17th May, 2013
Isele, a new literary movement founded to give voice to emerging talents, has started receiving entries for the Spoken Word Contest. Ukamaka Olisakwe, author of Eyes of a Goddess, in a statement released on behalf of the board, said the Spoken Word contest is aimed at discovering emerging talents and appreciating literary excellence in our community.
“The dream is to partner with publishers and writers in promoting various literary activities, publicising works of new voices and appreciating literary excellence in our community through award programmes so that they can serve as motivation to new voices. This dream was born out of the need to build a community of new voices and promote as well as appreciate their creative works. In line with this vision, and in partnership with Saraba Magazine, we are happy to unveil our first Spoken Word Poetry contest,” the statement read.
To enter for the competition, interested poets are expected to write a 2-3 minutes spoken word on any of the following topics: Love, Peace, Religion, Education and Politics. They are expected to submit a video of the performance in MP4/3GP format not larger than 7MB. Fancy video works are not needed as judges are only interested in the performances and word power of the contestants. Renowned performance poets Dike Chukwumerije and Sage Hasson are the judges for this contest. The quality of the submissions will be closely monitored by, Adebiyi Olusolape, the Poetry Editor of Saraba Magazine. The contest starts 3 May and ends 11:59pm on 12 June .
The winner will be awarded a cash prize of N50,000 , feature on a live radio and television programmes and a string of activities which include a guest appearance at the Orange Crush Awards 2013 in Port Harcourt as well as performing alongside other poets on the variety night of the Orange Crush/Niger Delta Creative Writers Workshop at the Lordz of Rhyme in Port Harcourt.
All entries will be uploaded on Youtube and shortlisted entries will be further judged by selected critics. These shortlisted entries will be announced via the media and may be susceptible to public voting which may or may not influence the judge’s decisions. Shortlisted poets will be notified by email and via the social media.
–Nehru Odeh