly well, and we’ll be back at all those locations as well as doing fun new events in Kings Lynn!
Any future poetry-related plans for the rest of the year you would like to share?
We are bringing our flag ship show TOAST Live back to the Norwich Theatre Playhouse in December 2024. We have some incredible headliners, some of whom are already household names, others who you will never have heard of but we promise, you will fall in love.
TOAST Poetry at the Speakeasy, Norfolk & Norwich Festival runs from Tuesday May 21 to Thursday May 23, 2024: Harry Baker (sold out) on May 21, at 4.30pm; Dean Atta on May 21 at 6pm; Kate Fox on May 22 at 4.30pm; Luke Kennard on May 22 at 6pm; Salena Godden on May 23 at 4.30pm; Ross Sutherland on May 23 at 6pm. Visit toastpoetry.com.
Featured image of Daisy Henwood and Lewis Buxton, by Katherine Mager
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