Creativity, originality and flow were definitely the order of the night as Xpress Yoself Gy held its monthly poetry event last evening at the Upscale Restaurant.
The event last night was dubbed the ALL FOOLS SLAM COMPETITION; a poetry slam is a faceoff between competitors to see who has more creativity than whom and who can get the judges to accept their content. These competitors recite their own original work or rarely that of others.
Competing were Lady Hilda, Jermaine Figueira, Rochelle Christi, Raul Williams, and Darren Henry. They were three rounds of competition, with each competitor having three minutes to perform his/ her piece. They were being judged on their content/ lyrics, performance and audience response.
The competitors were expected to entice the packed restaurant with either Dub poetry(a rhythmic and politicized genre belonging to black and particularly West Indian culture )or Spoken word (is a form of literary art or artistic performance in which lyrics, poetry, or stories are spoken rather than sung), the latter was chosen by most. The competition resembled that of DEF JAMs poetry slam competition.
Those who missed the event missed a great time, the poets were amazing in their delivery, the competitors used poetry to express themselves and matters of importance to them. Rochelle Christi was a crowd favourite from her first performance and she never left the crowd down once, so her win was no surprise. She was awarded with $20,000. Coming in second was Darren Henry who received $10,000 and third was Lady Hilda, who was a little older than most of the competitors but had her way with the crowd, she received $5000.
Xpress Yoself Gy is an avenue for persons to express themselves through poetry, song, dance, and the visual arts. Headed by Yaphet Jackman and Asafa George, Xpress Yoself Gy is a place where people can come and feel comfortable about expressing their views about their country and issues affecting their lives. Yaphet Jackman described Xpress Yoself Gy as “a hub for creative people”. Yaphet is also the head of Blue Bucket Entertainment Gy an entertainment service provider which focuses on culture, youth expression and social and business events.
Apart from the competition, there was dancing and an open mic segment. Dances were done by the Nzinga Dance Group out of African Cultural and Delvelopment Association and the open mic segment allowed people from the audience who wished to share their poetry to do so.
The host for the evening was Kojo McPherson, and the judges were randomly chosen from the audience. Another interesting feature to the evening was the sketch artist, Shimuel Jones, who sat at the judges table and sketched the competitors as they delivered. The sketches will be arranged into a collage and placed in Upscale Restaurant and will be used as a reminder of the beginnings of Xpress Yoself Gy.
The next Xpress Yoself Gy activity will be held on the 6th May, 2009 so do come out and support, if you are an aspiring poet or someone who loves to use poetry to express yourself and you have pieces you will like to share feel free to come out and join the fun every first Wednesday of every month at the Upscale Restaurant. The event is usually a Blast and it does not disappoint.
The sponsors were Western Union and DHL.
By Schemel Patrick