‘Trusenz’ to bring national poetry slam to EL hopefuls
Former TruFM hip hop show presenter, Lungelo “Trusenz” Nzama, will be bringing the second annual national poetry slam to East London this weekend.
The competition will be at Wise Guys in Vincent. Each of the nine provinces will simultaneously be hosting the competition on Saturday.
Twelve poets will battle it out in four rounds for the chance to represent the Eastern Cape at the nationals next April.
Each contestant is given a minute to perform on a topic that will be given to them by the judges.
After each round, three participants will be eliminated, with the last round consisting of two participants who will compete with each other to determine the final winner.
Among those that will compete for the number one spot will be last year’s provincial winner, Siseko Maphasa.
The competition grapples through poetry with issues that eat at the core of society, Nzama said.
Nzama said the competition highlighted social ills through art.
He said it also created a platform for the youth to learn from each other.
“On behalf of the national body of the poetry slam what we are hoping to achieve in the Eastern Cape is to bring the artist community together with the general community, Slam poetry grapples issues that eat at the core of society, and through this kind of poetry the main aim is to develop and educate each other,” Nzama said.
The competition is set to bring together young poets from around the province to compete with each other, with one winner going to Johannesburg to compete with eight other contestants from the other provinces.
The competition will be between 1pm and 5pm on Saturday and entrance is free.