Barcode Scanned: Eddie Lartey Decodes His Line-Driven Poetry Collection

By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca

Last week, the Central branch of the Burlington Public Library (BPL) held an event entitled An Evening with Eddie Lartey as part of their month-long Burlington Lyrics and Poetry Festival.

Lartey, a Hamilton-based poet, was promoting his first written selection of poetry, entitled Barcode.

Lartey spoke about how he came up with the title.

“Big Sean had this freestyle when I was in high school, and he said, ‘I just give ‘em line after line, after line, barcode,’” Lartey said.

Lartey enjoyed the play on words and is also a big fan of hip hop. He felt the title fit his work because his poetry is also built around punchlines. Lartey also described the process of writing Barcode in rap terms, and felt like it was more of a mixtape than a full album.

Lartey had initially written a different selection of poetry meant to be collected in a book, but this was rejected by a publisher. His brother-in-law encouraged Lartey to write a new book and self-publish it, which became Barcode.

Barcode is separated into nine sections, each named after a different type of line in keeping with the collection’s central theme: bloodlines, love lines, timelines, broken lines, lines drawn, lines crossed, lifelines, deadlines, and finish lines.

 

Lartey (right) sat down for an interview with BPL’s Events Coordinator Parampreet Khanuja (left), where he answered questions about his background and experience as a poet, his creative process and his preparation for poetry slams. He also fielded questions from the audience.

 

Lartey won an award at the 2024 Hamilton Literary Awards for Barcode, and was the 2019 Toronto International Poet Slam Champion, the 2021 Human Rights Film Festival Poetry Slam Champion, and the 2022 Canadian Individual Poetry Champion.

Lartey got his start in poetry competitions with Hamilton You Poets. He still works with the group, conducting writing and performance workshops for all ages.

He spoke about how collaborating with other artists can bring new aspects out of your creative process.

“I think today’s writer is often alone,” Lartey said. “But when you work with a collective, it forces you to share your craft with other people in a very intimate way.”

Lartey said that his journey with poetry started with writing love poems to girls in his class. He said that his experience with poetry has always been performance-based, as opposed to written.

In Lartey’s poems that he performed for the BPL audience, he touched on themes of language, love, heartbreak, friendship, and anti-Black discrimination.

Lartey is of Ghanaian descent and speaks Ga. He spoke about the beauty and romanticism of the language, but also its endangered status, being spoken by only 600,000 people.

Lartey said that he studied how comedians transition between jokes and took inspiration from Michael Jackson when practicing his stage banter to make the transition between his poems seamless when performing.

Lartey spoke about what he does to prepare for competitions and poetry slams.

“I’m gearing up, memorizing my poems, making sure that I don’t run out of breath on stage or things like that,” Lartey said. “When I’m gearing up for a big, major competition. I’ll be in the gym on the treadmill, reciting a poem.”

Lartey said that he is inspired by the lengths athletes will go to prepare for games and emulates some of their more unorthodox methods.

“I do weird stuff when I’m rehearsing,” Lartey said. “I will say the poem super fast, say the poem super slow, and then see if I respond to anything differently. One thing I do that’s really funny is I have someone push me while I do the poem. They’re pushing me as I’m walking toward them. It’s kind of like reverse tug of war, and it really has me focus on the words while exerting a high amount of energy. It’s very much an athletic thing where I’m trying to memorize and also just do different things to see what comes out of the poem.”

Lartey said that although his writing is often very personal, he has lines that he won’t cross and has worked to set boundaries between his work and his private life.

“I write for myself, and I perform for others,” Lartey said. “Not everything has to see the stage. Some things are just for me, and that’s okay.”

Lartey stayed after the talk was finished to sign copies of Barcode, which could be purchased for $20.

 

The event was a part of the Burlington Lyrics and Poetry Festival, which highlighted various poets and spoken word artists in author talks, workshops, and interviews.