South African Slam Poetry

This weekend, I had the extraordinary honor of being crowned champion of Johannesburg’s Drama For Life Poetry Festival. It was an amazing experience and I’m thankful to all of the coordinators of the event, those who facilitated workshops during the week, and most importantly the other poets who served as an immeasurable source of inspiration as well as becoming good friends.

You may be asking, “Clint, you’ve only been in South Africa for a few weeks, how did you stumble onto this?” Well, thanks to the internet and our increasingly globalised world, I simply went to Google the day after I got here, and typed in, “Slam Poetry Johannesburg.” The results weren’t as promising as I had hoped, with most being articles from past competitions in the area. But at the bottom of page 2, there was a press release for a poetry competition being held at Wits University, a mere 5 minute drive from where we live. Luckily, I had looked this up the day before the final audition was being offered. I called the contact person, an awesome lady named Ntombi, and reserved a spot for the audition.

The next day after work, I went to Wits for an audition. I had never been part of a poetry competition quite like this one. It certainly wasn’t your typical slam. Firstly, you had to audition to book a place in the competition. Secondly, they weren’t very strict about the “no more than 3:10 per poem” rule, which actually was really nice because it kills me when I have to take out what I consider important pieces of a poem, in order to have it under the allotted time. Thirdly, we were never quite sure when exactly we were being judged.

During the audition, we began with a series of exercises. In one, we stood in a circle and one of the facilitators would point to someone, and that poet would have to start spitting a poem on the fly. Then they would point to someone else. You were never sure how long you would have to recite for before he called on someone else. After this portion of the audition, all of the competitors made their way across the street where an open mic was being held to test our skills in front of an actual audience. I was really well-received by the audience – who I think was kind of surprised to see an American in the competition – and got a lot of facebook friend request the next day.

Later in the week, I was called and told that I had made the second round. In the second round there was more of a standard system of judging. It felt kind of like American Idol. The judges would call us up, we’d perform our piece, sit down, and wait for the other competitors to go. At the end of the evening, they told us the 21 poets who would go on to the final round. I was among them.

The Stage

Then came this past Saturday. We were performing in Wits’ Great Hall, an auditorium that holds more than 800 people. It was different from a typical slam in the sense that there were four official judges – none of whom we had met – who dictated the scores of each competitor rather than selected members of the audience. With hundreds of people in the crowd, each poet anxiously awaited backstage for their name to be called.

Prince and Donald freestyling backstage

After the first round, they trimmed it from 21 to 7. I made the 7.

In the second round, each poet was to perform a second piece on the same subject matter. Oh, I forgot to mention that this poetry competition was themed-based. All poems had to be about love, relationships, sex, or HIV. It was the festivals way of creating another platform to raise awareness and educate people on South Africa’s HIV pandemic, where 1 in 6 adults carry the disease. I think there’s this misconception that the only people fighting the disease are foreigners coming in to work for aid or development organizations. Much to the contrary. Since arriving here, it’s been really encouraging to see South Africans playing an active role in fighting the disease, something many people around the world don’t realize so many of them do.

Performing on Sunday afternoon for the funders

In the second round, I was the last of the 7 to go. I decided to do a poem that I had just finished a few days before and had never performed before. I can honestly say that I have never performed a poem harder in my life. So hard that my body hurt afterwards. I’ve never felt an adrenaline rush quite like I did in those 3 ½ minutes. It was like I was in the twighlight zone or something.

They brought the seven of us back on stage, and one by one they began to let people go. It came down to me and Donald, a dope Joburg-based poet and a guy who has really welcomed me into the community with open arms. Something for which I’m eternally grateful. Finally, the MC walked between us, grabbed both of our hands, and after a dramatic pause, raised mine in the air. The response I received from the crowd was unlike anything I had ever quite experienced. I can’t even put it into words.

Tshepiso doing her thing on Sunday

It means so much to me when people come up after I do a performance and tell me how much a piece touched them. There’s nothing like it. For me, that’s the whole point of this whole poetry thing. 

To touch people and make them think about things in a way they might not have thought about it before.

More than being happy about winning, I’m happy to have found a spoken word poetry community so early into my time here in South Africa. This poetry game is something really close to my heart and my hope was to be able to continue to do it beyond of Davidson (shout out to FreeWord, I miss yall). Now it looks like I’ll be given that opportunity. Joburg has a really vibrant slam scene and I can’t wait to be a part of it. I’ve met some amazing people, made some great friends, and found an incredible source of inspiration. I’m more blessed than I can ever express thanks for.

Donald, Tshepiso, me, and Ntombi

On Sunday, Donald, Tshepiso, and myself – as the top three from the competition – performed at an event for the funders of the festival. I guess to show them that the prize money awarded wasn’t being wasted on terrible poets. It was a nice event in a really cool outdoor space, but the crowd was a lot different (i.e. older and whiter) than it had been the previous night. As a performer, you kind of had to create your own energy onstage. Nonetheless, it was a neat experience and it was fun to get to spend the day with Donald, Tshpiso, and Ntombi.

