e-poets Plain Text: Poetry across frontiers (10)

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Poetry across frontiers (10)

response from Johannesburg, South Africa

Hi all,

This whole discourse on slam is 'food for thought'. Looking at the events in Johannesburg, open mic has been the general direction that many have taken. Last year I got involved in an initiative to run poetry nights once a month with a focus on quality as opposed to quantity. Many open mics seem to involve everyone from people who think poetry is cool & it will impress through to those who are passionate about the art. The structure we set up for our nights was a featured poets section and a slam section. To add a twist to it, the structure of the slam was basically freestyle. A member of the audience gave a word and the poet had to create something off the top of their heads. Two things happened. One, those who were aware of the structure of slam in the US felt that we were doing it wrong & two, others felt that we were doing it right.

What I am driving at is that personally I find that poetry slam involves the audience and makes them feel more a part of the process, beyond just providing ears. Our objective is primarily to try and expose poetry for what it is; a fulfilling art form that has relevance to many. We are trying to go beyond simply being an underground movement for the marginalised. I must admit that we continue to search for the right answers and the 'US model' has provided us with a starting point. John Paul, I must thank you and Kurt. Your comments had inspired me to look within myself, as an African, and make sense of where I am trying to go with poetry. In the last few days, I have had conversations with poets around me and I find that we are all struggling to find the right path. There is no easy answer and a lot of depends on our development as human beings, but I find that dialogue and the journey make it all worthwhile.

To conclude, I hope I was incoherent, I personally enjoy the slam and have found that by doing it freestyle, it forces us to journey into that creative room in our minds. The competitveness is cloaked in brother & sisterhood because most of us doing it have been doing it together for a while and it brings more joy than discourse. I have found that the slam provides us with a measure of our development.

Respect,
- Kojo Baffoe

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