WESTERN BUREAU:
NOW INTO its third week, the Poetry Klash series added its latest finalist last Tuesday night. He is Samuel Gordon, and he joins Ishion Hutchinson and Leslie-Ann Weasly, who won in the first and second weeks respectively, to go on to the July 8 grand final.
Gordon topped 12 other poets at the Weekenz Bistro and Bar, Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew. Hostess Connie Bell pointed out that more and more poets are turning out for the competition, as there were five in the first week and seven in the second.
The grand prize is $30,000, but the weekly winners each get a day at the spa courtesy of spa one, a gift basket provided by the Jamaica Biscuit Company Ltd., and a choice of T-Shirts from Spliffie Designs.
Three judges are drawn from a pool, which includes Dingo, Hugh Douse, Jean Small, Clement Hamilton and Craig Young, with competitors being assessed on creativity, impact, content, use of language and crowd response.
PURPOSES
Bell explained that the competition has a two-fold purpose. Pointing out that there has been a hard marketing drive in the inner-city communities, she said one objective was for people to turn away from violence and to their inner strength, the other to allow poets to earn from their talent.
'Poetry Klash' contest alternates on Tuesdays with the regular Weekenz poetry and live music night. Persons who wish to enter the competition are asked to submit their names before the night they wish to perform, or come to Weekenz very early on that night.
- M. C.
