How ALS got new Slam Champion
The Abuja Literary Society quarterly poetry slam championship held last week Friday at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, with 17 poets vying for the title of ALS Slam Champion and the cash prize of N100, 000.
With Slam Master Dike Chukwumerije, previous winner of the competition, moderating, the evening’s proceedings kicked off with the nomination of a fourman judging panel comprising of award winning poet Reward Enakerakpor popularly known as Storyteller, lawyer and writer Musa Ikhilor, poet Hajjo Isa and a volunteer from the audience.
The first round of the contest, where contestants had a minute to wow both the audience and the judges with spoken word poetry witnessed some timid performances by some of the entrants.
But the first round was also meant to separate the wheat from the chaff and so five poets fell out with fan favourite Yazkie winning the round.
A strong and impressive rendition by Debbie Braide saw her taking the second round but losing it on technicalities to Yazkie as she exceeded her two minutes performance time.
With six poets primed for the final round, all seemed set for fan favourite Yazkie to win it, with Debbie Braide as a keen challenger.
But a dark horse stunned the audience. When Dike Chuwkumerije, as he would say to all the six contestants who made the final round, said to Kola Falade, who goes by the stage name Pariolodo, “Bring your A-game”, the young poet took it to heart and delivered what could be termed the performance of his life.
He had only come into the round in fifth place but his performance, chronicling rape and domestic abuse, was so earthshattering that some members of the audience made up their minds instantly about who the winner on the night would be.
When contestant Chiamaka Okafor stepped up for her final round performance immeditately after, it was clear she had been swept away by Pariolodo’s performance that hers was far less assured and even jittery compared to her performances in the two previous rounds.
Even the favourites withered in the face of such a strong performance with only Debbie Braide putting in a strong showing but nothing could take the sail out of the dark horse’s sail. Yazkie’s final performance was simply all over the place but it was enough to give him the last podium place. Braide came in second and as the night came to a close, the audience, electrified by the performance was chanting the name of their new champion.
In a Facebook post, Pariolodo said he first witnessed the ALS Slam a year ago and decided to return as a contestant, after failing to make an appreciable impact in subsequent editions, he finally emerged winner.
Commenting on the competition, Dike Chukwumerije said, “It was nice to see lots of news faces, not just the same ones that have been competing before. And it is great to have more women participating, especially from the north. I think the judging was better than in previous editions but we are keen to improve.”
He added that they are making efforts to take on board suggestions on how to improve the competition going forward, but for now Pariolodo is basking in the glory of his win, and a deserved one it was.