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.