Who will represent us at FESPACO?
As part of our responsibility to raise slammers and to see a thriving, sustainable verbal space for the future of poetry slam (competitive poetry) in Ghana, we (Ehalakasa) have in partnership with the Goethe Institut, Accra to host SlamXL #3.
October 28, 2022
7:00 PM
Goethe-Institute
Free Entry
Don’t miss out!
With the aim of bringing together young people and adults from different backgrounds and styles such as poets, writers, musicians, rappers, journalists and students, in recitals that have the active participation of the public, choosing the best performance and presented text.
The Grand Final of the 4th edition of Moz Slam – Batalha de Poesia Falada takes place on October 22, at 2 pm, at Café das Letras (Association of Mozambican Writers).
Twelve (12) finalist poets, selected in the four qualifiers that took place in June, July, August and September, will compete for the first three places of the Moz Slam Grand Final and, as a prize, will have the opportunity to represent Mozambique abroad (championships festivals and poetry festivals).
Throughout the event there will be activities such as book fairs, poetry recitals (open mic), exhibition of services and products related to literature, and the expected Poetry Slam moment, where the following finalists will compete for the first three places:
João Borges | Morgana Ossufo | Benny Parruque | Kirov Alexandre| Túlio Muchanga | Marlen Chauque | Jessica Cristina | Natacha Socre | Gertino Hilário | Luis Ventura | Octavio Raúl | Neyma de Jesus.
Rappers Iveth and Azagaia are the guest artists for the jury.
We will also have the artistic performance of the poets Gonçalves Gonçalo | Ivandro Sigaval | Ema de Jesus | Denise Fazenda, all finalists and the first two winners of past editions.
Dj AD will provide us with moments of music and Matilde Chabana will be the master of ceremonies for this magnificent event.
Moz Slam is a spoken poetry contest based on several rules that involve the performance and original poetry of its participants, a time limited to three (3) minutes for their presentations
A Communal Incubator for the future of performance poetry in Ghana.
As part of our responsibility to raise slammers and to see a thriving, sustainable verbal space for the future of poetry slam (competitive poetry) in Ghana, we (Ehalakasa) have in partnership with the Goethe Institut, Accra initiated a full day slam workshop dubbed SlamImpulse. SlamImpulse is intended to serve as a communal incubator for the now generation of poetry and spoken word performers, who want to make moves.
This will be solely to learn the game of slam and to develop the psychology and skill of playing it. All your questions and worries about poetry slam and or slam poetry will be undressed, addressed and redressed for you to be fully dress up to the coming nights.
Slam is the next phase to performance poetry. Slam is the sure way to see your own personal growth and development as a performer. Slam is the game you play if you want to challenge yourself with yourself. Slam is the game that helps charge your power bank for expression. Slam is a game of chance, not for the best only but also for rest. Slam is a green card to crossing boundaries and boarders. Slam is a master card to sharing and playing with champs and slammasters around the world. Slam is the way forward. Slam in An.Order.WAY.
SlamImpulse is to prepare us for what’s coming; the slam world is growing and has become a phenomenon for the human spirit to behold. Who will represent Ghana at the next West Africa Slam Championship in Niger 2023? Who will represent us at FESPACO Gold Slam in Ouagadougou next year? Who will lead us to Africa Cup of Slam Poetry 2023 and who will proudly lift the flag of Ghana to Brazil 2023 for the World Poetry Slam Championship? These are the responsibilities we have signed up for. Who is coming on board with us?
We are proud to be on the board of the WPSO and as a founding member of this global force. This is made possible by the able effort of Ehalakasa.
We are calling on poets, spoken word performers and or anyone who is genuinely interested in becoming a Slammer to sign up for these opportunities. You don’t have to be a poet to be a slammer; all you need is the willingness and the impulse. We got you!
There is room for ONLY 10 participants at a session.
More exciting Slam related events coming…
The workshop is every last Friday of the month
10am to 4pm @ Goethe Institut – Cantonments Accra
To register send a 60 seconds original piece of audio or video to +233205043890
Dear Poets, Ladies and Gentlemen of our beloved Poetry Community,
As a community, we all need to help in seeing what we hold dear grow up. We need to do things that support, not only our individual growth but also, the collective growth. One sure way is collaboration and slam poetry performance, and my interest here is about “Slam” in Ghana. Slam poetry has been with us for years, and since its birth in the 80s by Marc Kelly Smith, a local poet and construction worker in Chicago, it has given birth to some of the great voices of our time globally. This is also evident in Ghana, but not many people are aware.
