Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe will be hosting a Poetry Slam this weekend in Harare. The Poetry Slam is in collaboration with the Literature Fest led by renowned and celebrated Poet Chirikure Chirikure.
The first edition of the competition was hosted in Bulawayo, in partnership with Intwasa Festival, April this year. Under the theme “Building better cities, Building Better citizens”, the public call for the Harare edition participation was issued six weeks ago and attracted over 80 Poets. A panel of adjudicators selected the top 20 poets who are set to contest in Harare this Saturday, the 23rd of June 2018. The contestants will battle it out in three rounds of live performances, after which the top three poets will emerge.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, a Poetry Slam is a tournament in which poets compete in live performances of original works. Each poet has to perform in a limited length of time before a panel of judges. After each round, the contestants with the highest points proceed to the next phase, until the top three poets eventually emerge. Besides being competitive, a slam is also fun and highly entertaining as the poets are not allowed to use any props, but have to depend on their creativity and performance skills.
According to official communication, Prizes of the Lafarge Poetry Slam include:
- the best poet who walks away with a cash prize of $800,
- the second runner-up will get $400,
- third will be awarded $200.
The Prize money comes with specially crafted animal horn trophies in honour of the role of the Poet in society.
“The horn is a communication gadget used to broadcast important information such as a call for an important village meeting or announcing that there has been a death in the community,” said the communique.
In addition, as the saying goes, you can only write well if you read great; the ten finalists will also get token prizes of books.
The Lafarge Poetry Slam is an initiative that is aimed at providing a platform for thought-provoking poetry about key subjects relating to the Zimbabwean society. The theme “Building better cities, Building better citizens”, is focused on building positivity and inspiring solutions for societal issues. Often Art is a strong commentator and a provoker of societal matters. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to focus on positive ideas and commentary as the competition encourages.
And, because the Arts sector thrives on the support of stakeholders who can facilitate platforms such as these, we are excited about the growing interest local businesses such as Lafarge, are taking on the Creative Sector in Zimbabwe.
We hope to see Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe continue to do the most as they support the Literary Arts in Zimbabwe.
