What is the Way Forward for Open Mic Poetry?

Entertainment has certainly transformed from the common TV and newspaper format to one that is digital. One of the interesting elements adding on to the elements of entertainment is the rise of the spoken word – i.e. performance poetry in India. Known to be a Western concept, it has slowly warmed itself to ‘Indianness’!

However, Hemant Divate -an internationally acclaimed poet, editor and publisher says. “Performance poetry is a new name given to an old tradition,”

Have we forgotten our past? When for hundreds of years, there were passionate poets and audiences who used to gather at village fairs and royal courts, at kavi sammelans and mushairas to be apart of a tradition that was entertaining.

 

Poetry and Spoken Word Poetry: two different concepts?

The latter, being poetry composed/written to BE performed.  This type of poetry refuses to just SIT DOWN on a page and be passive. It needs an audience to exist and it has to be a performance poem!

It does not lean against a specific structure, but uses vivid imagery and can even be accompanied by music and costumes. In short, poetry here has come alive!

Access to the Internet as well as the television has made it increasingly easy to access and watch foreign spoken word artists, which has clearly played a significant role in popularising this trend in the country.

Did you ever get a chance to watch Button Poetry’s videos on YouTube -Sarah Kay and Phil Kay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPG6nJRJeWQ)

In 2014, the spoken word poetry/performance poetry scene in Mumbai started picking up with many budding poets turning to YouTube to watch poetry videos. It was a time when poetry was repackaged and resurrected – as a tool for dialogue!

Youngsters began to feel that they could express themselves through spoken word and people would actually HEAR them out! They wanted to be heard out!

‘A Brown Girls Guide to Gender’, ‘Hindustani Musalman’ and ‘Why I Don’t Fall in Love’ were some of the earliest spoken word poems that went viral on the Internet, when it started catching up in India.

Whether it's a means to express oneself, the spoken word community is supportive and inclusive and no subject is a taboo; everyone has the right and freedom to say what they want and no one gets judged.

Some of the spoken word poets profiled from across the country are: 

·     Bharath Divakar- one of the most famous and featured spoken word poets from Bangalore. His powerful poems challenge outdated perceptions, and defiantly celebrate his identity. He has performed and taken workshops in over 20 colleges across 3 cities, and has played an important role in inspiring a younger generation of poets to take up the art-form.He is well known for his poem ‘Letter to Depression’.

·     Daniel Sukamar – a featured performer, slam poet and spoken word artist who is a mentor at Airplane Poetry Movement in Bangalore. He also mentors student poets. He is known for his poem A Guide to Personal Killings.

·     Angshuman Sharma – a winner of a number of poetry slams he too has been featured all across Bangalore. He is well known for his poem How to Become a Wizard.

·     Nandini Varma – the co-founder of Airplane Poetry Movement, she is a poetry educator who encourages people to express themselves. She is well known for her poem Parachutes.

·     Simar Singh –the founder and curator of UnErase Poetry - a community that promotes spoken word in India through online content and live shows. His poems "The Legal Rapist" and "How To Be A Man" have raised pertinent questions about issues that are brushed under the carpet by society.

·     Jasmine Khurana – the daughter, ex-teacher, compulsive blogger, a wife, a hyper mother, an ex-administrator and a geeky content writer she has certainly done it all! She is most well known for her poem, Banter Between Generation, which she performed alongside her son. She shares her stories on her blog Frill on my heartstrings which is her odyssey that navigates the myriad roles she has and plays in life.

·     Hussain Haidry: A poet, lyricist and writer he gained his popularity with his poem – Hindustani Musalmaan, that went viral on social media. He is a spoken word poet at Kommune, Words Tell Stories, The Poetry Club and Prithvi Caferati.

Kommune is the most established player in open-mic poetry in today's time being led by established artists such as Roshan Abbas, Mini Mathur, Gaurav Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul and rising stars such as Rabia Kapoor, Shamir Reuben, Hussain Haidry and Tess Joseph. 

The Godrej India Culture Lab had hosted one of Mumbai’s most exciting performance poetry events, that had performances introduced by Nitika Khaitan, a summer scholar from Yale University, who had been researching Mumbai’s performance poetry culture.

