When participants unleashed power of words at Pakistan Poetry Slam

LAHORE: Pakistanis are generally passionate about poetry but the walled city of Lahore recently buzzed with a different kind of mushaira when it hosted the second annual Pakistan Poetry Slam (PPS) 2017 at the famed Alhamra Arts Council this month.

Unlike a traditional mushaira – a social gathering held in the evening where people read poems that they have written and leave it to the audience to decide which was the best – a poetry slam is presented in a formal competition format. It is a performance-based poetry contest that allows the audience to actively participate in the world the poet creates.

Pakistan Poetry Slam Champion 2017 Hamza Iftikhar. PHOTO: FACEBOOK

A brainchild of WORD Ink, founded by internationally renowned poets Zainab Z Syed and Zohab Z Khan, the competition expanded to Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Faisalabad this year. However, unlike 2016, the excitement was double this time.

Hamza Iftikhar from Karachi was crowned the Pakistan Poetry Slam Champion 2017, while Batool Hassan from Karachi and Iftakhar Sheikh from Lahore secured the second place after a tie. The third position was bagged by Lahore's Sana Zaman Butt.

“The PPS was really fun. The creative energy was brimming throughout and it was fantastic to meet and hear from performers from very diverse backgrounds,” said Iftikhar, the PPS champion this year.

“I feel that the PPS gave us a major platform. Zainab [one of the founders] and the entire team did a great job. Besides, they were always there to facilitate us in any way they could," he added.



Each poet, during the poetry slam, had three minutes on stage to present a pre-written poem to woo the audience. The work had to be original and no props or costumes were allowed. To everyone’s amazement, every participant was then scored by five random judges from the audience.

Irrespective of who won the title or who failed to do so, all the participants agreed that events like the PPS should happen regularly in Pakistan.

“It was an amazing experience. Hats off to Zainab and her team for creating such a great event with a beautiful atmosphere," said Iftakhar Sheikh, one of the runner-ups. "I think that events like these should happen very often because amateur poets get to perform and new talent is coming forward," he added. "Apart from that, our society is very weak when it comes to digesting stuff that is against their ideologies. So events like these will strengthen our ability to understand each other.”



Iftikhar while recalling his PPS best moments, said: "I remember when my roommate Mohammad Umar from the Faisalabad team told the finalists that 'we have not come to a competition; we have come to a mehfil (gathering)'.”

Sana Zaman Butt, who secured the third slot, said the PPS 2017 had thrilled the entire country .

The founders of the event also insisted that the idea behind the PPS was to bring people together for poetry and not for choosing a winner.

The idea of spoken storytelling was reborn with the rise of poetry slams across the United States during the late 1980s and today it has become a precious tool within the academic structures of developed nations including Australia and the UK. It offers a safe space for people of all backgrounds to critically engage with complex issues in a fun manner.

Usually, poetry slams are considered silly as the scoring is arbitrary which everyone in the audience knows. However, Pakistan surely loved the idea behind the PPS because the real winner is definitely the poetry in the end.