SLAM POETRY
- Feb 29, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 6, 2020
Performing our ballads: The experience of slam poetry
Slam poetry is a performance art that needs to encompass every Ras so that the audience can experience what the poet intended to say. Poetry is personal and a reflection of who we are, to describe this journaling of emotions through hand gestures, expressions and phrases are what a poetry slam event covers. For example, a bottle full of tears on my night table describes depression by painting vivid imagery. The whole point of slam poetry is to introduce the feeling of relativity and experience.
Slam poetry is a performance art that needs to encompass every Ras so that the audience can experience what the poet intended to say.
Poems are personal. To spend the time to understand the poet's life in a single ballad via the performance is the aim of the event. The poetry is written keeping in mind it is to be read and comprehended by an audience. The verses would all be filled with words that give a theatrical experience to the listeners in their seats.
The Gallery of Verses
These events usually extend over an evening with different performers writing a diverse set of poems for the same theme. The variety is surprising and the imagination is extraordinary. An event at Mount Carmel College had the theme dissent where poets chose stances such as love, revolution, politics, dysfunctional family to exercise their right of dissent through art.
It’s an experience that is beyond words but ironically experienced only through words.
Slam poetry is an experience that everyone can enjoy. With a combination of musical instruments, rhyming ballads, dancing performances, slam poetry doesn’t limit itself to anything. A musician uses his ukulele to read out a piece of childhood trauma, and an actor explains her struggles by performing a haiku. It’s an experience that is beyond words but ironically experienced only through words.
The art of performance might still be daunting. An expert's opinion is welcome. Shweta Bhatt is a slam poet from Bengaluru who is a Counselor by day and thinker by night. She writes to comprehend the eccentricities of her life. Her blog on WordPress Shweta Bhatt Poetry is a reader's favorite! She shares with us the Dos and Donts of Slam Poetry. Advising budding poets to understand the facets of Slam Poetry. Her experience is cherished by all of us at Kala.
A Simple Guide
The Dos of Slam Poetry
The Donts of Slam Poetry
Overindulgence in the performance aspect of Slam Poetry can ruin the worth of words but one should also remember that hand gestures and body language can add punctuation to verses. Kala has put together a gallery of slam poetry performances of budding poets sharing their spoken word art at Lahe Lahe, Indiranagar. The body language of each artist along with their poetry itself is raw and inexperienced. Hence, this space is devoted to capturing the authenticity of budding artists. They are an inspiration to all those who want to practice the art of Slam Poetry.
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