Guyana gears for National Poetry Slam

Kamadyah Yisrael was the featured poet at Upscale Poetry Night in January 2011

This week in Guyana there is going to be the most intense activity in spoken word poetry, performance poetry, rap and hip-hop than there has ever been. A Hip-Hop and Poetry Night is billed for the South View Tavern tonight. Then the producers move to Club 704 Lounge where the focus will be on the first session of the National Poetry Slam on Wednesday night, March 23. The action returns to South View Tavern for the second session of National Poetry Slam on Saturday, March 26.

al creightonThis intense activity is the result of the way certain popular forms of performance and the presentation of the spoken word have developed in Guyana. This specific line of development has its origins in the creation of Poetry Night and Open Mic Poetry at the Upscale Restaurant initiated by Asafa George in central Georgetown a number of years ago. Upscale Poetry became a household word due to its popularity. There was also Comedy Night at Upscale and that venue became the cradle for most of the leading stand-up comedy performers in Guyana today.

This activity in Guyana is the tail-end of quite a large movement worldwide. Poetry, over the centuries,