-Brian Mendonça
I was asked to be a judge for an inter-collegiate
slam poetry event in English.
One of the YouTube videos of slam poetry in English
I viewed was Arnav Sibal’s ‘Shelf Life’(2018) hosted by Delhi Poetry Slam. It spoke about an ordinary day in the
library. How he was so fascinated by all the books. What a spell each book had
on him. He recreated a mundane activity and transformed it into something
ethereal. His only vehicle was the words he used. Somehow I saw myself in him.
The video is for 4.26 minutes non-stop. Arnav held
the listener spell-bound with the suave gestures of his hands. And when he
finished, you mused – ‘Wow, I never thought of it that way.’ He reclaimed the
spoken word and gave it a density that was almost surreal.
I made a mentally note of the rudiments of slam
poetry : 1) The topic was original 2) The writing was original 3) It was
recited without recourse to paper (memorized) 4) It used gesture for effect 5)
The language was of a very high calibre.
At the competition, most of the topics were
original. Some seemed a bit clichéd. One chose as his theme corruption with the
refrain ‘Shh, India is sleeping.’ The poem was itself titled ‘Shh.’ Another
wrote about watching the moon and the impact it made on him. Still another
about losing a friend.
The ladies chose topics which seemed wrenched from
the pain of their own experience. One recited how it was living with an
alcoholic lover. She feels jealous of the bottle he holds close to his chest.
‘Because she is a woman’ catalogued the many ways a woman willingly denies
herself for the betterment of others. A dialogue between a cancer patient and
his doctor was the subject of another poem.
She knows he is going to die, but she still loves him. It was in two
‘voices’.
Finally there was a gentle poem addressed to a girl
coming of age. It dwelt on the nuances of courtship, of the feelings which
stirred in a boy and a girl. In a DIY manual the poem advised, ‘Blush if you
must, if he says you are pretty.’ The poem depicted how inadequate the term
‘pretty’ was. She described the various ways the girl was beautiful, lingering
on phrases like ‘nape of your neck’ etc. Towards the end the poem advised the
young girl to also show the boy the scars she has, so as to enable him to
understand her and accept her more fully.
Now I felt I needed to
add a few more criteria to what constituted slam poetry. They were 6) It is
usually by teenagers and young adults (YA) 7) The themes are topical, urgent
and immediate 8) Audience response is a reasonable indicator of quality 9) The
slam poet was passionate and 10) The content was usually intimate, personal and
disruptive.
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