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| The Judges. |
As
part of its ongoing literary engagements, the Port Harcourt Literary Society
will host, arguably, Nigeria's biggest Poetry Slam this month.
And
the Society has unveiled four award-winning and distinguished Nigerian poets as
judges for the Slam, scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt on May 25.
They
are Efe Paul Azino, curator of the highly successful Lagos International Poetry
Festival whose recent project was the brilliant Heritage Bank advertisement,
and Andrew Patience, spoken word Amazon and one of the founders of the
impressive Custodians of African Literature, based in Jos, Plateau State.
Others
are Obii Ifejika, winner of Nigeria's first ever slam, and multi award winner,
Graciano Enwerem.
Chairman
of the Slam committee, Edwina Aleme, says the Slam is already receiving entries
from around Nigeria, promising to bring some if the best of Nigerian spoken
word poets to the Garden City.
The
PHLS Poetry Slam, the first major poetry competition in the Niger Delta region,
promises it's winner a whopping N100,000.00. The runner-up will take home
N75,000.00, while the second runner-up will receive N50,000.00. A fourth prize,
the first of its kind in Nigeria, worth N25,000.00, will go to a winner among
secondary school entrants who have benefited from the Society's PHLS-LIFT
(Literature for Teens) programme.
"This
is in line with our objective with PHLS-LIFT to nurture a new generation of
spoken word poets in Port Harcourt and the Niger Delta," Aleme says,
"so that we help create a new narrative that our youths are not militants.
We are a society of brilliant young people and the world needs to hear our
voices."
JUDGES:
EFE
PAUL AZINO, is a Nigerian writer, performance artist and poet. He is the
founder and director of the Lagos International Poetry Festival, and the
director of poetry at the annual Lagos Book and Art Festival. Azino has
featured in a number of local and international poetry events and is a fellow
of the Osiwa Poetry Residency…
ANDREW
PATIENCE FINYE, known as AP, is one of the leading voices in creative spoken
word poetry in Nigeria, with a debut spoken word album 'I Am' to her credit.
She is the founder of Custodians of African Literature (COAL), a platform that
promotes African writers and their writings. AP is also a broadcaster and media
personality based in Jos, Nigeria…
GRACIANO
ENWEREM (Sir Grrraciano) is a poet, writer, teacher and media consultant. A
graduate of English and Literary Studies. He's the winner of War of Words
(Season 3), YOUPoetry Slam, War of Words Online Slam 1 and other prizes.
Cofounder, Figures of Speech movement (FOS), the first online creative group on
Whatsapp…
OBII
IFEJIKA is a story-teller who made her debut in Spoken word at the maiden
edition of Bassey Ikpi's National Poetry Slam, where she was crowned Slam
Champion in October 2012. She has performed in several poetry events such as
the maiden edition of the NIBRA Awards, Wole Soyinka's 80th birthday
celebration and at the Theater Expedition Metropolis, Germany.
Just
send a 1 or 2 mins video of you performing a poem to literaryevening1@gmail.com . Entry closes
on the 20th of May by 12 noon. Send the mini version on Instagram, then follow
and tag @phls_openmic with hashtag #phlsslampoetry. All chosen 15 finalists
will be contacted via email before 12 midnight on same day.
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