I was lucky enough to be invited to be one of the official bloggers for the Wise Words Festival. (Well, I say invited - I applied and they said yes, but it's basically the same thing so let's not split hairs eh?).
You may remember the Wise Words Festival from last autumn on the blog - well, it's back and it is bigger and better and wiser than before. I've got a number of posts coming up showcasing and reviewing different festival events that took place over the course of the weekend.
My festival kicked off for me on the Friday night. I legged it home from work, showered, changed, gulped down some dinner and got to the Gulbenkian Theatre on campus for 8pm. One press ticket later (you have no idea how excited I got about this. I may frame it) and I was settled in a corner with my camera, iPad and phone, ready for a night of poetry.
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Oh, you don't know what a poetry slam is? I must admit I wasn't sure although I had made a few guesses! Slam poetry is basically a quick fire poetry competition. Here's the Sladmin. There are 10 competitors who each have 3 minutes to impress the judges. They are given 30 seconds grace and then for every 10 seconds that they go over their time limit they lose a point.
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This was competitive poetry, poetry with bite, poets going up against each other for admiration and adulation.
First up was Emrys Plant, last years winner. He was sent in as a sacrificial lamb, to get the audience and the judges warmed up as he paints a fairly hopeless picture of Margate, his new home town. Yet despite the severe and bleak outlook, this is a love poem, a nesting poem for his wife. He stands, eyes half closed, hand clasped to his breast and you can feel the overwhelming love for his family come flowing through his words. He remembers his dead friend, Ben and the women at work he doesn't get on with. His description of smoking is so powerful that they should use it on the back of packets to encourage people to quit. You can see him lose himself in his own words and rhythm. The audience are rapturous with their applause, he scores 21.
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The audience adore it and she scores 25 points, winning the Slam.
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After all, when it comes to living, there are always more trains
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