My proposition is to present to all of you who already know, and all who are yet to know, what slam is and why we need poets like you and I to take up the mantle to challenge ourselves for what is coming. This is also a time to open the floodgates of creativity – to walk out of comfort zones – into something that is needful for the entire community of poetry and spoken word.
Slam poetry is the ‘ish’ now, and though it is competitive, it is also a healthy challenge (real life issues to deal with) among equals and gives poets opportunities to travel as well. I am proud to say that our slam journey did not start yesterday. It began way back in 2009 at Alliance Française d’Accra. We have seen what it has become and what it is still becoming. Below are some of our own first-generation slammers who were participants of the first slam we organized here in Accra following my own slam experience in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Mutombo da Poet, Juno Mamacita, Crystal Tettey, Jahwi, Joss, Fapempong, Rhyme Sonny, D.K. Osei-Yaw, Andy Aryeetey, Nana Asaase, Nii Lantey, Etc.
My submission is to let us know that these early slammers – good poets in their own right – did not have any fear whatsoever about who won or who lost. The motivation was to ignite a drive into the poetry scene; a key element to the development of the landscape, and to also see what new works could be generated from subsequent slams (bearing in mind that one cannot perform the same piece twice or bring back a poem that has already been on the slam stage). Slam encourages you to do more and to create new works every time. Who benefits from slam but the slammer?
If you can hear my words, let it resonate in you, give yourself a chance and challenge the poet in you. You will be proud that you took a stance for something that will help uplift the face of poetry in Ghana.
May I be honest here to speak about your selfishness and mine. Feeling we have arrived as poets in our fragile zones of comfort will not help anyone. It will not help the community. We need to open up the space to innovations and new forms of doing this thing called art regarding performances. We need you rise beyond me, my mouth and mic mimics and walk into some new grounds, for we have come of age. Poetry in Ghana is viewed highly by other Africans more than you can imagine; even more reason for us to wake up and live up to some of these expectations for us.
Currently, there are some slam poets across Africa who are willing to come to Ghana to attempt slamming with our slam poets just to sharpen themselves and to meet and see all the good they hear about Ghana. Yet, we have a community of poets who have refused to rise to the call of the times. This is the time for Slam Poetry, and it is not surprising that the 2nd edition of Africa Cup of Slam Poetry just ended last November in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Guinea emerging as the Africa champion. And, the 1st edition of the World Poetry Slam Championship will hit the city of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in September 2022.
I propose that, over the next three years, we challenge ourselves to mentor slam poets and a willing community for the next generation. We need all hands on deck to meet this urgent call. I know that not everyone is willing or has the guts to slam, but we all can do something to see the development of this movement become what it supposed to be.
Ghana is strategically well-positioned to possibly host the Africa Slam Championship here in Accra, but we have to work to see venues hosting slams and poetry events regularly.
We need to:
• initiate conversations and discussions around slam and poetry,
• organize workshops and training programs to facilitate our readiness for what we are expecting,
• increase visibility in schools and communities, and introduce the movement to them,
• use the medium to tell our own stories, advocate and to show young people that there is power in their voice.
Slam Poetry is the last art cry to hit our nation’s capital. Slam is the new face of poetry in Ghana. And slam is going to be the undeniable platform for exposure and cross-cultural experiences.
Let the conversation begin …
Yibor Kojo Yibor
Dakar, May 2022
It is our obligation as a community to give sisters the space to tell their stories in different forms, one of such is slam. Slam is a three (3) round healthy competitive performance where poets perform their original written spoken word poetry before a live audience and are judged by 5 randomly selected audiences as judges judging on the scale of 0 -10.
Each piece or performance must be within 3 minutes at length.
This slam is a Herstoric moment in the spoken word landscape in Ghana. It’s the first of many to come, so let us take this chance to get women out there, let the landlords know that we have matters of importance we can bring onto the table.
Some kind of women parliamentarians addressing the state of the nation. “Ehalakasa, It lives in us!”