poet

James Mercer is currently the lead singer/songwriter for The Shins and Broken Bells, a project with DJ Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, producer of Beck and Gorillaz). Prior to The Shins and Broken Bells, he was the lead singer/songwriter of Flake, which later became Flake Music. There is a rare solo recording on January 7, 2004 of Mercer doing some private recordings of hit songs by his band The Shins for a radio station.

Amiri Baraka is an influential American poet, dramatist and music critic. Known for his outspoken political activism, he may be best remembered for his controversial tenure as Poet Laureate of New Jersey. Important writings include Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) and Blues People: Negro Music in White America (1963), which remains one of the most influential volumes of jazz criticism. Baraka's website is http://www.amiribaraka.com/.

Simon Armitage (born in Huddersfield on May 26, 1963) is a British poet, playwright, and novelist. Academic history
Armitage first studied at Colne Valley High School, Linthwaite, Huddersfield. He then went on to study geography at the University of Portsmouth, before lecturing on creative writing at both the University of Leeds and at the University of Iowa's writers' workshop. He is currently a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. Notable works

John Cooper Clark (born January 25, 1949) is an English performance poet from Salford, Greater Manchester. He is often referred to as a punk poet, having initially achieved recognition in the late 1970s amidst the flourishing punk movement. His recorded output has mainly centred around musical backing from The Invisible Girls, which featured Martin Hannett, Pete Shelley, Bill Nelson, Paul Burgess and Steve Hopkins.