Spotlight On: Spoken Word Artist Caoimhe Weakliam

‘To be at Electric Picnic performing my own poetry is something that 16-year-old me would have never believed.”

Caoimhe Weakliam started writing poetry the same way many young artists do; within the 4 walls of her childhood bedroom. After her performances at Electric Picnic last September, the 23-year-old from Dublin recounts her journey as a writer and how she found spoken word poetry.

“I tried my hand at traditional poetry, and when I got to college, I even submitted some work to literary journals. I was published once or twice but more often than not it was rejection after rejection.”

It was through this trial and error, with the help of inspiring spoken word poets on YouTube, that Caoimhe realised the words she was writing did not belong on a page; “They needed to be spoken. I was writing them to be heard, not read.”

In 2021, as pandemic lockdowns began to ease, Caoimhe had accumulated many pieces that she had no real intentions for. Against her better judgement, (“I am not a performance person, that’s not really my nature”) she signed up for a 5-minute slot at an open mic night. “I think with things like this, things out of my comfort zone, I just have to say to myself – Just do it!

“Multiple people came up to me after and said how my words really resonated with them. I couldn’t believe it. I put a lot of emotion and soul and personal experiences into my pieces, so to be able to give voice to them is really empowering.”

Caoimhe often writes about modern day problems like social issues and gender politics. She believes that spoken word is a truly effective format for these topics to be discussed and explored. 

 

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“Page poetry can be quite academic. It often has to be cleanly deciphered piece by piece, which has its purpose, but can be highbrow and exclude the ordinary person. Spoken word poetry is a lot more accessible by nature. For spoken word to work, it has to be understood at the point of being performed.”

The community aspect of spoken word poetry is also something that drew her in. “Poetry can be a very solitary artform. Spoken word brings a life and breath and community to it so that it’s an experience shared between people and not one solely for yourself.”

Caoimhe is a great supporter of open mic nights and believes them to be an important aspect of society in general. “I like to think of it as a democracy to art, because there are no rules, you get 5 minutes and just do your thing. There are a lot of barriers to finding space to share your work, whether you pursue music or poetry or comedy or whatever it is. It takes a lot of work to actually get a gig. Open mic nights, like Circle Sessions and Dublin’s Finest, are such great places to start and share your thoughts.”

While some might argue that now more than ever is a great time for artists and accessibility with the dawn of social media, Caoimhe highlights the negative aspects of the digitisation of art. “Something I find difficult about art in our modern time is that it can gravitate into this realm of very short, digestible clips.” She makes the point that while social media allows for anyone to be heard –  it was through the internet that she found the world of spoken word poetry after all – we have reached a point where artists have to modify their work in order to be successful online.

“I don’t want to fit my work into a shorter format. I’m leaning towards slower gratification and making pieces into proper projects. I want to release my poetry in a way that gives weight to the amount of time I actually put into it”

Caoimhe is working on releasing one of her pieces as a single accompanied with music set to land on Spotify. She also hopes to get involved in workshops and community engagement going into the future; “I love doing gigs, but I feel like that’s for me. I’d love to spread what poetry can be to people who haven’t gotten the chance to see it in a different light.”

“Poetry is reinventing itself. That’s something I’m really passionate about, changing people’s perceptions to what poetry can be, not what is learned in the school system.”

The young artist is confident that with the help of spoken word, poetry can break into the mainstream and shed the reputation it acquired from stuffy classrooms and Leaving Cert English papers.

 

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