THE House of Hunger Poetry Slam at Book Café will today unite local poets in an event to celebrate the World Poetry Movement.
Tinashe Sibanda
Poets from Harare and beyond are set to put Zimbabwe firmly on the poetry map of our planet, with a strong shout-out for Peace and Freedom of Expression.
One of its goals is to include most of the strongest international poetry festivals, poets, schools of poetry and printed and virtual publications, to increase our mutual cooperation and thus energise the individual and collective voice of poetry in our time.
“We invite the international poetry festivals, the poetry organisations, the poets gathered around poetry publications, workshops and schools; musicians, artists, actors, filmmakers, dancers and painters, and the organisations and poets that are members of the World Poetry Movement, to celebrate, from July 1st to July 30th, 2014, thousands of mass poetry readings and interventions, in open and closed public spaces, to create a path of unity for the world’s spiritual energy,” the World Poetry Movement coordinating committee spokesperson Fernando Rendon said.
He said Zimbabwe’s internationally acclaimed performing artists, the late mbira star Chiwoniso Maraire and renowned poet Chirikure Chirikure performed at the launch in Medellin in 2011, and protest poet and cultural activist Sam Monro aka Cde Fatso who was elected to the Coordinating Committee of the World Poetry Movement, attended this year.
In Harare today, poets in the House of Hunger Poetry Slam step up to the plate, dedicating this particular slam to the cause for peace in the world, in what promises to be a highly entertaining afternoon of rhythm and rhyme.
The monthly performance poetry platform consistently offers over 20 poets each month, who “slam” and are judged by a panel of their peers based on their content and performance, producing some amazing new talent each month, and supported by many established poets who have gained huge experience and exposure from the use of the platform, and even some who have supported the platform over the years.
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The House of Hunger Poetry Slam is named after the prizewinning novel by the late great Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera, and has become a great platform for freedom of expression in a generation of Zimbabweans who have seen many hardships.
“For 2014, more than 446 readings and other poetic and artistic activities for global peace have been confirmed to be held during the month of July in 44 countries from four continents, answering the call of the Coordinating Committee of the World Poetry Movement,” Rendon said.
He said hundreds of millions of people had died over 60 centuries of civilisation due to the brutal hand of war. Living today with 30 wars and extreme regional political tensions.
Rendon added that The World Poetry Movement believed it was possible to replace the worn out human history, directionless and aimless, with higher, more just forms of existence, defusing wars and political conflicts through dialogue and agreement.
This movement is a historic conjunction of organisations, founded in the context of the World Gathering of Directors from 37 International Poetry Festivals, held in Medellin, Colombia, between July 4-8 2011, where they discussed the connection between poetry and peace, the reconstruction of the human spirit, the reconciliation and recovery of nature, the unity and cultural diversity of peoples, material poverty and poetic justice, and possible actions to take in favor of the globalisation of poetry.
Pamberi Trust’s administration manager Pamela Ndoro was recently appointed as the Artwatch Co-ordinator for Zimbabwe.