Next week, the 7 of us who competed in the final round will be competing against the winners of the same competition from Durban. I’m excited to rep for my new city, and more ready too whoop up on those Durban kids.  Thanks so much to everyone who showed me love this weekend, it means the world.

Strike in South Africa

Our first two weeks in Johannesburg have coincided with a telling moment in South African politics. Since last week, nearly the entire public service sector - teachers, police, government employees, doctors, nurses - has been on strike. They are demanding an 8.6% increase in their wages, improved housing subsidies, and other benefits. So far the government has made several offers, with the latest being a 7% pay hike. The unions, however, have made it clear that the strike will continue until their demands, and nothing less, are met. They are prepared to strike indefinitely.

From a GRS standpoint it has been frustrating because with no teachers in school, there are no kids in school. Thus, the coaches are unable to go in and do their 'Skillz' sessions . The silver lining to this is that Tizzy and I have gotten to spend almost everyday with the coaches, rather than just every Friday as it would be otherwise. Hence, I feel like we've gotten to know them really well.

President Zuma is under major pressure because the unions striking represent some of his primary constituents, but as President he can ill afford to add to an already ballooning South African deficit (seems to be a common theme around the world these days). But on the other side of that, the teachers certainly deserve to get paid more than the paltry amount they currently recieve. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Read more about the strike here.

First Week Musings

The last two weeks have been hectic to say the least, a whirlwind in the best kind of way. On August 4^th, I made my way up to Hanover, New Hampshire for a 4-day orientation with the other Grassroot Soccer interns. During the training we did a series of team-building exercises that included a hike, doing activities from the HIV awareness based ‘Skillz’ curriculum that we use for the kids in Africa, and guided one on one sessions with each intern where we were able to connect with one another on a deeper level. Additionally, we were given a crash course in all things GRS and HIV/AIDS. While I considered myself fairly well-versed on the disease, my knowledge of its intricacies has undoubtedly increased at least 300%.

Interns at the orientation cabin

On the final night, we had dinner with the founders Tommy Clark (the visionary and current CEO), Ethan Zohn (the guy who won the first Survivor) as well as the board of directors and all domestic GRS staff. What impressed me most is that everyone in the organization, all the way from the CEO to the administrative assistant, all seem to be extremely grounded. Everyone is on the same page, and are incredibly motivated by the work we are doing. Additionally, everyone we met made it a point to convey to us how important we interns were to the success of Grassroot Soccer, and how without us, the organization would fail.

The only complaint I have from my time in Hanover is that it didn’t last longer. The other interns are amazing people. It’s an incredible feeling to be surrounded by so many other young, passionate, and excited people who share the same core values and are determined to leave their mark on the world. After staying up all night around a bonfire that made it feel like we were leaving summer camp, we all said our goodbyes and promised to visit each other at our various site throughout Southern Africa. 

Big Ben

That night, Tizzy and I (AJ doesn’t arrive until the end of August because his sister is getting married in a few weeks) lugged our baggage to Logan airport in Boston and flew across the pond to London where we were scheduled for a daunting 12-hour layover. Instead of sitting in the airport all day, however, we decided to take advantage of our time. So, we took the tube into London where we took a double-decker bus tour, lounged in Green Park (London’s version of Central Park), watched the astoundingly diverse plethora of people who live in London, walk through.

Then there was the 11-hour flight to Johannesburg, which surprisingly wasn’t too bad. I think I watched four movies back to back so I wasn’t really paying attention to the time anyway. Mmm…nothin’ like some good airplane movies.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, “an 11-hour flight Clint?!? Why didn’t you just sleep?” Well, a few years ago I had a really bad snoring problem. Anytime I would fall asleep in an upright position, like on a plane or a bus, I would start snoring like a big, drunken, allergy-infected grizzly bear. Flight attendants would have to come and wake me up because I was disturbing other passengers. It was pretty bad. So I trained myself not to fall asleep on planes. Anyway, sorry for that tangent…

At the airport, we were picked up by Karti, a guy who was ending his yearlong cycle as an intern. Unfortunately, we only had two days before he was scheduled to fly back to the United States, but I’m thankful we had him around at all because we would have been screwed if we didn’t.

Me, Tizzy, and Karti

As much as any human being can do in an 36 hours, he showed us the area we’ll be living, how to drive a stick shift, how to get from Johannesburg (where we’ll be living) to Soweto (where we’ll be working), introduced us to all of his ex-pat friends, told us where to go and where not to go at night, where to buy groceries, where to get internet, a brief political history on South Africa, and pretty much anything else you can imagine someone possibly doing for two kids fresh out of undergrad living on their own in Africa for a year. Needless to say, he was more than helpful.

