Social Cohesion through Slam Poetry: Voices From The World

PRIA Youth in association with Blue Quill-The creative writing society of Miranda House, New Delhi organized a Slam Poetry Competition on 28^th February 2020. The theme for the competition was ‘Social Cohesion i.e. the willingness of members of a society to cooperate with each other in order to survive and prosper’.

The competition saw audience from various colleges like Miranda House, TERI School of Advanced Studies, Jesus and Mary College, and Maharaja Surajmal Institute. A group of students from James Madison College, Michigan State University also attended the event under their Madison Diversity Leadership Fellowship Programme. The competition was judged by Shibani Das who is a poet, performer and curator based out of New Delhi. Shibani has attended and organized over 60 slam poetry competitions across the nation. Her works on Gender, Identity and the paradoxes of adulthood have been featured in many leading dailies.

Shibani took to the floor to acquaint the audience about using Slam Poetry as a medium of expression and explained a few of its ground rules. The competition then started with the first performance on Environment and climate change expressing anguish over the indifference of humankind to the changing environment. This was followed by verses on a range of social and topical issues, namely- the current political situation of the country, mental health, discovering oneself as a grownup, moving away from hometowns to metropolitan cities, and racial and ethnic identities. The listeners thoroughly enjoyed the expression of opinions and views on such diverse range of issues under one roof.

The competition ended with Mr. Shivanshu Sharma of Maharaja Surajmal Institute bagging the position of first prize and Ms. Lauren from MSU bagging the position of first runner up.  

We hope to host and organize many more events to enable youth democracy. Follow our journey on @pria_youth (Instagram) and pria_youth (Facebook) for some exciting updates.