The performance poets were famed Marathi lokshahir and activist, Sambhaji Bhagat. There were performance poets Preeti Vangani whose poem Validation went viral and Ramneek Singh whose works are based on Kashmir and performs in Hindustani.

Finally, there was South Dandies Swaraj, an acclaimed multilingual rap crew who challenged inequality in India through their lyrics and Tamaasha Theatre, a theatre company that fuses music and movement to breathe fresh life into classic Indian poems.

http://indiaculturelab.org/videos/library/special-events/me-verses-them/

 Mumbai’s Performance Poets are certainly breaking boundaries and transforming the society that we live in. The ‘language’ of performance poetry can be described as ‘Facebook generation’ where people are finding their voice.

There is a lot of work happening in the open mic poetry segment. Open mic emerged as a new ray of hope for talent to express itself. People were not getting a chance to express themselves in the literary events. 

Very important and pertinent questions such as what do Mumbai performance poets see themselves a part of and how do they draw a boundary are yet to be addressed. Open mics and poetry gigs are springing up everywhere and gaining immense popularity. 

The Open Sky slam is a great place to meet enthusiastic poets. However, it is not just their charm and enthusiasm that leads the literary way forward in the country.

Many talented youngsters across the city and country are planning their own ‘meet-ups in their own way ’ –trying to bridge the gap between open-mic, poetry slam and hearing educational lectures from celebrities in the field.  

It is a new way to help people boost up their confidence, express themselves and most importantly engage with the already knitted community in the city.

There is a poetry groups also known as PoShaK that is known for holding a mic event called Mohabbat night at aPaulogy –a cartoon Gallery in Worli. 

Some more popular groups include The Quill Company, run by co-founders  Neha Kabra and Devanshu Padia. They have been regularly hosting open-mic events for the past two years. 

Spill Poetry –a Mumbai based start up that is a platform for promoting art and artists; that was started up by poet Daaniyal Sayed- who also happens to work at HaikuJam and his friend Forum Ashish Shah in December 2016. The main aim was of course to share art with the world of YouTube, without any cost of money. This of course happened through the video "Shayad wo Pyaar nahi, By Yahya Bootwala".

Daaniyal says “Besides that there have been many videos that went viral, One less Lonely night by Jidnya Pandya, Hawa by Darshan, Sheher by Yahya, Shukr and many others.

According to him "We now have more than 9 million views and 3 lakh subscribers on our channel. All thanks to the unconditional love and support from the Mumbai poetry circuit and our super talented artists.”

 There is a variance of poetry at Spill from other poetic platforms and he has immense respect for poets such as Ramneek Singh, Darshan Rajpurohit, Anuj Khumbhat, Simar Singh Rakesh Tiwari, Heema Shavirkar, Gaurav Tirpathi and Bappadittya Sarkar. 

 “Currently, Spill Poetry team consists of Foram Ashish Shah (Co-founder), Azania Patel Deepali Gupta, Johnathan Dsouza (Our editor and core team member), Ammar Chittwala (the photographer), and myself,” he adds.

There are more and more open mics, poetry slam events, reading events, as well concerts that are organised by friends. However, the spoken word community in India is making a mark in the country. 

A dentist, turned social activist, Dr. Ishmeet Nagpal conducts many workshops on issues that are related to mental health, gender and sexuality. She is an established spoken word artist and also the co-founder of a group Sexonomics Band - which aims at creating awareness on gender related issues through dramatic satire. 

Another very well known poet in the community is Devroop Sharma and he is best known for helping keep Urdu poetry alive through his initiative known as Irshaad. Through poetry slams, ghazal writing workshops and mushairas he is keeping this poetry alive. 

Shantanu Anand runs the Airplane Poetry Movement, which focuses on advancing stage-poetry type of performances for a few years now. His assertion is straightforward – “Everyone has an opinion. Spoken word gives them a way to share that opinion which is not just a Facebook status or an essay.”

Adults too choose to express themselves through this medium – whether it’s failed relationships, depression, anxiety or any other issue.    

Anish Vyavahare (29), who founded Poetry Tuesdays in 2011 and in November -2015 he launched the Poetry Affair of India (PaoI) –an online project.

