Dear Poets, Ladies and Gentlemen of our beloved verbal art movement,
I reaffirm my dedication, in the present letter, to my Ghanaian verbal art family. Our cherished Slam Poetry has been with us in Ghana for years, and now we all need to help (re)build and elevate this artform which we hold dear. In this regard, we must encourage collaboration as a vehicle for individual and collective growth.
I, hereby, present to those of us who already know [and to all who are yet to know] what Slam Poetry is, and why we need poets like you and I to take up the mantle, for what is coming. A slam is a competitive poetry event where wordsmiths perform Spoken Word Poetry before a live audience. The 5-member jury is selected from the audience. Poetry slams are often considered a ‘break’ from the [past] elitist or rigid image of poetry. The birth of the poetry slam movement is generally attributed to Marc Kelly Smith, an American poet and construction worker, who propelled the art form to global attention in the 1980s. International and local slam stages have gifted the world some of the great voices of our time.
I am proud of our journey in Ghana so far. The fruits of the now and still becoming were sowed at Alliance Française d’Accra in 2009. Below are a few of our first-generation slammers, participants of the first [EhaLaKasa] slam organized in Accra:
Martin Egblewogbe, Crystal Tettey, Jahwi, Fapempong, Mutombo da Poet, DK Osei-Yaw, Josh, Mamacita, Rhyme SonnyÂ
Our movement requires sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice that our first-generation poets and I know well. I conceptualized and led our debut 2009 slam after my own slam experience in Harare, Zimbabwe, the same year. The poets who participated in that slam were great poets who left behind their ego, and any fear of who would win or lose, to slam purely toward the ignition of our poetry scene. New works created for subsequent slams served as training grounds for better-equipped wordsmiths, thus forging a team of indomitable word-warriors.
Dear verbal artists, we need to keep setting performance bars. May I honestly add that your selfishness and mine, feeling we have arrived as poets in our fragile zones of comfort, will not help open spaces of innovation. We need to rise beyond the ‘me, myself and I’ syndrome, beyond the ‘mouth and mic’ mimics, and dive into newer dimensions.
Let us be reminded that poetry in Ghana is highly revered by our contemporaries around the world. I am currently reviewing countless requests from slam poets across the world eager to come to Ghana and slam with our poets. Their desire is to sharpen pens and mics on our magical Ghanaian stages. How, then, is it possible that we have a community of poets who refuse THE CALL of the times?
Slam Poetry is the new face of poetry in Ghana. Slam is the ambassador of exposure and cross-cultural experiences. I firmly believe that Ghana is strategically positioned to host both the Africa Slam and the World Championship in Accra. To this end, we must work harder and collaborate regularly with venues hosting slam and poetry events. The 3rd World Poetry Slam Championship is coming off in Lomé, Togo, and Ghana is represented by Bertha Enam Afi Galley, our current champion. The 1st edition of the World Poetry Slam Championship took place in Belgium in September 2022. Our 2023 national champion, Twita Lite, made Ghana proud at the semi-finals of the World Poetry Slam Championship, hosted in Brazil in October that year. Our 2024 regional slam preliminaries will culminate in the EhaLaKasa National Grand Slam in December. The champion who emerges will ride the new slam wave to Mexico in 2025.
We need to initiate more conversations around slam and poetry. We need to organize more workshops and training programs to facilitate our readiness for what we are expecting. We also need to (re)introduce our movement to schools, universities, and to communities of higher learning. We need to use our medium to tell our own stories, to advocate, and to show young people that there is power in our voice.
I propose that, over the next three years, we invest in our slam poets and in (re)building a more willing and energized community. We need all hands on deck to meet this urgent call. This is the time to open the floodgates of creativity, to walk out of zones of comfort, and to embrace the revival flowing through our verbal art community. Let the conversations begin…
As you read my words—Poets, Ladies and Gentlemen of our beloved verbal art community—may they resonate in you. Give yourself the chance, challenge the poet in you. You will be proud you took a stance, and even prouder that your stance helped uplift the face of poetry in Ghana. Are you ready to make a move as lasting as the word ‘everlasting’? If so, join me in stepping away from the couch and into the slam zone.
Join the verbal art movement,
grab the mic,
mount the stage, and
speak your heart out,
to revive our community with your slam message. As is said in the slam world,
slam up in the right direction.
EhaLaKasa! It lives in us!
Sincerely,
Yibor Kojo Yibor