For the moment, we’re living in a small garden cottage behind someone’s house in an area of Johannesburg called Melville. It’s essentially like a small studio. Like a small poolhouse, just without the pool. We’re staying here until the end of the month, then when AJ arrives, we’ll be moving into a house a few minutes down the road. For my New Orleans people out there, living in Melville but working in Soweto feels kind of like living Uptown but working in the 9^th ward. It definitely provides an interesting juxtaposition.

Where we work

As I’ve said, we work is Soweto, which is about a 20-minute drive from where we live. The office in Soweto is a brand new state of the art center that Nike built right before the World Cup in effort to provide the kids of Soweto a space to train on grass and turf fields, while also learning important life skills. GRS runs the life skills aspect of it. I’ll provide more details about the Nike and Grassroot Soccer partnership in another post.

Lastly, on only our second day, Tizzy and I were hooked up with tickets to the South Africa vs. Ghana friendly. Traffic was absolutely terrible – and there’s nothing worse than stop and go traffic when you’re just learning to drive a stick shift – but when we finally arrived at the stadium, we were treated to a festive atmosphere and a first hand experience in how loud vuvuzelas actually are. Soccer City is DOPE!!!

Soccer City

A great stadium that somehow manages to be huge while still maintaining an intimate feel to it. Considering that it was a post-world cup friendly, I didn’t expect a big crowd. But I’d say at least 75% of the stadium was full, and those who were there were treated to a 1-0 Bofanna Bofanna win (Bofanna Bofanna is the name of the South African team, literally translated as “The Boys The Boys”). Only wish I could have been here for the World Cup.

Bofanna Bofanna!!!

I could go on and on about the things I’ve experienced thus far, but I realize that super long post can get boring so I’ll save the other stuff for another day. I’ve got all year after all.

Arrived Safely

After 48 hours of traveling and 3 different continents, we've safely arrived in South Africa. Everything is pretty hectic right now in terms of getting a feel for Johannesburg and Soweto, learning how to drive a stick shift on the opposite side of the road, learning a years worth of information, planning, and skills about GRS Soweto from the past intern (who leaves tomorrow...), and doing all of this on nothing but a few hours about interspersed airplane naps. It's all very exhausting but still unbelievably exciting. I'll write a longer update regarding what the past week or so has been like when I can sit down or get the chance - or whenever I figure out how to shift gears without stalling in the middle of an intersection...

One week until Departure

As many of you know, beginning in less than a week, I will be spending the next year of my life in South Africa working for Grassroot Soccer, an organization that uses soccer as a means to promote awareness and education about HIV/AIDS.

In my first year out of college, I have been fortunate enough to find a program that combines some of my greatest passions – soccer, service, and travelling – in an engaging, effective, and dynamic environment.

To put it simply, GRS is kind of like a soccer-based version of the Peace Corps. I have been placed in Soweto – GRS’s newest site – along with one of my best friends, A.J. Grant, and our housemate Tizzy Ernstoff. Soweto is the most populous black urban residential area in the country, and is based southwest (hence where the name, came from South West Township) of Johannesburg. In Soweto, I will be serving as a program intern, with a multi-dimensional role that includes working with local community leaders to continually improve the curriculum, HIV/AIDS research, program monitoring and evaluation, business development, youth-targeted HIV/AID education programs, and more.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the reasons GRS is so appealing is because it is truly a grassroots organization. Rather than coming to Africa in a kind of “imperialist” way, trying to impose their own practices and ideas upon the African people, GRS staff act as facilitators. They create a dialogue with the leaders of each specific community they work in, so as to make sure the GRS program effectively addresses the specific needs of that community. This makes the program more effective, as well as more culturally responsible. During the time I spent in Senegal during my junior year abroad, I saw many non-profits that had a kind of ‘umbrella’ mentality with regards to their programming – which I quickly realized doesn’t work and does a disservice to the people these organizations claim to be serving. That is why I’m so excited to be working for an organization that makes a concerted effort to engage and empower local community leaders so that the program is not something that is forced upon them, rather one that they take control of themselves. Here is what I'm talking about:

On Wednesday, I will be heading to Hanover, New Hampshire for a 4-day orientation with the other interns, and then heading off to Johannesburg on Sunday, August 8^th. Words can’t express how excited I am to get started. I’ve known that I was going to be doing this for nearly 5 months now, and the fact that it’s now only a week away has my stomach doing backflips. 

In the meantime, I have a room full of empty suitcases and a floor covered in dirty laundry...


Also, thank you soooo much to everyone who has contributed to my fundraising efforts, it is deeply appreciated. If you are still interested in donating, you can make a tax-deductible online donation at the top right hand side of the page. Thanks again.