Here the videos of people reciting original work were uploaded on YouTube in different languages. It was like a video archive of poetry, and a natural progression for PT (an inclusive open mic)

Yaman Banerji - Hindi - Katra Katra - The Poetry Affair of India

 https://youtu.be/hGS7TZC53IA

Dooriyan - Varun Garg | The Poetry Club

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge0cEq9K54Y

Words Tell Stories ft Manisha Lakhe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydxIOtlUrO4

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Some of the cool and popular venues for poetry gatherings are:

·     Tuning Fork – Khar, Cafeteria in Prithvi, Juhu;

·      Words Tell Stories at The Barking Deer (started by author Rochelle D’silva), Lower Parel;

·     The Poetry Club at G5A (started by Ankita Shah & Thrupti Shetty-two passionate poetry lovers), Mahalaxmi,

·     The Castiko Space in Versova,

·     The Hive, Gostana in Bandra and

·     The Cat Café Studio, Versova. 

·      The Tarq Art Gallery in Colaba fuels poetry by sharing many images of exhibited paintings of the TPC.

·     The Cuckoo Club

Now one of the most interesting and intriguing questions is whether open mics  - spilling out of cafes into art galleries, pubs or even pop-up events do for amateur poetry what it has done for stand up comedy?

Is the poetic community suffering from jealousy within its own circuit, thats preventing further growth or is it just my own self doubt as a writer?  It is a highly competitive community of poets and everyone is trying to steal the limelight, but who is going to have the final say. 

My Journey with Limits Make Things Too Small 

Being a performer and audience in many open mic events, I launched an event with the theme to address overcoming the limits that one faces in their life.The way we organised it, we felt that we should try to take the open mic poetry community forward and put them in the mainstream literary world. While open mic poetry is generally held in cafes or bars, I went to the David Sassoon Library which strongly represents literary excellence and met the committee members to get approval to host an open-mic event there.

I chose this name as it was the name of my poetry book – Limits Make Things Too Small and I wanted it to represent the main core theme- overcoming the obstacles and limitations that one faces in one’s life.  

 I felt that open mic poetry can only be taken forward if people of stature attached themselves to it. So I extended an invitation to  film-maker-Amole Gupte, then Advertising legend -Gerson Da Cunha also agreed to come. Celebrated columnist and journalist Mayank Shekhar too also agreed to come and read from his book - Name, Place, Animal,  Thing.

Noted Poet Author -Menka Shivdasani also liked the idea and she came. I felt that to retain the interest of the mainstream in open mic poetry I should call the best talent in the city. Luckily all of them agreed! Budding writers, comedians, bloggers, and artists all attended the event.

http://bit.ly/2MgBC9n. After the four chief guests gave their main talk, the event was then followed by an open mic where 19 top-most open mic performers of the city performed a piece of their own.  Individual flyers were made painstakingly for every performer to give them a stardom 
(ALL 19!). 

                                 

                                     
  

                                      

There were  top performances by Aranya Johar, Aishwarya Geete, Rakesh Tiwari, Hussain Haidry, Sudeep Pagedar, Simar Singh, Kunal Jhawar, Ramneek Singh, Darshan Rajpurohit, Mohammad Sadriwala, Zoran Saher, Neeraj Pandey, Jackie Thakker, Faizan Faizz, Ababil Hussain, Karthikey Sehgal, Zoheb Khan, Apoorva Arya and and Anjali Bhushan. 

There were many supporters such as Dwijal Mehta, Sunny Chandel and Kunal Jhawar. 

One of the things I used to feel as a performer is that I should be watched be publishers and media companies so that if they like our work, we could find opportunities with them.

Covering in The Hindu 

Luckily, Culture Machine team attended the event on our invitation. The team of portal and publisher StoryMirror approached us to put up a stall so that writers could get publishing opportunities. This really validated our idea that publishers want to engage with quality budding talent.  Being an inaugural event we did not think that media would cover us but The Hindu did.  The main aim of the event was to gather the best of everything on the same platform.

Inspite of so much activity in the open mic poetry segment, a lot needs to be done so that it can live up to its potential of creating the right opportunities for budding talent.