Kingston Poetry Week targets growth of spoken-word industry

This year’s staging of Kingston Poetry Week, now undeway, is seeking to position Jamaica’s capital as the global epicentre of the spoken word, according to JAIKU, organisers of the event.

“The high-octane, seven-day takeover marks a historic shift for the local-arts scene, repositioning poetry from a niche craft into a formidable pillar of Jamaica’s creative industry … While media houses often look for the ‘next big thing’ in entertainment, JAIKU is delivering a cultural revolution … We aren’t just reciting verses. We are building an ecosystem,” said Kacy Garvey, the founder and managing director of JAIKU.

Garvey argues that this week’s programme, which concludes on Saturday, will redefine the intersection of entrepreneurship, social politics, and global art. “If you think you know what a poetry event looks like, you’re already behind,” she said.

The week opened with a World Poetry Day church service at Fellowship Tabernacle under the theme ‘Spiritual Resonance’, “when sound met spirit as poetry graces the pulpit”. On Monday evening, ‘Mosayic’ was staged at The Masterpiece Gallery at The Summit on Chelsea Avenue in St Andrew – a “radical fusion of visual art and live performances”. Earlier in the day, Maria Fernanda Mendoza, Dr Raona Williams, and Katie Webb led a Zoom discussion on ‘The Caribbean Metaverse – Books Blockchain and Business’.

Tonight at 6:30, ‘Talk di Tings’ offers a master class at Regardless (The Manley Centre). This potentially explosive showcase features only award-winning acts, finalists from the ‘What’s Your Story Jamaica’ competition, and other local and regional laureates.

The ‘High-Stakes Discourse: Men on the Mic’ podcast, presented in partnership with the US Embassy, “will tackle the ‘crisis’ of masculinity in Jamaica through the raw lens of poets and music producers, a headline-ready conversation on social evolution”. It is scheduled for today (Tuesday) at 10:30 a.m. from the Robeson American Centre at the US Embassy.

On Wednesday, ‘Money Talks’ will take place on Zoom at 8 p.m., gathering poets – including participants from the US and Uganda– to “brainstorm how to move from books to business”. The focus is the industry dimension. “With events like the Global Poetry Business Network, JAIKU is positioning the spoken word as a sustainable, revenue-generating pillar of the Orange (creative) economy.”

On Thursday evening, ‘Jazz and Poetry’ will converge at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel at 7:30 p.m., and the week culminates on Saturday with The Grand Finale: a ‘Poetry Pop-Up’ at noon at Kingston Creative, 107 Harbour Street, in downtown Kingston. There, poets “will perform amidst the murals and energy of downtown, capturing the raw, pulsating spirit of Jamaican creativity”. Throughout the week, Bermuda’s Tiara S. Webb will facilitate three poetry master classes at The Mico University College as well as a workshop for students of Manning’s School in Westmoreland at the Poetry Pop-Up.

“Guest poet Tiara S. Webb isn’t just here to perform. She’s here to disrupt. Webb will be conducting exclusive master classes at select tertiary institutions, bringing a sophisticated regional flair directly into local classrooms to train the next generation of creative entrepreneurs,” JAIKU said.

“Kingston is making history. This isn’t just a recital. It is the Caribbean’s first and only week-long festival dedicated exclusively to the power of poetry. While the region has its carnivals, Jamaica is now the sole proprietor of a seven-day lyrical takeover. If you aren’t in the room, you are missing the birth of a cultural empire,” Garvey told The Gleaner.

Garvey added that JAIKU is “stripping poetry of its ‘quiet’ reputation and recharging Kingston with its raw, high-voltage energy”.

“This is poetry as a contact sport – diverse, dynamic, and impossible to ignore. We are firmly planting Jamaican voices, and our signature JAIKU, at the centre of the nation’s creative economy. We are proving that our words are as bankable and iconic as our reggae, turning stanzas into a premium Jamaican export.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com