Let’s talk about hope

As many as 16 independent poets belonging to different age groups from the city will weave magic through their words. Occasion—a spoken word poetry session on the topic- hope. Organised by the Nagpur chapter of The Goodwill Tribe, this new form of spoken word poetry is all set to bring in a poetic revolution in the city on October 28. Here's an update on what's in store in this session...

One with a twist
A rising phenomenon in India, slam poetry contest has become a part of the pop culture in cities across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. Ideally, these poetry slam sessions are about critical take on burning issues and sometimes the language may be racy. However, the one which is being organised in the city has a twist to it. It has a positive tone to inspire the audience. Head of Nagpur chapter's Goodwill Tribe, Mandar Pandhare says, "The scale of poetry slam contests in Nagpur has been very less compared to the metro cities. And this is our effort to give a start to the sub-culture here. Since slam poetry sessions include profanity and criticism on issues around us, we decided to filter those things out from our event and only chose to focus on the positive." Pandhare also informs, "Hope is a wide topic of discussion and every age group has its own interpretation of it. Hence, it will be interesting to see how poets will play with their words and express themselves on what it means to them."

Words that inspire
In four minutes, contestants will have to strike a poetic conversation with the audience on wide range of sub-topics under hope. Right from talking about depression, suicidal tendencies to India-Pakistan peace, these are some prominent topics of discussion at the session that can be looked forward to. An advertising professional and poet, Swaroop Bhartiya says, "My poetry, which I composed in Hindi — Jeene Mein Ab Bhi Aas Hai — will shed light on suicidal tendencies among people. It is often seen that people go through such extreme feelings alone and my poem is a humble effort to give hope to people out there to talk it out. Hence I am using this platform to my stride to inspire people to speak about their subdued emotions."

A small act of kindness
There's no entry fee to attend the spoken word poetry session and participants can narrate their poems in Hindi, Marathi and English. The most interesting part is that there won't be any winners, the whole purpose of this event is to spread kindness. One of the volunteers Rucha Kokate says, "More than 80 people will attend this session on Saturday and we have also invited independent musicians who will play self-composed numbers on hope. In a world full of darkness and destructiveness, ours is a humble step to ignite hope, which never dies. It shall be an interesting event to see poets talking about their interpretations on the subject."

What is slam poetry?
Slam Poetry is a type of competition where people narrate their poems without props and costumes. After performing, they receive scores from selected judges. The judges can be anyone: they don't even need to be poets! Scores are given based on how much each judge likes a poem.

Where did it begin?
Marc Smith, a construction worker started poetry reading at a popular club in 1984, Chicago, as a way to democratise poetry and bring it to the masses. Two years later, he approached the owner of a jazz club to make the readings competitive and a weekly affair.

Popular slam poets
Saul Williams
Sunni Patterson
Hussain Hydary
Shamir Reuben