Henry Bowers (Kung Henry)

Henry Bowers / Kung Henry

(eng) (swe)

Henry Bowers is one of Europe’s leading slam-poets. He is also nationally known and acclaimed as one of Sweden’s best hip-hop acts. Henry Bowers is also known as Kung Henry, which is the name used when the lyrics are in Swedish.

Henry’s poetry and music is reflecting society as well as his person with a huge spark in the eye and a lot of irony. It’s intelligent, sharp and to the point. In an effective way he breaks down the wall between high culture and mass culture as he takes influences from and refers to everything from horror films and children’s stories to classic masterpieces and great philosophers, everything combined with a dose of humour.

Three years of studying philosophy is reflected in Henry’s lyrics and you also find influences from literary role models such as Franz Kafka, Paul Auster and Edgar Allan Poe. His musical influences come from a wide range of genres. Among them hip-hop acts like Public Enemy, Aesop Rock, Saul Williams and Buck 65, other than that influences are taken from punk, metal, reggae and artists like Johnny Cash, Tom Waits and Woody Guthrie.

Selected biography

2008

Performing as opening act for Buck 65 at Debaser in Stockholm.
Appearing at the Infinite Word Festival in Gaborone, Botswana.
Participating in the International Poetry Slam in Bolzano, Italy, ending up at 2nd place.
Working with and releasing another artist on the own record label Kafkaotiska Inspelningar, the Uppsala rapper known as Spakur. The album is called “Lördagen den 14:e” (“Saturday the 14th”) and both Henry and DJ Lo-kut are featured on it.
Featured as voice actor in the video game “Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena”, by Starbreeze Studios.

2007

Once again guest Poet in the Copenhagen Poetry Slam, at Ideal Bar (Vega) in Denmark.
Guest Poet at the BBC National Slam in Brighton, UK.
Appearing at the ABC (Augsburg Brecht Connected) -festival in Augsburg, Germany. Other poets like Ainsley Burrows and Beau Sia where also there.
2nd place in the International Poetry Slam della Notte Bianca in Rome, Italy.
Perfomed as opening act for Sage Francis, together with the group Amok.

2006

Winner of The Four Continent Slam-tour in Great Britain. This is a contest where eight of the worlds foremost slam-poets from four different continents tour the UK for 14 days, and one winner is appointed.
Second place at the International Slam-revue in Berlin, Germany.
Appearance with Riksteatern JAM at the Arvika Festival in Sweden.
Once again guest poet at Substanz Slam in Münich Germany, the biggest individual Poetry Slam-contest in Europe.
Guest Poet in the Copenhagen Poetry Slam, at Ideal Bar (Vega) in Denmark.
Takes Part is the Poetry Africa-festival in South Africa, that lasts two weeks. Both poetry readings and hiphop-gigs in Johannesburg and Durban. Henry also holds poetry workshops in different schools.

2005

Third place in the world slampionships in Rotterdam, The Nederlands.
Appearance with Riksteatern JAM at the Hultsfred, Arvika and Popaganda-festivals in Sweden.
Guest Poet at Substanz Slam in Münich, Germany, the biggest individual Poetry Slam-contest in Europe.

2004

Winner of the Swedish poetry slam championship in Avesta
Henry and his poetry collective “Poeter blir dom…” (“Poets are those…”) appear during all the days of the Hultsfred festival in Sweden
Appearances with Riksteatern JAM at the Arvika, Popaganda and Piteå Dansar och Ler-festivals in Sweden.

2003

Winner of the part “voice and motion” in the Swedish poetry slam championship in Malmoe.
Poetry Slam-appearances at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden.

Henry Bowers & DJ Lo-kut live

You can see Henry Bowers on stage in a variety of settings. The most normal being when it’s a hip-hop show with DJ Lo-kut is on the turntables and Saman Tha Fox as backup. The show is often mixed up with parts where Henry performs his poetry as spoken word. Sometimes the rap and poetry is mixed up with folk music, and Rickard Jäverling often used to follow up on stage for these kinds of shows, but has lately Peter Lindholm (Enemyisus) has taken his place.
Henry also does a lot of poetry performanes on his own, has rapped to klezmer music, done Tom Waits-covers with a small band, sung folk-music accompanied with nothing but banjo, and a lot more.

Henry Bowers is a quite busy performer with up to 40-50 shows a year.

Kafkaotiska Inspelningar

Together with DJ Lo-kut, Henry runs the record label Kafkaotiska inspelningar, where they release the Henry Bowers / Kung Henry material.

One other artist other than Henry himself has so far been released by Kafkaotiska Inspelningar, the rapper Spakur, with his debut album “Lördagen den 14:e”.